Justin Herbert said the word “execute” so many times after Sunday’s loss that it stopped sounding like a word.
“We didn’t execute on third down and we had too many turnovers.” “I think it’s just on us to go out and execute the game plan.” “It’s on us to be able to execute the protection plan.” Over and over, for the length of the presser, the same word doing all the work.
X did what X does. The clips went everywhere by Sunday night. And look, the mockery is fair, but it is also aimed at the wrong target.
The presser was not the problem
Herbert is not the first quarterback to lean on coachspeak after a bad loss, and he will not be the last. Athletes reach for safe vocabulary when they are angry and do not want to torch a teammate, a coordinator, or a play call on camera fifteen minutes after the game ends. “We didn’t execute” is the least incendiary sentence in football.
What actually deserves the attention is what happened for three hours before the microphone showed up.
The Chargers put up 268 total yards at home. They went 2 for 8 on third down and 0 for 3 on fourth down. Herbert finished 17 of 27 for 209 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Those are the numbers of an offense that never found a rhythm and never solved anything the Cardinals threw at it.
Meanwhile Arizona’s Jacoby Brissett went 27 for 27. Twenty-seven of twenty-seven, 277 yards, a touchdown, zero turnovers, in Mike LaFleur’s head-coaching debut. On the road, at SoFi, against a team that spent the offseason being told it was a contender.
That is the story here, not the presser.
The Mike McDaniel question
Los Angeles hired former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator this offseason, and that was supposed to be the unlock. McDaniel’s whole reputation is built on motion and spacing that manufacture easy completions. Give that brain a quarterback with Herbert’s arm and things should get ugly for defenses.
Instead, in game one, the Chargers produced 268 yards and converted a quarter of their third downs.
One week is one week. McDaniel’s offenses have historically needed reps before the timing clicks, and Week 1 film across the league is always the messiest of the season. Nobody should be writing an obituary on a new play-caller in September.
But the frustration underneath the “execute” jokes is real, and it is not about vocabulary. It is about a team that has been telling everyone it is ready, hiring a name coordinator to prove it, then opening the year by losing at home to a first-time head coach.
The Raiders come to SoFi in Week 2, and that is about as forgiving a bounce-back spot as the schedule offers. The Chargers need to show two things: third-down answers, and any sign that the McDaniel system is producing the easy yards it is supposed to produce.
If Herbert gets to play on schedule with the ball out quickly, the numbers fix themselves and nobody remembers this presser by October. If the offense looks stuck again, the conversation stops being about a word and starts being about whether this roster is actually what the Chargers think it is.
Herbert has been carrying a lot of weight in Los Angeles for a long time. He does not deserve to be the punchline for a loss where he was maybe the fourth-biggest problem on the field.
He should probably pick a different word next Sunday, though.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.