Chargers revert, Commanders convert
Summing up the wild-card weekend (so far)
Houston 32, L.A. Chargers 12
In the NFL’s public square, most NFL quarterbacks have to spend at least a little time in the stocks. But in Justin Herbert’s first five years with the Chargers, he never had been considered the proximate cause of defeat. In fact he represented hope and promise and seashells and balloons. Saturday brought the end of the innocence.
Herbert threw four interceptions at Houston, twice as many as he’d ever thrown in a game. His passer rating was 40.9, a career low. He had first downs on the Houston 23 and 33 in the Chargers’ first two drives, and they were forced to kick field goals both times. Granted, the running game that Jim Harbaugh aspired to build gave him only 50 yards, and no run more than nine yards, and the offensive line was gradually overwhelmed by Will Anderson and the hungry Texas pass rush. Herbert was hit nine times, sacked four times. Still, the buck does not stop in the offensive line room, unfairly or not, and now Herbert will begin to hear what Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and even Peyton Manning had to endure. He can’t win the Big One, even though he’s normally the reason the Chargers are playing one.
This was a prime example of Chargering, a peculiarity of this franchise that has been to one Super Bowl and hasn’t won a playoff game since Philip Rivers led them past Baltimore in the 2018 Wild Card round. When Harbaugh was hired, it seemed to set up an epic clash, a habitual winner walking into a losing habitat. Although the Chargers generally played well, Harbaugh could not overcome his surroundings on Saturday, a rare day in which most of the Chargers were healthy and even Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa were able to stay on the same field. In 2025, more will be demanded.
There have been few more egregious examples of Chargering than what happened in the fourth quarter. Down 23-6, Herbert was sacked consecutively by Anderson and Mike Edwards and faced a third-and-26. So he threw an 86-yard touchdown pass to Ladd McConkey. The extra point would bring the Chargers within 10, or would have, except that Cameron Dicker’s kick was blocked by Denico Autry, and D’Angelo Ross fetched it and ran it back for two points. Now it was 25-12, and Derek Stingley picked Herbert for the second time on the next possession.
Houston was a 3-point underdog at home. That’s because the Texans were 10-7, and 5-1 against the desolate AFC South, in which the other three teams combined to go 15-36. But Houston was 8-4 when Nico Collins was playing, and he and C.J. Stroud connected seven times for 122 yards and a touchdown.
Stroud’s sophomore year has had its bumps, thanks to receiver injuries and an offensive line that, when it isn’t allowing pressure, produces more flags than Betsy Ross. But he rose up Saturday. He had already thrown two picks by the time the Chargers punted the Texans back to their one-yard-line, but he was only trailing 6-0, and on third-and-16 he bobbled the ball, picked it up, rolled out and found Xavier Hutchinson for 34 yards, the first vital sign Houston had shown. Then, on third-and-11, he hit Collins for a touchdown.
Later Stroud ran 27 yards to set up another field goal and, for the day, ran six times for 42 yards. That blended well with a 106-yard day from Joe Mixon. Houston now goes to Kansas City, the two-time Super Bowl champs. It’s a bleak locale, but it’s more comfortable than the stocks.
Washington 23, Tampa Bay 20
The Commanders have won, or at least avoided losing, five consecutive games since their bye week. All those outcomes were decided in the final 10 seconds or in overtime. The combined margin of victory is 17 points during the streak. In fact, the only real no-show of Washington’s season was the opener, also at Tampa Bay, in which they allowed Baker Mayfield to convert nine of 13 third downs and compile a 146.4 passer rating. That was a 37-20 loss that gave no clue on what was to come.
In this playoff game, Mayfield had a 146.5 passer rating for the Bucs, who were in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. Washington had not won a postseason game since 2005, when all the talk in D.C. was about yellowcake and Katrina, and Robert Griffin III was the improvisational quarterback. This time it’s Jayden Daniels running and passing as if the clock is just a useless scoreboard accessory. He made enough plays, including a lunging third-down conversion against heavy Tampa Bay traffic, to set up a 37-yard field goal by Zane Gonzalez, who bounced it off the upright and through.
During that drive, the Commanders brought in backup QB Marcus Mariota, a Heisman House resident like Mayfield, Griffin and Daniels, and flanked Daniels wide. The gambit was designed to get the Bucs to jump offside. They refused, and Daniels was laughing as they needled him after the play. Daniels is certainly not frivolous or even particularly demonstrative, but you get the feeling that high-level NFL games are fun with him, as if there’s no consequence for failure. Patrick Mahomes radiates the same blessed assurance.
