Jim Harbaugh’s first game of the season with the Los Angeles Chargers turned into a rough one at SoFi Stadium, where the Arizona Cardinals walked out with a 26-14 win on Sunday.
The loss didn’t sit well with former NFL tackle Breiden Fehoko, who took aim at Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz on social media after the game. Fehoko made clear he wasn’t putting the blame on Pipkins, instead going after the way the Chargers handled their offensive line rotation.
"I'm not even mad at Pipkins," Fehoko wrote. "Jim Harbaugh & Joe Hortiz are openly rotating guards every drive in this game. That is the most roster malpractice BS I've ever seen in my life."
He followed that up with a sharper message about Harbaugh’s future and the state of the organization.
"Imagine for 3 years all I've told is the truth," Fehoko wrote. "But fandom gets in the way and people think it's rage baiting.
This organization stinks, they need to clean house. Sometimes you might have to shut the fck up and listen to the guy who's actually been in that building everyday."
The Chargers spent much of the afternoon chasing the Cardinals. They were down 13-7 at halftime, then watched Chad Ryland stretch the Arizona lead to 16-7 with his third field goal of the night in the third quarter. Justin Herbert briefly pulled Los Angeles back into it when he hit Ladd McConkey for an eight-yard touchdown, but the momentum never really stuck.
Arizona answered in the fourth quarter when Jacoby Brissett found the end zone on a three-yard touchdown pass. Ryland then put the game away with a 49-yard field goal with 2:33 left.
Afterward, Harbaugh didn’t sugarcoat it. He said the Chargers had plenty to clean up on both sides of the ball and said he wasn’t pleased with the defense. He also noted the offense is still settling in under new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel.
"Credit to the Cardinals," Harbaugh said. "Not the way that we would have wanted it to go.
I know the group of competitors that we have. It's the feeling of, you get punched.
How we respond is what I'm thinking about right now."
Herbert finished 17-of-27 for 209 yards with one touchdown, three interceptions and one sack.
Harbaugh came into the season after guiding the Chargers to a second-place finish in the AFC West last year with an 11-6 record. Los Angeles reached the playoffs, then lost to the New England Patriots in a wild-card game.
The Chargers’ next chance to bounce back comes Sept. 20 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
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