INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Los Angeles Chargers are an improved team. But Monday night’s 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens showed how far they still have to go.
That’s not an indictment of what coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz are building. It is still the first year of an organizational overhaul. The chargers are 7-4. They have a very good chance of making the play-offs. The very fact that the Chargers will play meaningful December games starting next week in Atlanta is evidence of an upward trajectory.
The selection only has limitations at this stage of the process. The Ravens are bona fide contenders. The Chargers are not at that level yet. In the NFL, good opponents will exploit their weaknesses and reveal the truth.
“They played better football than us tonight,” Harbaugh said.
GO DEEPER
Henry powers Ravens past Chargers 30-23 in ‘Harbaugh Bowl’: Takeaways
This loss will hurt Harbaugh, as he drops to 0-3 against his big brother John. This loss will hurt Hortiz, who spent 26 years with the Ravens. It will be stinging for offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was let go by the Ravens after the 2022 season after six years in Baltimore. It will be painful for all the former Ravens now with the Chargers, from assistant general manager Chad Alexander, to offensive line coach Mike Devlin, to tight ends coach and run game coordinator Andy Bischoff.
Good coaching and a good roster structure can lead to fast and immediate progress. We saw that with the Chargers this season.
Building a team capable of lifting the Lombardi Trophy takes time.
“You could say there’s a lot of arguing and all these different things,” edge rusher Khalil Mack said. “But there are no moral victories at this point in the season. You have to go out and play winning football when it matters most.”
The Chargers didn’t have the physicality to compete with Ravens running back Derrick Henry, who finished with 140 rushing yards on 24 carries.
Coordinator Jesse Minter’s unit got off to a quick start. The Chargers forced punts on the first two possessions of the game. But the Ravens leaned on Henry on the next drive. Henry broke off a 19-yard run on the opening play. He followed that up with a 14-yard run. He totaled 44 rushing yards on the drive, which quarterback Lamar Jackson capped with a 10-yard touchdown run.
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Henry is a freight train and the Chargers had no emergency brake to pull. Once Henry got rolling, there was no stopping him.
The Chargers lost at the line of scrimmage. They didn’t tackle well at any level.
“We need to do a better job of blocking destruction across the board,” Harbaugh said.
Henry averaged 7.1 yards per carry-on on first down. According to TruMedia, the Ravens had an average gain of 6.4 yards on second, third and fourth downs.
Derrick Henry gets the @Raven violation occurs.
📺: #BALvsLAC on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/otSPxAT7JH—NFL (@NFL) November 26, 2024
“He’ll be effective if they play that way,” safety Derwin James Jr. said.
Baltimore successfully converted three fourth-and-1s. Two of those came from Henry on a second-half touchdown drive.
Mack said giving up 212 rushing yards is “the thing that pisses me off the most.”
The Chargers weren’t at full strength, and that mattered. Linebacker Denzel Perryman was inactive with a groin injury. This game was begging for one of Perryman’s signature violent hits. If Perryman plays, he might meet Henry in the first quarter and set a different tone for the defense.
“He’s definitely one of the hearts and souls in the middle of our defense,” James said of Perryman.
Mack was also back from two groin strains in no time in his first game. Mack, who was inactive last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, played just 27 of the defense’s 64 snaps on Monday night.
The Chargers didn’t set consistent boundaries against Henry.
Mack said after the game that he “tried not to jump on the field in certain situations.”
“I didn’t want any setbacks,” Mack said, “so I just stayed coachable in those moments.”
More snaps from Mack, perhaps the defense’s most consistently physical player, could have made a big difference.
“It’s not hard for me to play against that guy,” Mack said of Henry. “I like playing against the greats.”
The Chargers struggled all night to contain Ravens running back Derrick Henry. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Chargers were also without cornerback Cam Hart, who has been good in run support this season. According to Harbaugh, he aggravated his ankle injury during Saturday’s practice and was inactive for the game. Fellow rookie Tarheeb Still started in Hart’s place at outside cornerback and finished one-on-one with Henry several times.
At the same time, the Chargers had their full stable of defensive linemen at their disposal. They had Tuli Tuipulotu and Joey Bosa on the edge. They had their best cornerback Kristian Fulton, who gave up a 40-yard touchdown to Jackson to receiver Rashod Bateman in the second quarter. They had linebacker Daiyan Henley, and they had all three of their starting safeties in James, Alohi Gilman and Elijah Molden.
The Ravens scored on five consecutive drives after their two early punts.
“We just have to get him on the ground,” James said of Henry.
Despite the defensive unraveling, the Chargers had a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter, trailing 23-16. Quarterback Justin Herbert and the offense faced a third-and-6 from their 34-yard line.
Herbert fell back after a shot from the shotgun. Receiver Quentin Johnston got wide open on a crossing route. Herbert delivered a perfect throw. Johnston dropped what would have been an easy conversion – and then some.
“I felt like I had some room in the field,” said Johnston, who failed to catch five targets, “so I turned my head before I even saw the catch all the way in.”
Johnston struggled with drops as a rookie last season. He called the play a “complete lack of focus on the catch point.”
“He’s a fighter,” Herbert said of Johnston. “I keep throwing him the ball.”
Rookie Ladd McConkey is an up and coming player. He led the Chargers with six catches on six targets for 83 yards.
But Monday night was a striking example of how badly the Chargers need help. It’s a roster cut after Harbaugh and Hortiz moved on from Keenan Allen and Mike Williams in the offseason.
The Ravens had given up at least three completions of 20+ yards in every game this season.
The Chargers didn’t have a single completion of 20 yards in the game.
Receiver Joshua Palmer had three catches on eight targets.
Receiver DJ Chark, who the Chargers signed in free agency in March, was a healthy scratch for the game. He could potentially boost the passing game. Chark has made just one offensive play all season. He was on injured reserve until early November. But the reality is that adding the type of difference-maker the Chargers need will have to wait until the offseason.
“We’re all going to find some things we wish we had played and coached better,” Harbaugh said.
The Chargers scored just three points in the second half before a garbage time touchdown made the final score seem closer than the game actually was.
Running back JK Dobbins, another former Raven, left the game with a knee injury in the second quarter, and the Chargers struggled to run the ball after his departure. Gus Edwards had 11 rushing yards on nine carries.
“They executed,” Harbaugh said, “and they were the better team tonight.”
Monday night was a benchmark. And now it is clear where the Chargers stand.
“We’ll regroup,” Harbaugh said.
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)