INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Los Angeles Chargers are an improved team. But Monday night’s 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens showed just how far they have still to go.
That is not an indictment of what coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz are building. It is still Year 1 of an organizational overhaul. The Chargers are 7-4. They have a really good chance of making the playoffs. The mere fact that the Chargers will play meaningful December games, starting next week in Atlanta, is evidence of an upward trajectory.
The roster just has limitations at this stage of the process. The Ravens are bona fide contenders. The Chargers are not yet at that level. In the NFL, quality opponents will exploit weaknesses and reveal the truth.
“They played better football than we did tonight,” Harbaugh said.
This loss is going to sting for Harbaugh, as he falls to 0-3 against his big brother, John. This loss is going to sting for Hortiz, who spent 26 years working for the Ravens. It will sting for offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was let go by the Ravens following the 2022 season after six years in Baltimore. It will sting for all the former Ravens now with the Chargers, from assistant general manager Chad Alexander, to offensive line coach Mike Devlin, to tight ends coach and run game coordinator Andy Bischoff.
Good coaching and sound roster construction can lead to rapid and immediate progress. We have seen that this season with the Chargers.
Building a team capable of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy takes time.
“You can say there’s a lot of fight and all those different things,” edge rusher Khalil Mack said. “But there’s no moral victories at this point in the season. You got to go out and play winning football when it matters the most.”
The Chargers did not have the physicality to match up with Ravens running back Derrick Henry, who finished with 140 rushing yards on 24 carries.
Coordinator Jesse Minter’s unit started fast. The Chargers forced punts on the first two possessions of the game. But the Ravens leaned into Henry on the next drive. Henry broke off a 19-yard run on the opening play. He followed that up with a 14-yard run. He totaled 44 rushing yards on the drive, which quarterback Lamar Jackson capped off with a 10-yard touchdown run.
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Henry is a freight train, and the Chargers did not have an emergency brake to pull. Once Henry got rolling, there was no stopping him.
The Chargers lost at the line of scrimmage. They did not tackle well at any level.
“We need better block destruction just across the board,” Harbaugh said.
Henry averaged 7.1 yards per carry on first down. The Ravens had an average distance to gain of 6.4 yards on second, third and fourth downs, according to TruMedia.
Derrick Henry getting the @Ravens offense going.
📺: #BALvsLAC on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/otSPxAT7JH— NFL (@NFL) November 26, 2024
“He’s going to be effective when they play that way,” safety Derwin James Jr. said.
Baltimore successfully converted three fourth-and-1s. Two of those came from Henry on a touchdown drive in the second half.
Mack said giving up 212 rushing yards is “the thing that pisses me off the most.”
The Chargers were not at full strength, and that mattered. Linebacker Denzel Perryman was inactive with a groin injury. This game was begging for one of Perryman’s trademark violent hits. Maybe if Perryman plays, he meets Henry in the hole in the first quarter and sets a different tone for the defense.
“He’s definitely one of the hearts and souls in the middle of our defense,” James said of Perryman.
Mack was also on a snap count in his first game back from two pulled groins. Mack, who was inactive last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, only played 27 of the defense’s 64 snaps Monday night.
The Chargers did not set consistent edges against Henry.
Mack said after the game he was “trying not to jump on the field in certain situations.”
“I didn’t want no setback,” Mack said, “so I kind of just stayed coachable in those moments.”
More snaps from Mack, perhaps the defense’s most consistently physical player, could have made a big difference.
“It’s not hard for me to play against that guy,” Mack said of Henry. “I love playing against the greats.”
The Chargers were also without cornerback Cam Hart, who has been good in run support this season. He aggravated his ankle injury in Saturday’s practice, according to Harbaugh, and was inactive for the game. Fellow rookie Tarheeb Still started in place of Hart at outside cornerback and ended up one-on-one with Henry multiple times.
At the same time, the Chargers had their full stable of interior defensive linemen. They had Tuli Tuipulotu and Joey Bosa on the edge. They had their best cornerback Kristian Fulton, who gave up a 40-yard touchdown from Jackson to receiver Rashod Bateman in the second quarter. They had linebacker Daiyan Henley, and they had all three of their starting safeties in James, Alohi Gilman and Elijah Molden.
The Ravens scored on five straight drives after their two early punts.
“We just got to get him on the ground,” James said of Henry.
Despite the defensive unraveling, the Chargers had a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter, trailing 23-16. Quarterback Justin Herbert and the offense faced a third-and-6 from their 34-yard line.
Herbert dropped back after a shotgun snap. Receiver Quentin Johnston came wide open on a crossing route. Herbert delivered a perfect throw. Johnston dropped what would have been an easy conversion — and much more.
“I felt I had some space upfield,” said Johnston, who did not have a catch on five targets. “so I just turned my head before I’d seen the catch all the way in.”
Johnston struggled with drops as a rookie last season. He called the play a “complete lack of focus at the catch point.”
“He’s a fighter,” Herbert said of Johnston. “I’m going to keep throwing him the ball.”
Rookie Ladd McConkey is an emerging player. He led the Chargers with six catches on six targets for 83 yards.
But Monday night was a glaring example of how badly the Chargers need receiving help. It is a roster limitation after Harbaugh and Hortiz moved on from Keenan Allen and Mike Williams in the offseason.
The Ravens had given up at least three completions of 20-plus yards in every game this season.
The Chargers did not have a single completion of 20 yards in the game.
Receiver Joshua Palmer had three catches on eight targets.
Receiver DJ Chark, who the Chargers signed in free agency in March, was a healthy scratch for the game. He could potentially give the passing game a boost. Chark has only played one offensive snap all season. He was on injured reserve until early November. But the reality is that adding the type of difference-maker the Chargers need will have to wait until the offseason.
“We’re all going to have some things that we wish we would have played, coached better,” Harbaugh said.
The Chargers only scored three second-half points before a garbage-time touchdown made the final score look closer than the game actually was.
Running back J.K. Dobbins, another former Raven, left the game with a knee injury in the second quarter, and the Chargers struggled to run the ball after his departure. Gus Edwards had 11 rushing yards on nine carries.
“They executed,” Harbaugh said, “and they were the better team tonight.”
Monday night was a measuring stick. And now it is clear where the Chargers stand.
“We’ll regroup,” Harbaugh said.
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