But the situation was grim early in the fourth quarter, when Washington’s 16-snap drive died on Tampa Bay’s four-yard-line with a fourth-down incompletion to Zach Ertz.
Daniels went to the sideline and waited, but not for long. Mayfield missed a handoff to Irving and Bobby Wagner, the 35-year-old linebacker who will begin an MBA class at Howard University Monday morning, jumped on the fumble. The Commanders got to fourth down again, Dan Quinn decided to go for it again, and Daniels zipped a 5-yard TD pass to Terry McLaurin for a 20-17 lead.
Still, it would take one more glitch to deny the Bucs. With 5:32 left, Mayfield prepared to pick up a third-and-one on the Washington 12. But Graham Barton, a well-regarded rookie center, delivered the snap before Mayfield was ready. Bucky Irving got the ball and tried to make up something but was thrown for a loss. That necessitated a game-tying field goal and gave Daniels the ball with 4:42 on the clock, and he used every bit of it.
The Bucs only had 44 snaps for the night. Washington had 69. Daniels was 24 for 35 for 269 yards and no picks. The rest of the NFC quietly approved, because the Bucs are so dangerous, but the Lions had better bury the Commanders at their first opportunity Saturday night. If you give them quarter, they’ll gladly take the fourth.
Philadelphia 22, Green Bay 10
As usual, the Eagles won without satisfying anybody, particularly themselves, even though they intercepted Jordan Love three times, and tight end Dallas Goedert set an unofficial record by stiff-arming Carrington Valentine three times on the way to a 24-yard touchdown.
That was a particularly endearing play for Eagles fans, but they blinked when they saw receiver A.J. Brown sitting on a bench reading a book in the midst of a playoff game. Brown explained that it was a self-help book that he reads often, called “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy, and that it helped him refocus. “I like to read,” Brown said, further widening the gulf between himself and the fans.
The Eagles got the early lead when Oren Burks, a former Packer, blasted the ball loose on Kesean Nixon’s kickoff return. Jalen Hurts capitalized with a touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson. The Packers never caught up, although they did cut the lead to 16-10 on a remarkable, 32-yard upstream run by Josh Jacobs, which he followed with a one-yard touchdown. The Eagles then went ahead 19-10, and the Packers’ last significant drive fizzled when Malik Heath couldn’t get his feet down in-bounds as he caught Love’s fourth-down pass. It was the fourth time Love had thrown to Heath and his fourth incompletion.
That, and some airheaded penalties, kept the Packers at bay, and Love was limited to 20 for 33 passing. The Eagles, however, missed on nine of 11 third down opportunities. They will play host to either the Rams or Vikings on Sunday.
Buffalo 31, Denver 7
Bo Nix fired the first shot with a 43-yard TD pass to Troy Franklin, who had sprinted through Buffalo’s secondary. That’s about as far as the Broncos got. Denver would gain only 144 air yards otherwise, and he was Denver’s leading rusher with 43 yards. Other than the TD, the Broncos’ longest offensive play was a 21-yard pass to Courtland Sutton.
The Bills hogged the ball for more than 41 minutes and ran the ball 44 times. James Cook took 23 carries 120 yards. Josh Allen’s postcard moment was a fourth-and-one, 24-yard touchdown to Ty Johnson, who managed to catch the ball while keeping his heels free of the end line.
Allen ran eight times for 46 yards and hit 20 of 26 passes for 272 yards. Denver led the league in sacks but got only two in this one. They did hit Allen four times but one can always dispute whether or not he felt anything. The Bills now play host to Baltimore, which thrashed Buffalo 35-10 on Sept. 29.
Baltimore 28, Pittsburgh 14
Don’t tell members of the Steel Curtain, but the Steelers have not won a playoff game since 2016. At least there was no last-second encounter with an upright. The Ravens rolled to a 21-0 lead at half, with 19 first downs to Pittsburgh’s two, a 3-for-3 performance in the red zone, and a 308-59 yardage edge. Derrick Henry had 100 yards rushing in the first two quarters.
The Steelers woke up a bit and got within two touchdowns of Baltimore when Russell Wilson hit George Pickens on a 36-yard scoring play, but never got the ball past Baltimore’s 43-yard-line after that. Pittsburgh lost two of three against its AFC North rival this season, has lost five games consecutively and has rarely looked as disinterested in a postseason game. Again, it was hard to compete without the football, since the Ravens had it for more than 39 minutes. Russell Wilson pumped up his stats, going 20 for 29 with two touchdowns, but he was sacked four times and generally resembled a future ex-Steeler quarterback.