Nick Canepa\u2019s Report Card: QB earns another failing grade as Chargers fall to 0-5<\/a><\/p>\nThe Spanoses stopped cheaping out in the head-coach market and paid up for Harbaugh, who got a five-year, $75-million contract that made him one of the NFL\u2019s highest-paid coaches. Harbaugh then hired his former strength coach at Michigan, Ben Herbert.<\/p>\n
Harbaugh said Herbert was integral to the Wolverines winning their first undisputed national championship in 75 years.<\/p>\n
Removing any other excuses, Harbaugh said the Spanos\u2019 willingness to improve the fitness facilities would pay off on the field.<\/p>\n
While L.A. did show more physicality and persistence in its first two seasons under Harbaugh, earning a pair of wild-card berths before the offense fizzled, this year\u2019s team hasn\u2019t met that standard. And several key players have fallen to injury.<\/p>\n
Harbaugh bears some responsibility for the roster quality, too.<\/p>\n
He has a big say in personnel, having brought former Baltimore Ravens scouting executive Joe Hortiz to L.A. as a first-time general manager.<\/p>\n
The Harbaugh-Hortiz tandem has hindered Herbert by providing him insufficient blockers and pass-catchers.<\/p>\n
McDaniel seems to have tumbled over a performance cliff, too.<\/p>\n
Herbert fared much better in his first five games under coordinators Shane Steichen, Joe Lombardi, Kellen Moore and Greg Roman than he has under McDaniel.<\/p>\n
Yet we must also try to square Herbert\u2019s struggles with this comparison. In Tua Tagovailoa\u2019s first five games under McDaniel, in 2022 with the Miami Dolphins, the lefty QB far outperformed Herbert as a passer.<\/p>\n
The expectation for the McDaniel-coached Herbert was a well-timed passing game, the ball coming out fast, the pass-catchers piling up yardage after the catch.<\/p>\n
The opposite has played out.<\/p>\n
Herbert looks tentative and confused. The offense is stunningly bereft of cohesion, crispness, rhythm and flow.<\/p>\n
While L.A.\u2019s defense has made strides lately, and while it largely outplayed the Broncos on Sunday, the offense\u2019s dysfunction has been too much to overcome. And if that doesn\u2019t change in a big way, the team\u2019s 10th season in the relocation will go down as a large bummer for the San Diegans who continue to support the lightning-bolt club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve never believed in curses or hexes. Now, I\u2019m wondering if there\u2019s an exception. Could there be bad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1333,752,74,76,75,127,1696],"class_list":["post-493305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-nfl","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}