{"id":93265,"date":"2025-12-13T12:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/93265\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T12:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:27:11","slug":"justin-herbert-upbeat-about-hand-injury-ahead-of-chargers-vs-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/93265\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Herbert upbeat about hand injury ahead of Chargers vs. Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost immediately after a thrilling overtime victory against the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> on Monday night, Justin Herbert<\/a> went in for imaging and X-rays on his ailing left hand.<\/p>\n

The Chargers quarterback had passed for 139 yards and ran for 66 more in a 22-19 win<\/a> just a week after undergoing surgery to stabilize a fracture in his non-throwing hand. Now, after one of the biggest wins of the season, he was hoping to receive good news about his injury despite being sacked a career-worst seven times.<\/p>\n

The scans showed his hand was swollen, but it had improved since surgery, Herbert said. The results provided him with a sense of optimism heading into the Chargers\u2019 AFC West showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think compared to the days after surgery, I think it\u2019s a lot better now,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cI think it was just sore. I think having played on it, using it, and kind of falling on it too, I think that kind of helped, and was some of the reason why it was sore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh<\/a> described Herbert\u2019s performance against the Eagles as \u201cthe most competitive thing\u201d he ever saw. Herbert, however, gave a negative self-assessment \u2014 he threw an interception and lost the ball once on two fumbles. For Herbert, it wasn\u2019t good enough for a Chargers team vying to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in more than three decades.<\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who praised Herbert\u2019s grit after the win over the Eagles, was proud to hear Herbert taking responsibility for his mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I love that,\u201d Roman said. \u201cThat tells me everything I need to know about that individual. \u2026 A great leader, setting a great example there. But on the flip side, he did what he had to do to win that game. He\u2019s smart enough to recognize that that\u2019s not how he wants to win every game, and he will adjust accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chargers center Bradley Bozeman, who has snapped the ball to Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Bryce Young over his nine-year NFL career, said Herbert is one of one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best quarterback \u2014 no shot to any quarterback ever played with \u2014 but he\u2019s the best quarterback ever,\u201d said Bozeman, who joined the Chargers before the start of the 2024 season. \u201cHe\u2019s committed to what he does. He\u2019s tough as a damn nail.\u201d<\/p>\n

That toughness could prove to be too much for the Chiefs. A Chargers (9-4) win on Sunday (in combination with several other factors) could potentially eliminate Kansas City (6-7) from postseason contention for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

Although the Chargers are trying to sweep the Chiefs for the first time since 2013, safety Derwin James Jr. knows they can\u2019t underestimate a Kansas City team that has won the last nine division crowns. James, second on the Chargers in tackles (70), is expecting all the challenges that come with facing Patrick Mahomes<\/a> at Arrowhead Stadium in 20-degree weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you go out there, everybody\u2019s gonna play desperate to win, because they just want to win,\u201d James said. \u201cWe\u2019re desperate, they\u2019re desperate \u2014 so let\u2019s go out there and play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost immediately after a thrilling overtime victory against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night, Justin Herbert went in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[51303,51305,4472,51304,1535,11600,51302,51301,1544,6433,48,52,51,47,50,49,6442,776,665,315,1543],"class_list":["post-93265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-arrowhead-stadium","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-ball","tag-bradley-bozeman","tag-chargers","tag-chiefs","tag-good-quarterback","tag-hand-injury","tag-justin-herbert","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-sunday","tag-surgery","tag-time","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93265","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=93265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}