Expectations for the Los Angeles Chargers were sky-high after team-turnaround artist Jim Harbaugh was hired to coach the team and fix the organization’s culture.
By all accounts, the culture is pointing in the right direction, but sitting at 3-3 and losing very winnable games some of the coaching decisions are starting to come into question, particularly around the offense and how Greg Roman is calling the offense.
The Chargers are scoring just 17.7 points per game and even when things are clicking for quarterback Justin Herbert, they fail to score touchdowns in the red zone. This was the case against the Arizona Cardinal, where they kicked five field goals.
Chargers OC: “As an offense, everybody’s very frustrated”
According to Roman, no one is happy with the offense, but he remains positive that things are heading in the right direction.
“As an offense, everybody’s very frustrated,” Roman said. “There’s definitely some things that we can clean up and get better at. We will.”
In some ways he is right. Before their Week 5 bye, Justin Herbert had some of the fewest attempts and yards of his career in those first four games. After the bye, he has thrown more than 30 times and in both games, he surpassed 200 passing yards — a 2024 first for Herbert.
Last Monday against the Cardinals, an objectively bad defense from a talent perspective, he completed 27 of 39 passes for 349 yards. But drives would stall out in that game. They found themselves in 14 third-down situations, converting just six times.
Herbert remains optimistic as well.
“Everyone’s still getting settled in, we’re still finding our identity on offense,” Herbert said. He continued: “I still think we’re finding our way, but we’re improving.”
In the first few weeks, it seemed the Chargers identity was to be physical at the line of scrimmage and a run-heavy team. But they have struggled to find a balance between the run and the pass, which is exactly what Roman was touting ahead of the season. They ran for just 52 yards on 19 carries against the Cardinals.
