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The injury-addled Los Angeles Chargers have good reason to feel robbed of a Monday Night Football win but Jim Harbaugh is not isolating plays or assigning blame. Kyler Murray's Arizona Cardinals were able to wiggle into position for a game-winning field goal thanks to some dubious officiating. However, the game should have never been in question according to Justin Herbert.
Herbert wanted better red zone execution but Harbaugh was not going to start isolation things to argue about. The Chargers had every chance to steal a road win but the Herbert-led locker room will walk away empty-handed. It was not exactly something that should be blamed on the officials either. That is why the head coach was not interested in calling out the particulars of any one play in the postgame press conference.
“It was a game of a lot of near-misses or close calls. I thought both teams played well,” Harbaugh sighed. “Came down to a lot of details. I'm not putting it on that one play.”
"It was a game of a lot of near-misses or close calls. I'm not putting it on that one play."
— Head coach Jim Harbaugh on the Chargers' loss to the Cardinals pic.twitter.com/X5aSR0XUy5
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 22, 2024
There was more than one play in question though. First, there was a no-call on a possible pass interference or defensive holding penalty. Any sour taste left after the loss will not be washed away with a short postgame statement issued by the referees to The Athletic's Daniel Popper.
“The call was that it was essentially uncatchable by way of the flight of the ball and where it landed,” the head official said. “So we got together, three or four of us, and decided that it was uncatchable.”
A second play, an unnecessary roughness flag, appeared to be a clean hit but the officials disagreed.
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“It was essentially helmet-to-helmet contact near the head and neck area of the receiver,” per the official statement. “(That) is what triggered the foul for unnecessary roughness.”
Chargers heeding Justin Herbert's red zone message
The Chargers know that won't change Harbaugh's heart, scary as that may be for the amped-up coach who saw a specialist last week. The 60-year-old will still feel cheated after watching a golden opportunity go to waste. Justin Herbert does not want to hear any complaining though, per ESPN's pool report. Los Angeles could have sealed the victory with a touchdown but instead settled for five field goals.
Letting possessions fall apart in the red zone was always going to be a recipe for disaster for the upstart Chargers.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, but we've got to score points in the red zone,” Herbert said. “That's the biggest takeaway from tonight's game. We've got an amazing kicker, but we've got to do a better job for our defense and special teams. We've got to score points.”
