EL SEGUNDO, Calif — Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is healing at the perfect time heading into Sunday\u2019s wild-card game against the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n
Herbert, who suffered a fractured left hand in Week 13, said sitting out of last week\u2019s game against Denver for precautionary reasons proved beneficial.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say definitely not taking hits on it last week was probably pretty helpful,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cIt limited kind of the swelling and just getting back to making sure that you have got full strength, being able to hold onto a football.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the biggest issues for Herbert since the injury has been taking snaps under center and gripping the football with his left hand. While injured, he typically avoided those during the week, opting to take a few on Saturdays and on game days. But for the first time since the injury, Herbert took under-center snaps on Wednesday, the earliest he\u2019s done that since the fracture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that I was able to do most everything out there,\u201d Herbert said of Wednesday\u2019s practice. \u201cIt\u2019s just making sure I can grip on the ball and have two hands on it in the pocket. … So I think that\u2019s been good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was just over a year ago that Herbert and the Chargers clinched a playoff spot on the road with a 40-7 beatdown of New England — only the Pariots\u2019 second home loss by 30-plus points this century. Herbert threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns, and rookie wide receiver Ladd McConkey had eight catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
That Patriots team, which was 4-13, bears little resemblance to this year\u2019s version, which has had one of the league\u2019s most surprising turnarounds under first-year coach Mike Vrabel. New England is 14-3 this season, earned the AFC\u2019s No. 2 seed and enters the postseason riding a three-game win streak.<\/p>\n
For that reason, Herbert said last year\u2019s game film isn\u2019t very helpful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not the same team they were last year,\u201d Herbert said. \u201c… You turn on the tape and you see a completely different team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chargers could be heading into this game without one of their most important players. Running back Omarion Hampton, nursing an ankle injury, missed practice on Wednesday and didn\u2019t practice all of last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing everything and anything he can to get back,\u201d Harbaugh said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL SEGUNDO, Calif — Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is healing at the perfect time heading into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,92645,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-662492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers-sports-football-team-team-statscom-357","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangeleschargers","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115856757795347627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}