Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh says 'Those that stay will be champions.' QB Justin Herbert isn't sure

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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh still believes he can take his team all the way. Quarterback Justin Herbert isn’t so sure.

After a 16-3 loss to New England in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday night, Harbaugh said he told the team, “Those that stay will be champions.”

“Not looking at this as an end,” he said in a somber postgame news conference that undermined his professed optimism. “It’s another beginning.”

But when Herbert followed his coach to the podium, he couldn’t smile through his third playoff loss in as many tries. The Chargers have not claimed a postseason victory since winning in the wild-card round in 2018. (They lost to the Patriots the following week.)

Asked if he was still confident that he could make a playoff run or even win one postseason game, Herbert said, “I don’t know.”

“I haven’t figured it out yet, and it hasn’t happened,” he said. “So we’ll have to re-evaluate it and see what happens.”

A year after a 32-12 loss to Houston in which Herbert completed less than 45% of his passes and was intercepted four times, the 2020 Offensive Rookie of the Year led the Chargers to just a single field goal. He completed 19 of 31 passes for 159 yards and was the team's leading rusher, scrambling 10 times for 57 yards.

But he was also sacked six times, losing 39 yards.

The Chargers only got deep into Patriots territory twice — the first time in the first quarter when Daiyan Henley intercepted a tipped pass from Drake Maye and set up the Los Angeles offense at the New England 10. The drive stalled at the 2, Harbaugh went for it on fourth down, and Herbert’s pass fell incomplete.

“We just have to be able to score and we didn’t do that today,” the quarterback said. “That’s on us as an offense. When we get those opportunities we have to do everything we can to get ball in the end zone, and we let the defense down today.”

Among the problems: The best team in the NFL on third down this season, converting 115 times, went 1 for 10 on Sunday night, and 1 for 3 on fourth down. (The only successful third-down conversion was a 1-yard QB sneak that was initially ruled short but was overturned on replay to give Los Angeles the first down.)

It was the second straight week the Chargers failed to score a touchdown. Asked if offensive coordinator Greg Roman was the right person to be calling plays, Harbaugh said, “Right now I don’t have the answers.”

“We’re going to look at that, at everything,” he said. “It really falls on me that we weren’t at our best tonight. I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. We’ll work hard. It’ll be a new beginning.”

Herbert broke a bone in his left — non-throwing — hand in a Nov. 30 victory over the Raiders, but he played through the injury and led Los Angeles to four straight wins. The Chargers lost to Houston in Week 17, then Herbert sat out the regular-season finale to heal.

Getting back on the field on Sunday, Herbert wasn’t able to reverse his playoff luck, missing receivers and taking sacks when there was no one open to throw to. He was strip-sacked twice, losing one fumble in a sequence that wound up costing the Chargers 2½ minutes on the clock and 46 yards of field position when they needed two touchdowns to win the game.

“The training staff did a great job getting me ready to go,” Herbert said. “As long as they felt safe and comfortable — and I did as well — there was no issues. Just have to do a better job holding on to the ball.”

But Harbaugh acknowledged that the hand was a problem.

“He’s a warrior. He just gives it everything he has, all the time,” the coach said. “It’s an issue, but he doesn’t flinch, like a warrior would.”

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