Herbert

Justin Herbert famously loves Subway subs. During his rookie season in 2020, the Chargers quarterback told GQ magazine he was “living off” the sandwiches, consuming both a Steak Philly sub and a Chicken & Bacon Ranch sub each night for dinner. He has since appeared in at least eight TV commercials for the restaurant franchise.

But the Chargers quarterback was making his own sandwiches Sunday — or at least that’s how it seemed to an opposing defender who picked off one of his passes that afternoon.

“He was throwing deli meat out there,” Rams safety Quentin Lake said this week on the “St. Brown Podcast,” apparently joining the current inclination of using sandwich-related metaphors to describe bad passes.

“Was he?” asked Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who co-hosts the podcast with his brother, former NFL receiver Equanimeous St. Brown.

“Bro, he’s seeing ghosts,” Lake told his former Mater Dei teammate as all three men started laughing.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but like we knew we were going to get a couple [interceptions], at least one,” Lake added.

The Rams snagged two during their 24-9 victory over the Chargers. Midway through the first quarter, Lake stepped in front of a pass intended for Charlie Kolar and returned it 45 yards to the Chargers’ 19-yard line, setting up a Rams field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Late in the third quarter, Rams cornerback Trent McDuffie also got a pick in front of Kolar and returned it 26 yards to the Chargers’ 22-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Matthew Stafford connected with receiver Puka Nacua for an 18-yard touchdown and a 24-9 lead.

Herbert completed 24 of 32 passes for 257 yards with no touchdowns. His struggles under new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniels are seen as a large factor in the Chargers’ unexpected 0-7 record.

The seventh-year quarterback has thrown for five touchdowns and a league-high 10 interceptions this year, with at least one pick in each of this season’s seven games. In 2024, Herbert finished the 17-game season with 23 touchdowns and only three interceptions.

This week wasn’t the first time this season Herbert’s passes have been described like a lunchtime menu item.

On Sept. 27, after Herbert threw a floater to then-Buffalo Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, former NFL quarterback and current Fox broadcaster Tom Brady offered this on-air analysis: “Poor awareness. Poor decision. Throws him a meatball sub.”

This season, random social media users have given other quarterbacks the Subway treatment, including New England’s Drake Maye, Denver’s Bo Nix, Cleveland’s Deshawn Watson and even Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, a two-time league MVP and three-time Super Bowl champion.

Herbert told reporters on Wednesday that he hadn’t “heard anything about” Lake’s comments.

“We’re really just focused on what’s going on in this building and playing football and doing what we can and doing our best to go put our best effort out on Sunday,” Herbert said. “That’s all that really matters. Anything outside of that is out of our control.”

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh didn’t agree with Lake’s assessment of Herbert’s performance on Sunday.

“I don’t see that,” Harbaugh said. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, [but] it’s not what I see.”

He added that he thought Herbert “did his job exceptionally well” against the Rams, except for “two throws he would have liked to have back.”

Prediction columns are silly.

If you want to guarantee something won’t happen, go ahead and predict — as Bill Plaschke did — that the Rams are going to go undefeated.

See, what happened was that his crystal ball was misfiring. Kind of like Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has this season, throwing an interception in every game so far.

Actually, it’s Herbert’s Chargers who are going to go 0-17.

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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in a 24-9 win over the Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

After the Rams’ suspense-free 24-9 victory over the “visiting” Chargers on Sunday at SoFi Stadium, the Rams are 4-4. But the Bolts are 0-7 and barreling toward most unfortunate history.

NFL teams have gone winless before, but it hasn’t happened since the schedule grew to 17 games in 2021. Are the Chargers desperate enough to avoid being the first? It doesn’t feel like it.

They have 10 games left, of course. Each one “an opportunity,” as Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said, to figure it out. Or even to trap an unsuspecting, wounded opponent.

But there’s also the fact that the Chargers are 0-10 since their last win on Dec. 21 in Dallas — even longer ago than the Chargers’ last touchdown, which was nine quarters and 27 possessions in the rearview mirror.

What’s 10 more losses if not on the table?

Just about everything should be on the table — though not trading Herbert, by all accounts — for this banged-up, head-scratching, flat tire of a football team.

The Chargers’ lost season is the opportunity for major renovations.

It would even be really silly for the Chargers not to give the market a good shake before the NFL’s Nov. 10 trade deadline.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh reacts in the fourth quarter of a 24-9 loss to the Rams at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

No one wants to say goodbye to Chargers mainstay Khalil Mack that way, but the veteran defender should be worth a pretty pick to a contender. What about receiver Quentin Johnston? Running back Kimani Vidal?

