EL SEGUNDO — Offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel actually played the blame game Thursday.
As in, he blamed himself for the Chargers’ sputtering, inconsistent offense.
“Responsibility, yeah, I’m fully responsible,” McDaniel said as part of a longer answer as to whether he feels accountable for the Chargers’ 0-3 record, quarterback Justin Herbert’s struggles and the offense’s general inability to meet preseason hopes or expectations, whether internal or external.
“Who else is going to lead the direction of the offense?” McDaniel asked.
In fact, there has been plenty of blame to go around, as McDaniel explained during his regularly scheduled Thursday question-and-answer session. After all, he’s not to blame for a series of avoidable penalties that sidetracked a promising possession to start the second half against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
The players who were penalized were to blame.
McDaniel wasn’t penalized for an illegal block in the back. Or a holding penalty. Or two false starts inside the 10-yard line. Instead of scoring a touchdown after they had a first-and-goal from the 3-yard line and then a second-and-goal from the 1, the Chargers were forced to kick a field goal.
It also wasn’t McDaniel’s fault that Herbert threw an ill-advised pass intended for wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling on a third-and-5 play from the Bills’ 23-yard line with the Chargers leading 13-10 in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, after linebacker Daiyan Henley recovered a fumble at Buffalo’s 34.
It was the last of the Chargers’ five takeaways against the Bills.
And so it went during a 24-16 loss.
All that is in the past, according to McDaniel, but it’s also a prologue for what comes next, which is a date with the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks on Sunday in Seattle. It’s simply not possible to forget where the Chargers are in the standings and what has sent them spiraling.
“Well, it’s the first time in my career, I think, that I can recall, to be plus-four (in turnovers) and lose,” McDaniel said. “How do I think we played? In my mind, it’s pretty clear. You want to be the reason to win, but we (the offense, including the players and coaches,) were the reason we lost the football game. You’ve got to pull your weight in this league.”
The Chargers’ latest defeat continued a troubling pattern. They failed to score more than two touchdowns for the third consecutive game. Herbert threw a 1-yard scoring pass to running back Keaton Mitchell and Cameron Dicker kicked three field goals to account for their scoring.
What’s more, Dicker’s 33-yard field goal with 1:56 remaining on Sunday represented the Chargers’ first points in a fourth quarter this season. They were outscored 14-3 by the Bills in the fourth quarter, by 9-0 by the Las Vegas Raiders in the fourth in Week 2 and by 10-0 by the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth in the season opener.
The Chargers’ oft-repeated mantra is, “You need to be your best when your best is needed.” But that’s been a bust so far during McDaniel’s marriage with Herbert, who has been quick to blame himself for the offense’s overall lack of production during the three losses.
Herbert said Wednesday he blamed himself for the false starts near the goal line in Buffalo, chalking it up to his own cadence, saying, “It’s just my fault.” He also accepted responsibility for trying to squeeze the pass between two defenders to get it to Valdes-Scantling near the goal line.
Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson intercepted it and returned it to the Bills’ 42.
“I just haven’t played well and need to play better,” said Herbert, who has completed 59.1% of his passes (well below his seven-season career completion percentage of 63.6%) for 627 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions this season.
Asked for his opinion of Herbert’s play, McDaniel said, “There’s good and bad. When you’re 0-3, it’s going to be hard to get a direct answer about how somebody’s played because I’m not going to absolve anybody from responsibility nor am I going to blame anybody. Collectively, we haven’t been good enough.”