The Chargers dropped under .500 after a shootout loss to the Lions. While the Chargers scored a touchdown on five straight drives to end the game, Brandon Staley’s defense once again failed to get a stop down the stretch. Los Angeles has given up 475+ yards four times this season. Monster efforts from Keenan Allen and Justin Herbert went to waste.
The team will need to recover as it heads to Green Bay next week, but let’s take a deeper look at what went wrong (and right) against Detroit.
Stud: WR Keenan Allen
Keenan Allen has turned back the clock in a massive way this year. The Chargers’ star receiver has three 110+ yard games this season for the first time since 2020. Allen fought through a shoulder injury to produce an 11-catch, 175-yard effort with two touchdowns. Hebert has been great this year, but Allen’s re-emergence as a top-ten receiver has been the biggest boost to the Chargers’ offense.
What really stands out about Allen’s game vs. Detroit and his season as a whole is just how much quicker he looks in his routes and after the catch. The numbers back it up as well. 2.56 yards per route run through nine games is the highest single-season mark of Allen’s since 2017. In this game, Allen had 15.9 yards per reception with what he was doing after the catch as well. That’s practically a Mike Williams-type of number on jump balls!
Considering all of the injuries on offense and the attrition they’ve faced this season, Allen’s performances in his age 31 season should not be looked over. He’s one of the few key reasons this team has a puncher’s chance at a playoff spot.
Dud: Brandon Staley’s defense
It’s the same story we’ve seen time and time again. Herbert and the offense have an electric effort and score over 30. And yet, the Chargers’ defense simultaneously gets completely dismantled by a good offense.
It looked terrible from the beginning. The defensive line got pushed backward every time it mattered by that Detroit offensive line. The linebackers got gashed. Michael Davis was sick and the secondary got absolutely picked apart. It was an utter failure by all levels of the defense regardless of which metric one chooses to look at. Yards, points, critical conversions given up, poor tackling, explosive plays. An assault on the eyes of anyone watching defensive tape.
The Chargers didn’t just look bad. They looked unprepared from the jump. Ben Johnson continuously worked the underneath stuff he was given with Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Amon-Ra St. Brown. Somehow, a defense that was built to stop explosive plays is still giving up a ton of them: just in different, terribly creative ways.
Destroyed in coverage, flummoxed in the trenches, annihilated in play calling and coaching. It will never change until the day Brandon Staley is no longer the playcaller for the Chargers. I don’t need to keep seeing the same movie over and over again to say that.
Stud: QB Justin Herbert
Early in this game, I was a bit concerned about how Herbert looked. He was coming up short on a few passes and threw a particularly careless interception to Kerby Joseph.
But after the first quarter, Herbert rebounded. His performance and rebound couldn’t be better explained by a single play better than his touchdown throw to Jalen Guyton:
Herbert shoulder fakes to the flat route, underneath defenders jumps, and Herbert beats Kerby Joseph with a laser pic.twitter.com/2aUbrSjkpU
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) November 13, 2023
There was a stretch of this game where Herbert’s WR1, WR2, And TE1 were Quentin Johnston, Jalen Guyton, and Donald Parham during Allen’s trip back to the locker room with his shoulder injury. He managed to finish the game with 67.5% completion, 323 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, and a 114.9 passer rating. After a few decidedly “meh” weeks for QB1, he returned to form in a massive way.
Dud: The defensive line
I don’t believe in the concept of taking credit away from the defensive line for their previous performances based on this game. Against the Bears and Jets, Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, and Tuli Tuipulotu balled out. But this Lions’ game against arguably the league’s best offensive line was always going to be a litmus test. And the Chargers failed it.
Los Angeles had just six pressures on Jared Goff. The Chargers gave up 200 rushing yards to the Lions on the ground. Especially with the state of the current secondary, it just was an unacceptable effort from the first level of the defense.
It’s just factual at this point to say that when the Chargers’ have gone up against good offensive lines this year with the likes of Dallas, Kansas City, and Detroit, their defensive line hasn’t performed for the price they’re paying on the cap sheet. This was a disappearing act from everyone on that line a week after they racked up sacks and pressures against Zach Wilson.
Stud: LT Rashawn Slater
Rashawn Slater had his worst game as a pro last week after he allowed eight pressures in New Jersey. Whether it was his ankle, the Jets’ exotic looks, or the turmoil on the Chargers’ offensive line in general, he just didn’t look like himself.
This week was back to the old Slater. He registered an 89.8 pass-blocking grade on PFF with zero pressures allowed on 100 pass-blocking efficiency. The run blocking hasn’t been good for anyone on the offensive line. But with other members of the Bolts’ offensive line underperforming in pass pro at the wrong time, it was a much-needed bounce-back performance from Slater.
Dud: The linebackers
Ben Johnson saw the weakness that few offensive coordinators had actually taken full advantage of this year. The Chargers do not have a good coverage linebacker. Kenneth Murray’s strength this year has been shooting the gap against the run. He just hasn’t figured out coverage at the NFL level. Eric Kendricks looks largely like a shell of himself in coverage. Both players registered the Chargers’ worst two PFF defensive grades this week.
Frankly, it’s surprising to me that more offensive coordinators have not taken advantage of what Johnson exploited in this game. The Chargers absolutely have a problem at the second level if more teams are going to watch the tape from this game or their Chiefs game from earlier this season at Arrowhead.
