FOXBOROUGH, MA – The image looked like a modern-day tar and feathering. One New England Patriots defender beneath him and another crushing him from above, Justin Herbert looked upward from the turf of Gillette Stadium as Christian Elliss pounced on a loose ball with 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter and any chance of a Chargers’ comeback road victory in the AFC wild-card round gone.
The Los Angeles Chargers’ season, for the second straight year, ended with a blowout loss on the road on the first weekend of the postseason. The list of excuses for this season’s finale is lengthy. Both starting offensive tackles, Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, missed a combined 28 of 34 regular-season appearances between the two. Herbert himself played through a broken hand for the final month of the season. The Chargers struggled to run the ball all year long, and offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s scheme looked outdated by the end of the Patriots’ 16-3 victory on Sunday, which left Herbert still in search of his first playoff victory.
“Haven’t figured that out yet,” Herbert said after the game. “That’s the tough part about the NFL. There (are) a lot of good teams, and (I) wasn’t good enough today.”
Negligence is not the reason Herbert and the Chargers are once again in this position. Herbert didn’t throw four interceptions like he did a year ago against the Houston Texans, arguably the worst game of his professional career. But he and the offense came up with practically nothing against a Patriots defense that deserves more credit than it receives, sure, but is by no means a world-beater.
Since taking Herbert sixth overall in 2020, the Chargers invested three first-round picks into the offensive line from 2021-24. The last five first-round picks by the team have been on the offensive side of the ball. Alt played in just six games and Slater missed the entire season.
Running back Omarion Hampton battled injuries throughout his rookie campaign of 2025, including the week of the playoff game. Left guard Zion Johnson was the lone recent first-round pick available against New England (right guard Mekhi Becton was also a first-rounder, albeit not drafted by the Chargers), and receiver Quentin Johnston – the team’s 2023 first-round pick – finally blossomed into a reliable and productive target for Herbert this season. In 2024, the team took receiver Ladd McConkey 33rd overall; he had three catches on four targets for 32 yards.
(The last defensive first-rounder taken by LA, Kenneth Murray in 2020, came as a result of a trade with the Patriots, coincidentally enough.)
“If anything, he’s the reason we’re in this position,” wide receiver Keenan Allen said of Herbert. Allen added that injuries “came back to bite us (Sunday).”
Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh said last offseason that he is obsessed with the idea of helping Herbert gain entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame to the point that the thought of it keeps him awake at night. Herbert has a long way to go in that case, and Harbaugh better snag some NightQuil. With his talent, Herbert is certainly capable of that vision. The surrounding cast and various infrastructures around him may not be.
“I really don’t have the answers. I wish I did. If I did, there would’ve been a different result,” Harbaugh said Sunday. “But that I am going to be spending – we’ll be spending a lot of hard work and maybe even sleepless nights getting it figured out. The way these players fight, the way they just give it their very best, their all, you know, we’ll owe them that and get on. Like I told the team, those that stay will be champions. Not looking at this as an end but as another beginning.”
If it’s not resource-allocation, then the most pressing issue is keeping these players healthy.
Herbert is now 0-3 in the postseason and experienced a variety of crushing defeats to end a year. He’s been on the wrong side of an epic collapse, as the Chargers cratered against the Jacksonville Jaguars after the 2022 season. He’s been utterly dominated by a good defense that went nuclear on the right afternoon (last year’s Texans game). And as of Sunday, he’s lost a defensive slugfest in which he had to run for his life – as he had all season.
“Doing what he does. Taking hits. Getting back up. Trying to go back the next play and keep us in the game,” Allen said.
Entering the playoffs, Herbert was hit 129 times, 18 more than any other quarterback. According to Next Gen Stats, he was pressured 268 times, 39 more than any other quarterback. Of those, 109 were defined as “quick pressures,” and he’s the only quarterback to face more than 100.
“Toughness, man. He was just trying to give us a chance. Every time I (saw) him – guys hitting him from the left, hitting him from the right – he just kept battling,” Chargers safety Derwin James said. “Nobody knows how hard it is back there when it’s like that. Credit to him for going out there and giving it his all all season. Not just this game. I got a lot of respect for ‘10.’”
Another scary number for Herbert is that San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings has as many playoff touchdown passes as he does (2). Jennings plays for one of the game’s most creative minds in 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. Herbert has been burdened by Roman’s scheme. Harbaugh said everything regarding the team would be evaluated and wouldn’t comment specifically on Roman’s future.
The Chargers’ defense handed the offense a pair of takeaways. Herbert certainly did enough to keep plays alive and target receivers downfield. Separation was not the standard for his wideouts. The embattled offensive line held up most of the time, but the Patriots nonetheless put enough pressure on him without blitzing additional defenders.
He also had a broken bone in his non-throwing hand down the stretch, and Herbert still didn’t want to discuss the limitations he faced during the most important part of the season.
“The training staff did a great job getting me ready to go,” he said. “As long as they felt safe and comfortable and I did as well, there was no issues. Just have to do a better job holding on to the ball.”
Peyton Manning lost his first three playoff games and didn’t crack the win column in the postseason until his sixth season. Herbert’s sixth season just ended. Hosting playoff games – and therefore winning a division with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the new AFC power center of Denver – feels like one way to snap the winless streak. Back-to-back 11-win seasons and making the playoffs in the first two years of the partnership is a solid foundation. It starts in the training room, keeping the offensive line healthy. Leaning into that will be the path forward for any Harbaugh-coached team.
Perhaps that will make Harbaugh sleep better when it comes to assuring the greatness of Justin Herbert. Otherwise, the nightmare continues.