But do not excuse Mike McDaniel. Let the beleaguered offensive coordinator keep calling games.

Why? Because history is on the line!

And so is the No. 1 draft pick that could land Ohio State’s sensational receiver, Jeremiah Smith.

The Detroit Lions went winless in 2008 and got Matthew Stafford — a Super Bowl winner and last season’s league MVP for the Rams — with the top pick in the next draft for their suffering.

But neither that season, nor the Cleveland Browns’ 0-16 2016, will go down as an abject disappointment on the level of this Chargers season.

Those teams weren’t supposed to be special. ESPN’s consensus was that the 2008 Lions would finish fourth in the division. And the Browns were coming off a 1-15 season (after which they drafted Myles Garrett No. 1 overall).

The Chargers came into this year with the eighth best odds to win the Super Bowl. They were fresh off consecutive 11-win seasons in Harbaugh’s first two seasons at the helm. And they were pairing Herbert and McDaniel. They were supposed to be a dynamic duo. Instead, the pairing has been a colossal dud.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert looks up at the videoboard after the Rams add to the lead on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Herbert’s two interceptions Sunday pushed his season total to an NFL-leading 10. In 2024, he threw only three.

“Turnovers are what’s stopping us [offensively], and that’s something that we have to clean up,” Herbert said after Sunday’s loss, in which he hit both Rams safety Quentin Lake and Rams cornerback Trent McDuffie in the chest with passes.

The first interception led to a Rams field goal, the second set up a Rams touchdown.

It was that kind of game in that kind of season.

Herbert’s Hail Mary before halftime came down in Ladd McConkey’s grasp a foot short of the goal line. It was the second time this season Herbert completed a pass of 50 or more yards and had the play end on the one-yard line — an NFL record, according to ESPN.

The Chargers also went into halftime with 129 more yards of total offense, nine more minutes of possession and prevented the Rams from achieving a first down on their first five drives for the first time in Sean McVay’s decade as coach.

But still the Chargers — they of little faith — trailed 10-9. Because the Rams closed the half by charging 66 yards to score a touchdown on a five-play, 1-minute, 36-second drive immediately after the Chargers had elected to kick a field goal rather than go for it on fourth and two.

They played like a team ready to accept another defeat and fell to 0-7 for the first time since 2000, when Harbaugh was their quarterback.

They finished 1-15 that season, the franchise’s worst. I wondered: Did that experience teach Harbaugh — who is just the fifth coach ever to win a college national title and also appear in a Super Bowl — anything?

“I mean, there’s no quit, there’s no surrender,” Harbaugh said. “It’s going to be an opportunity next week, get ourselves ready for that. It’s that motivation, it’s that dedication that, you know, there’s next week. There’s an opportunity, and … you got to keep working, you got to keep moving forward.”

Unless they can put in a reverse jinx, the only thing they’re moving toward is some ignominious history.

I’ve been a Justin Herbert fan since his days in Oregon. I kept believing he was going to lead the Chargers to new heights, even after all the leadership changes he’s been through. He’s talented, tough and all-in. I gave him every benefit of the doubt. But now, I can conclude only that Justin Herbert is the problem. Inconsistent, often slow to react, but mostly he’s unable to finish. He’s lost more games in the fourth quarter than he’s won.

So far this season the Chargers have the greatest negative point differential in the fourth quarter in the NFL. The pattern is consistent regardless of the coach. Is it all on Herbert? No. But he is the common denominator through all of this.

Charlie Pankow
Moorpark

The fumbling, bumbling Chargers keep stumbling in their unprecedented 0-4 start in the Jim Harbaugh era.

First, the fumbling. Thank you, Derius Davis. Your inability to simply complete a fair catch led directly to a Seahawks touchdown. How many points did your team lose by?

Next, the bumbling. Call it a banged up offensive line, (AGAIN!), a moderately skilled and depleted receiving core, or a lost, interception prone Justin Herbert, the Charger offense remains sketchy, inconsistent, and self-destructive.

Finally, the stumbling continues … as they cannot beat teams they should or pull out potential victories over the more challenging ones.

Good luck turning this around!

Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa

I don’t care much about the Chargers. I rarely read stories about them and would be elated if they’d return to San Diego where they belong.

But, much like a car accident on the 405 that you instinctively know you shouldn’t stare, I just can’t seem to avert my eyes from the wreck the Chargers have become.

Ron Yukelson
San Luis Obispo

Here is a modest proposal: Lincoln Riley and Jim Harbaugh waive their buyout clauses and swap jobs. It might be the rare trade that improves both organizations. It is difficult to see how it could make things worse.

Paul Hunt
Sierra Madre