Chargers at Texans Game Day Thread (Wild Card Round) | Post Game Discussion

[Boltjolt]

Debatable. The McConkey throw was high but it went through his hands not over his hands , it had some speed but McC has made those catches. Maybe 70/30 McC/JH. Agree though the throw could have been lower.

He jumped up for it and it was as high as it can go without it going over his head. He was open, get it down 3 feet and it's a easy catch.
That is on Herbert. It's hard to catch a rifled pass when it's up that high and you are leaping up as far as you can for it.

That's where Phil threw what they called a very catchable ball. He threw some high passes as well at times but it wasn't a Nolan Ryan fastball. I'm not knocking or going to talk bad about Herbert but that's who he is.

Rivers threw beautiful touch passes that work in the moment but I can't recall one of those from Herbert. Hec one screen or short pass he threw to ....
Forget who, ....he had no shot to catch it, it was a rocket from 5 -7 yards away.

[Boltgang74]

You should watch a replay. McConkey jumped as high as he could and got one hand barely on the ball. It was uncatchable and ridiculous

Watch it again it went right thru both his hands.It was high And catchable.Sorry that don't fit today's narrative.

[powderblueboy]

Terry Bradshaw had that problem starting out with Pittsburgh and learned to put more touch on the ball later.
Hopefully, Herbert learns to put more touch on the ball in appropriate moments.

[electricgold]

Texas was acting like they won the superbowl today!

[Chargers8491]

Good season.
Followed by a bad AFCWG.
So we have McConkey and...and...and ?
Cannot have a three headed monster with one head.
I'd like to think JK, Dissly and QJ are decent second level pieces.
Maybe JK could use some IOL.
But one bright shiny object at least is mandatory.

Exactly this team was pieced mill together with a bunch of 1 yr prove it contracts. I would challenge any to find a roster with that many type players on it. Yeah, JK would benefit from an improved IOL.

[cmplxgal]

Since this thread has turned into a referendum on Herbert, I might as well add my thoughts.

I have to admit that I am pretty shaken about Herbert. Yes, he has the most "arm talent" of probably any Chargers' quarterback of the last several decades. And he has the toughness factor--he plays through one injury after another that have to be affecting him. Yet he had perhaps his worst game ever when the Chargers needed him to play his best. Does he have the passion that it takes for a quarterback to be able to make the magical plays the best ones do? Maybe not.

But, OTOH, today he was playing with next to nothing on the offensive side of the ball (to be precise, Ladd + nothing), against a team that was playing very good defense and that turned up the defensive intensity as the game went on. While the fourth-down pass to Johnston was a real head-scratcher, did he have any better options on the play? How many of his mistakes came from trying to make something out of nothing? I just don't know.

So I will reserve judgment, while admitting that I am somewhat less confident in Herbert's ability to win important games than I was before.

[Jack Burton]

24: R1 P24 TE Tyler Warren - Penn State
56: R2 P24 G Jonah Savaiinaea - Arizona
88: R3 P24 WR Jalen Royals - Utah State
125: R4 P24 RB Dylan Sampson - Tennessee
159: R5 P22 G Luke Kandra - Cincinnati
180: R6 P5 C Seth McLaughlin - Ohio State
199: R6 P24 WR Theo Wease - Missouri
208: R6 P33 DL Tonka Hemingway - South Carolina
213: R6 P38 EDGE Elijah Roberts - SMU
215: R6 P40 LB Jack Kiser - Notre Dame
217: R7 P2 EDGE Tyler Batty - BYU

FA
C DREW DALMAN (ATL)
EDGE JOSH SWEAT (PHIL)
WR ELIJAH MOORE (CLE)
RESIGN POONA FORD

RD1 DERRICK HARMON DT OREGON
RD2 OMARION HAMPTON RB NC
RD3 MASON TAYLOR TE LSU
RD4 CHRIS BRAZZELL WR TENN
RD5 LUKE KENDRA G CINCINNATI
RD6 MAXEN HOOK S TOLEDO
RD6 ETHAN BURKE DE TEXAS
RD7 ROC TAYLOR WR MEMPHIS

[jamrock]

No question about that.

