After a blazing 3-0 start against the AFC West, the Chargers are suddenly 3-2 with two straight losses to the NFC East.
Los Angeles dropped their Week 5 matchup with the Commanders 27-10 on Sunday, allowing Washington to score 27 unanswered points after jumping out to a 10-0 lead.
Here’s what to take away from the game.
Offensive line situation
The Chargers have faced plenty of criticism for the way they handled the offensive line situation this offseason, choosing to add only Mekhi Becton and sixth-round pick Branson Taylor to upgrade a unit that was the clear weakness of the roster a year ago. With Becton in and out of the lineup on Sunday and right tackle Trey Pipkins III pulled from the game after one drive in the second half, there was one point where LA had their third-string left tackle, right guard, and right tackle in the game.
No team is going to handle having three third-string linemen on the field well, but when you combine that with the rocky start LA has gotten from center Bradley Bozeman, the situation in the trenches is simply untenable. The Chargers allowed 21 pressures and 8 hits of Justin Herbert to continue their now three-week-long stretch of allowing Herbert to be the most-pressured quarterback in football.
Poor defensive showing
Make no bones about it, the Chargers’ defense played poorly on Sunday. You can point wherever you want – Deebo Samuel had 8 catches for 96 yards and a touchdown despite coming into the game as Washington’s only threat at receiver. Jayden Daniels out-executed them on a few throws, including the 50-yard deep ball to Luke McCaffrey that set up a field goal before halftime. The Chargers had a bad day tackling and defending the run.
It’s difficult to play as much zone coverage as the Chargers do when the front struggles to generate pressure, and LA was only able to pressure Daniels 13 times all game. 5 of those came from edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu, who continued his quiet breakout. 4 came from other players on the front, while the other 4 came from second or third-level defenders.
Run defense badly missing contributors
You could make the argument that three of Los Angeles’ four most important run defenders missed the majority of this game. Edge rusher Khalil Mack and linebacker Denzel Perryman are both on injured reserve. Mack is a tone-setter on the perimeter, where the Chargers struggled to contain Commanders running back Bill Croskey-Merritt. Perryman was the team’s best run defender a season ago, and replacement Troy Dye had a game to forget on Sunday. For good measure, defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand left the game early on and did not return, which left the interior of the defense open as well.
Kickoff execution
Going up against Washington’s league-leading kickoff return unit puts into perspective the struggles the Chargers have incurred in the return game over the entire season, but especially the last two weeks with Derius Davis out. Washington averaged 30.7 yards per return to LA’s 22.0, a number that was damaged by Jim Harbaugh’s decision to have the Commanders re-kick an opening touchback due to a penalty. Rookie receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith returned the re-kick just 18 yards to the 24, losing the Chargers a net 6 yards of field position when accounting for the penalty.
It may not seem like much, but the Chargers dominated the time of possession stats and were significantly more efficient on third down than the Commanders were. Putting them in more positions to have to convert those chances to advance a series because they started deep in their own territory put the Chargers behind the 8 ball on Sunday.
Undisciplined performance
The last two games have been the worst organizational stretch for the Chargers in the Harbaugh era. Los Angeles committed 10 penalties, including two consecutive flags on a hobbled Pipkins that negated back-to-back Herbert missiles that would have put the Chargers in a reasonable position to make a scoring run. Rookie linebacker Marlowe Wax roughed Commanders punter Tress Way in Washington’s end zone to nullify a punt return touchdown by Ladd McConkey that would have given the Chargers a shot in the arm. Tarheeb Still committed a pass interference penalty to essentially end the game down 20-10 with less than 4 minutes remaining.
It wasn’t just penalties, though. LA had to burn two timeouts in the first quarter because the offense couldn’t get lined up properly. On their failed fourth-down conversion, only 10 Chargers joined the huddle, forcing Tyler Conklin onto the field late. Rather than call a timeout and reset, LA rushed the play and targeted Conklin, who seemed unprepared for the ball and let it slip through his hands and off his helmet. The defense had an uncharacteristic number of miscommunications. Herbert and Bozeman miscommunicated on a protection call that resulted in a quick Daron Payne pressure.
It is not what Chargers fans have come to expect of a Jim Harbaugh-coached team.