Jim Harbaugh came away from the Chargers’ Week 1 loss with a clear regret: Los Angeles probably should have let its starters play more in the preseason.
After Sunday’s stumble against the Arizona Cardinals, Harbaugh pointed to the offense’s uneven execution and said the team’s limited preseason work showed up on the field.
"We made some preseason type of mistakes," Harbaugh said during his Monday press conference. "Now in retrospect, I wish we'd played our guys a little bit more in the preseason and given them those reps."
The Chargers opened the year with a revamped offense built around Justin Herbert, with the team adding former Pro Bowl tight end David Njoku, fourth-year running back Keaton Mitchell and several offensive linemen, including center Tyler Biadasz. Los Angeles also brought in former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel in January to run the offense.
But Herbert and a number of other regulars barely saw the field in August. The quarterback logged just seven snaps across two preseason games, and the offense looked like it could have used more time together once the games started counting.
That showed up early Sunday. Omarion Hampton scored the Chargers’ first touchdown with 4:27 left in the first quarter, but Los Angeles then went quiet until Herbert hit Ladd McConkey for a touchdown with a little more than six minutes left in the third quarter.
The Chargers lost McConkey shortly after that when he left with a rib injury and did not return in the fourth quarter. From there, the game slipped further away: Herbert was intercepted in the final period, the offense turned it over on downs twice, and the quarterback was sacked three times in the loss.
"Some uncharacteristic things happened," Harbaugh said postgame. "Give (the Cardinals) credit for making them happen.
I would call it sloppy at times. Too sloppy.
That's something we need to get fixed."
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Chargers Already Face An Ugly Harbaugh Backlash After Week 1
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Jim Harbaugh acknowledged afterward how difficult it was to lose McConkey in the middle of the game, and the comment spoke to a bigger concern for the Chargers than one bad result. This offense is still trying to establish consistency, and the opener showed how thin the margin can be when one of its most important pass catchers is unavailable. With the season just getting started, the question now is how quickly Los Angeles can steady itself if McConkeys absence lingers. [Read more 🡒]