Herbert will be wearing this one for a while.

One of the things about this poor game from herbert was his lack of improvisation.

Yep. If nothing was happening he didn't make anything happen.

[dmac_bolt]

Good season.
Followed by a bad AFCWG.
So we have McConkey and...and...and ?
Cannot have a three headed monster with one head.
I'd like to think JK, Dissly and QJ are decent second level pieces.
Maybe JK could use some IOL.
But one bright shiny object at least is mandatory.

I highlighted what I agree with, and sized up what I think most important. Herbert had a bad game but I largely think the OL caused it. He was swarmed almost immediately on almost every play. Stroud had a bad first quarter, when our pass rush did the same. They adjusted and solved it enough., our OL played incrementally worse each quarter as the game went on. Very disappointing to have a big shiny boat with a giant hole in the middle of the hull.

We’ll never know If I’m right and Herbert would play much better with even average protection, of course - can’t redo it with a good IOL for him to show everyone that was the primary problem. Its just what I believe, based on seeing him play in games where he did get reasonable protection.

McConkey had 197 yards, the entire rest of the team had 45. The same QB was throwing to all of them, right? The run-first tip of spear team gained a putrid 50 yards on the ground. Every run that mattered got stuffed back up their asses.

I still say Herbie had no chance, OL got dominated more and more as the game went on, he really was getting swarmed instantly, and he only had one legitimate front line NFL caliber weapon.

[jamrock]

It's not as if the Texans have a stellar OL and stable of great skill players. 2/3 of their best WRs weren't in this game. Mixon played well once the Texans were comfortably ahead. CJ Stroud was the difference maker. He made plays and Slowik is a much better OC than Roman

[CanadianBoltFan]

Since this thread has turned into a referendum on Herbert, I might as well add my thoughts.

I have to admit that I am pretty shaken about Herbert. Yes, he has the most "arm talent" of probably any Chargers' quarterback of the last several decades. And he has the toughness factor--he plays through one injury after another that have to be affecting him. Yet he had perhaps his worst game ever when the Chargers needed him to play his best. Does he have the passion that it takes for a quarterback to be able to make the magical plays the best ones do? Maybe not.

But, OTOH, today he was playing with next to nothing on the offensive side of the ball (to be precise, Ladd + nothing), against a team that was playing very good defense and that turned up the defensive intensity as the game went on. While the fourth-down pass to Johnston was a real head-scratcher, did he have any better options on the play? How many of his mistakes came from trying to make something out of nothing? I just don't know.

So I will reserve judgment, while admitting that I am somewhat less confident in Herbert's ability to win important games than I was before.

That is a very fair and balanced take. Now that the game is over and I am chilling, you have captured how I also feel. Sill like Herbert but those questions remain. How can they not?

[gzubeck]

Since this thread has turned into a referendum on Herbert, I might as well add my thoughts.

I have to admit that I am pretty shaken about Herbert. Yes, he has the most "arm talent" of probably any Chargers' quarterback of the last several decades. And he has the toughness factor--he plays through one injury after another that have to be affecting him. Yet he had perhaps his worst game ever when the Chargers needed him to play his best. Does he have the passion that it takes for a quarterback to be able to make the magical plays the best ones do? Maybe not.

But, OTOH, today he was playing with next to nothing on the offensive side of the ball (to be precise, Ladd + nothing), against a team that was playing very good defense and that turned up the defensive intensity as the game went on. While the fourth-down pass to Johnston was a real head-scratcher, did he have any better options on the play? How many of his mistakes came from trying to make something out of nothing? I just don't know.

So I will reserve judgment, while admitting that I am somewhat less confident in Herbert's ability to win important games than I was before.

Fair enough...I'm wondering if he was having some kind of injury problem again. I did not see him scramble for decent yardage at all today. Once the oline got owned by a better defense he started to slide downhill fast. I've never seen a QB lose focus like him and have to wonder what the hell is wrong with him. No real desire or push today and he never worked into the game at all. Where the hell was his mind. Just weird.