Not all interceptions are created equal and neither are all interception-ridden playoff performances resembling quarterback meltdowns. So, before we go on about the Los Angeles Chargers’ 32–12 wild-card loss to the Houston Texans, let’s call Justin Herbert’s 14-of-32 performance for 242 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions what it was: one bad interception, one understandable interception that confirmed something we had long suspected about the Los Angeles Chargers, one interception in which a receiver handed the ball to the opponent and one end-of-game interception which occurred at a point when Herbert was simply chucking it (as evidenced by his lack of concern in throwing the ball at Derek Stingley Jr.).
That last one reminded me of Eli Manning during his lean years. While Manning had a reputation as a quarterback who played to the mean with two of the most incredible outlier games in NFL history during a pair of Super Bowl victories, a large portion of his high interception total came when the team was trailing by a significant margin, late in games (93 of his 244 career regular-season picks came when trailing by 15 points or more). While some quarterbacks opt to pack it in and get off the field, there is something to be said about an acceptance of worsening an individual stat line for the very slim possibility of getting back into a game.
So, at the very least, Herbert is in some good company.
His first interception Saturday came at the 11:33 mark of the second quarter. Herbert threw across his body and across the field to Quentin Johnston, and the ball was jumped by Kamari Lassiter. Johnston is not a great contested catch wide receiver, with about a 32% success rate in those situations. However, Johnston initially had leverage toward a wide swath of open field that he surrendered to Lassiter as the ball was in the air. Johnston is about four inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Lassiter, so even though Herbert probably doesn’t have a library of experience to draw upon when it comes to Johnston pulling balls out of midair, it’s still hard to imagine a receiver that big getting boxed out by a cornerback three quarters his size.
To me, it wasn’t ill-advised as much as it was a spotlight on Johnston’s limitations. Herbert and Johnston had been in a groove since about Thanksgiving, with Johnston getting five or more targets in all but one of those games, and eight or more in four of the Chargers’ final seven games. This was a throw that could have unlocked a new part of their relationship on the field—Johnston, after all, was drafted in the first round by the old Chargers regime to accentuate Herbert’s arm talent and allow him to throw to all corners of the field, making the team harder to defend spatially.
Herbert’s third interception told a similar story, although a bit more obviously. With 14:32 to go in the fourth quarter, he side-armed a beautiful ball to tight end Will Dissley, which bounced off Dissly’s hands into a perfectly-in-stride Stingley, who was sitting in coverage a few yards away. Dissly dropped another throw of Herbert’s earlier in the game while the quarterback was taking a massive shot in the pocket. Dissly had only four drops on 64 targets heading into this game and, based on qualifying sample size, was Herbert’s second-most dependable wide receiver next to Ladd McConkey.
And, really, that should help us arrive at the heart of the matter. Herbert did yeoman’s work trying to break in Johnston this year. McConkey is a great wide receiver, who had a rookie playoff record 197 yards Saturday, but does not have the size of a true No. 1 befitting of a quarterback with Herbert’s field-stretching skill set (McConkey was the target for Herbert’s second pick, which Herbert simply launched over the receiver’s head, though McConkey’s broken tackle and run after the catch ability helped the Chargers make the final score look more respectable).
No matter how badly we’d like to turn this into a narrative about Herbert melting down, throwing more interceptions in this game (four) than he did in the entire regular season (three), the truth is far less salacious (apologies in advance to Monday’s bloviating talk show lineup). Herbert did an incredible job masking the fact that he doesn’t have a whole lot of what we’d traditionally consider help all season. On Saturday, against a physical, playoff-caliber defense, the Chargers were provided with a measuring stick demarcating where the roster is now and where it needs to be before Herbert can fully realize his potential. If we want to say anyone melted down, I think we should throw most of his pass catchers, and the people responsible for acquiring pass catchers for him, into that mix.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Justin Herbert’s Four-Interception Day Showed the Chargers’ Limitations.