Chargers News: Justin Herbert Optimistic After Big Night In Lions Loss

A tough one to swallow, but with plenty of lessons for the future.

Your Los Angeles Chargers surrendered their fifth loss of the season last night, and once again, it came down to the wire. The Bolts now have fallen back down to a sub-.500 record, 4-5, after their three-point loss to the Detroit Lions, 41-38. 

LA hung around with one of the best teams in the league and the second-best offense in the league. However, when it came down to it, LA could not get a stop, with the score tied late in the game. Although it is not the outcome fans and the team had hoped for, Chargers star quarterback Justin Herbert detailed the loss and said he liked what he saw despite the loss. 

“Losing is never fun, but I thought we battled today,” Herbert said. “We can look at this film and say, ‘We can build off this.’ But there were a lot of things in the first quarter that we didn’t do a good job of, and I didn’t do a good job of. If we’re not fighting back, maybe the score goes differently.

“At least we turned it around. At least we did our best in the second half,” he continued.

(Per Elliott Teaford of The Orange County Register)

The Chargers certainly did way better in the second half, at least on offense. The Bolts managed to score seven on every one of their possessions in the second half, but the only problem is they allowed the Lions to score on every offensive drive outside of one, their opening drive to open the third quarter. 

Nonetheless, Herbert played one of his best games of 2023, completing 27 of his 40 passes for 323 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception with a QBR of 83.6. 

Herbert and the offense are far from the reason why the Bolts lost this one. When an NFL team scores 38 points, you should be able to win nine times out of the. However, when you have a defense like the Chargers defense, you typically are that one out of the ten. 

The Lions' offense proved to be too much for the Chargers' defense, which is among the bottom in major categories, including opponent pass yards per game. 

We're going to sound like a broken record right now, but the defense didn't help in the second half, which was a huge reason why LA came up short. The Chargers can't afford too many errors as we approach December. 

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