19-3 loss<\/a> to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. In Herbert\u2019s case, it was to protect his non-throwing hand for the playoffs after getting beat up all season long. <\/p>\nThe Chargers (11-6) earned the No. 7 seed in the AFC and will be on the road throughout the playoffs. They\u2019ll open Sunday night at AFC East champion New England (14-3).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of game that does define your season,\u201d second-year coach Jim Harbaugh said.<\/p>\n
Herbert has yet to win a playoff game in six years. The Chargers\u2019 most recent playoff victory was in the 2018 wild-card round against Baltimore. They went on to lose to the Patriots 41-28 in the division round.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur best football is at stake,\u201d wide receiver Keenan Allen said. \u201cWe have to bring it. We\u2019ll be ready, and he\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
The defense continues to come up big, showing marked improvement during the team\u2019s four-game winning streak late in the regular season. It ranks in the top five in third-down percentage allowed, while Khalil Mack and rookie Tuli Tuipulotu have led a solid pass rush. <\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
The offensive line suffered its biggest issues early on, losing tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater to season-ending injuries. <\/p>\n
There have been other key injuries that created inconsistency at times and put pressure on Herbert, who was sacked a career-high 54 times in 16 games this season.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
DL Justin Eboigbe had two sacks against the Broncos and finished with six in the regular season. The second-year player was limited to 26 defensive snaps as a rookie after being a fourth-round pick in 2024.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
RB Omarion Hampton sat out Week 18 with an ankle injury. \u201cHe\u2019s doing everything and anything he can to get back as fast as he can,\u201d Harbaugh said Monday. Hampton had already spent several weeks on injured reserve with an injured ankle. Losing his explosive playmaking ability against the Patriots defense would be a big loss. <\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
The Chargers should be mostly healthy given that they rested their starters in the regular-season finale against Denver, including Herbert, S Derwin James Jr. and OL Bradley Bozeman. Hampton, LT Jamaree Salyer (hamstring) and S Elijah Molden (hamstring) were inactive. <\/p>\n
Key number <\/p>\n
5-0 \u2014 The Chargers\u2019 record in prime-time games this season, with wins over Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Chargers visit the second-seeded New England Patriots in a wild-card playoff game on Sunday.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Justin Herbert and his broken left hand are rested and ready to lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[184,10731,1443,241,258,10728,5469,7,464,1012,5661,10096,1159,1328,3278,82906,1014,262,2444,2443,249,6,498,288,1526,9,10719],"class_list":["post-688416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-chargers","tag-baltimore","tag-bradley-bozeman","tag-california","tag-chargers","tag-denver-broncos","tag-derwin-james-jr","tag-elijah-molden","tag-football","tag-jamaree-salyer","tag-jim-harbaugh","tag-joe-alt","tag-justin-eboigbe","tag-justin-herbert","tag-keenan-allen","tag-khalil-mack","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleschargers","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-football","tag-omarion-hampton","tag-rashawn-slater","tag-sports","tag-tuli-tuipulotu"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115921241159896240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688416","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=688416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}