Justin Herbert wasn’t interested in the anger narrative after the Los Angeles Chargers slipped to 0-2 with a 26-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
Asked whether frustration had taken over the locker room, Herbert pushed back.
“No, I don’t think so,” Herbert said in a postgame exchange posted by ESPN Chargers reporter Kris Rhim. “I think it’s not good enough and there’s a group full of grown men that can handle their job.”
That answer fit a night where the Chargers kept talking about corrections while the game kept getting away from them. The loss matched the same 12-point margin from their opener against Arizona, leaving Los Angeles with two home defeats and no wins.
The Raiders controlled the final numbers and the biggest moments. Kirk Cousins finished 19-of-29 for 253 yards and three touchdowns, including two to practice-squad elevation Cody White, according to the Raiders’ box score. Herbert went 15-of-27 for 192 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
Los Angeles did have a brief opening in the third quarter. Herbert found Oronde Gadsden for a 10-yard touchdown that put the Chargers ahead 14-10, but the lead lasted one possession. White’s 13-yard catch swung the Raiders back in front, and the Chargers never scored again.
The ending unraveled fast. With Las Vegas ahead 17-14 and under four minutes left, Omarion Hampton fumbled and Jeremy Chinn returned it to the Chargers’ 16.
White scored again three plays later. Then a hold on Joe Alt in the end zone led to a safety and the final 26-14 margin, a sequence laid out in the Associated Press recap carried by ESPN.
Hampton was one of the few bright spots on the ground, finishing with 23 carries for 94 yards and a 1-yard touchdown. But he also lost the ball for a second straight week. “I just gotta take care of it, put two hands on the ball,” he said after the game, according to ClutchPoints.
The offense never really settled in. Rhim reported that Herbert was “as angry as I’ve seen him” after a third-down snap from Jake Slaughter hit a motioning Tre’ Harris, sending Herbert off the field still visibly frustrated.
Justin Herbert was as angry as I've seen him after that failed third down.
Jake Slaughter snapped the ball, and it hit a motioning Tre' Harris.
Herbert was yelling as it happened and continued to show his frustration as he left the field.
- Kris Rhim (@krisrhim1) September 20, 2026
Alt’s night was rough as well. He was flagged four times, including three false starts, and was also involved in the safety. Those kinds of mistakes don’t need much interpretation - they kill drives before Herbert can even get to work.
The atmosphere didn’t help. Raiders fans turned SoFi into something that felt a lot more like a road environment, and a loud “Raiders” chant broke through Jim Harbaugh’s postgame news conference, per Rhim. Attendance was listed at 71,567.
Derwin James didn’t sugarcoat the film either. The safety fractured his left pinkie in the first quarter, returned with a cast and still delivered the bluntest assessment of the night, saying the tape “just looks trash,” and that anger alone won’t solve anything. Rhim’s ESPN game story placed that line alongside Harbaugh’s insistence that nobody in the room is “deterred.”
Herbert stayed more measured when the questions turned to the mood around the team. Asked what the feeling was if it wasn’t anger, he pointed to Buffalo. The Chargers can’t change the first two weeks, he said, only get ready for “a very good team” next Sunday.
That next test is already set: a Week 3 trip to Highmark Stadium on Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. ET against a 2-0 Bills team.
Los Angeles has yet to play a road game. Buffalo already looks like one.
The bigger picture is simple enough. Two games in, the Chargers have scored 28 points and allowed 52.
Herbert’s response sounded like a veteran trying to steady things. James sounded like a defender tired of excuses.
Different tone, same message: the start hasn’t been good enough, and the only real answer has to come on the field.
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