Justin Herbert capped off Week 14 of the NFL with a heroic performance against the Philadelphia Eagles, leading the Los Angeles Chargers to an important 22-19 overtime victory in the playoffs, a week after undergoing hand surgery.
Eagles @ Chargers: At a glance
- Justin Herbert, who recently had surgery on his left hand, was under constant fire because the Eagles defense went against its own tendencies and surprised a struggling opponent. Nevertheless, in the end it was the quarterback’s pure will that made the difference.
- The Eagles offense was once again a problem, but a tactical adjustment helped them to at least let Saquon Barkley play big again for the first time in a long time.
- Jalen Hurts unintentionally caused a strange first in NFL history and ultimately played catastrophically.
Eagles @ Chargers: The Analysis
Just a week after undergoing surgery on his broken left hand, quarterback Justin Herbert was back on the field for the Chargers. And the first drive looked very good, even though it contained very simple plays. Herbert primarily threw a few short sideways passes to running backs Omarion Hampton and Kimani Vidal, with Vidal leading the way with a 60-yard catch-and-run. In the end, Herbert found Hampton for a 4-yard touchdown pass to give the home team an early lead.
After that, however, things got tough. The Eagles responded with a longer drive that ended with a 41-yard field goal by Jake Elliott, and after punts on both sides things got chaotic for the first time: Defensive tackle Da’Shawn Hand showed simulated pressure and then dropped into coverage, which Jalen Hurts completely missed. The Eagles QB then threw an interception over the middle to Hand. Hand lost a fumble on the return, which Hurts recovered. But Hurts also lost a fumble that the Chargers recovered.
But the Chargers didn’t make it more than a 45-yard field goal. Donte Jackson then even caught an interception against Hurts, but Herbert promptly gave the ball back – Nakobe Dean flashed through the middle, effortlessly cleared Hampton out of the way and managed a strip sack against Herbert, who came under more and more pressure and received numerous hard hits.
The Eagles then marched to the 2-yard line, but ultimately only settled for another field goal after a questionable holding penalty.
Before the break, Adoree’ Jackson caught an interception against Herbert for the guests, but Elliott missed the chance for further points with a kick to the bar. Halftime score: 10:6 Chargers.
Change in the run game helps Eagles
As the game progressed, the Eagles relied more and more on the run game and, for a change, not only on runs from the shotgun on long downs, but also from under center to the outside. And that turned out to be an important trick because it brought Saquon Barkley into the game. After field goals on both sides, the Chargers expected a tush push on 3rd&1. What they got, however, was a pitch to Barkley, who then ran outside for a 52-yard touchdown, turning the game on its head.
The Chargers, meanwhile, had lost right tackle Trey Pipkins with a calf injury before the break and generally found hardly any answers to the powerful pass rush of the Eagles, who not only put Jaelan Phillips inside more often, but also blitzed their linebackers more often than usual. Another stop was quickly achieved, but this did not lead to more points for the Eagles. Rather, Hurts unnecessarily threw over AJ Brown and the ball landed at the Chargers’ Cam Hart – Hurts’ third interception of the game!
Los Angeles marched into the red zone with a few scrambles from Herbert, but once again settled for a field goal to tie the game with around eight minutes to play.
Both sides then punted again before the Eagles found their way into the opposing half thanks to Brown. However, a drop from DeVonta Smith on third and long meant that once again Elliott only had a field goal from 44 yards. To make matters worse, the clock stopped again before the two-minute warning. So the Chargers had one last chance for an answer.
They took advantage of this and equalized with a field goal shortly before the end of regular time, mainly because Herbert put his team in position again with several scrambles. Overtime!
The Chargers got the ball first in overtime and a few longer (scramble) runs from Herbert and Hampton quickly brought the Chargers into the opposing half. There the attack faltered again, so Dicker had to attack again. He scored 54 yards to take the lead again with 6:24 minutes on the clock.
As a result, the Eagles surprisingly found their passing game and marched down the field. On 4th&4 at the Eagles’ 41, they got a call for a neutral zone infraction, even though it didn’t appear that the defender was actually in the neutral zone. It then went to the red zone, where Hurts was looking for Jahan Dotson. However, Hart deflected the ball and Tony Jefferson caught the interception just before the end zone for the win. A crazy ending for a crazy game.
The Eagles still remain No. 1 in the NFC East, while the Chargers climb to No. 5 in the AFC seedings. At the same time, the Chiefs’ playoff chances fell to just eleven percent.
Philadelphia Eagles (8-5) @ Los Angeles Chargers (9-4)
Result: 19:22 OT (3:7, 3:3, 3:3, 10:6, 0:3) BOXSCORE
Eagles @ Chargers: Key stats
- With an interception and subsequent lost fumble, Hurts became the first player in the NFL since at least 1978 to commit a turnover twice on one play.
- This is the first game this season with a total of six turnovers before halftime.
- Barkley reached a top speed of 21.19 miles per hour on his 52-yard touchdown. That was his fastest run since Week 8, according to Next Gen Stats.
- Herbert saw pressure on 68.3 percent of his dropbacks. This was the sixth highest value in a game in the past ten years according to “NGS”.
The star of the game: Justin Herbert (quarterback, Chargers)
Basically this was a one man show! Herbert was under constant fire, had basically no protection from his overwhelmed O-line, the play-calling was completely predictable and no receiver was open at any time. He also played with a left hand that was surgically repaired a week ago. Still, Herbert led his team in rushing yards and basically single-handedly forced this win. What a heroic idea!
The flop of the game: Jalen Hurts (quarterback, Eagles)
Hurts certainly had better conditions, if you ignore the largely one-dimensional play-calling, but his five turnovers were simply brutal and largely attributable to him. That was a very poor performance from the Eagles quarterback.
Analysis: Eagles @ Chargers – that stood out tactically
- Lane Johnson’s absence was noticeable for the Eagles. They mainly played in 11-personnel and did without the extra blocker, which they had used more often with Johnson. In this package they varied between empty and spread looks, but when it came to routes they still relied on static routes and few designs that would require anticipation rolls.
- However, as the game progressed, the Eagles relied on motion and even play action more often than usual. There were also more frequent under-center runs, which had hardly been used in the past few weeks. Those even worked with Barkley, while the usual shotgun runs were, as usual, ineffective because they were predictable, especially on longer downs. Outside run plays from under center ultimately made a big difference in the game for the Eagles.
- Defensively, the Eagles were quite creative when it came to pass rush. They often put edge rusher Jaelan Phillips inside and blitzed more often than usual, which was very effective against the Chargers’ depleted offensive line.
- Pass rush aside, it turned out that the Chargers’ receivers were completely disconnected when the Eagles played man coverage. And they did this consistently in obvious passing situations, especially after the first quarter. That was crucial.