Justin Herbert is now up to two nightmare playoff starts as the Los Angeles Chargers’ starting quarterback. Herbert’s postseason record dropped to 0-2 as the Chargers, as road favorites, were routed by the Texans 32-12 in Saturday afternoon’s AFC wild-card game.
Jim Harbaugh’s offense could muster only a TD and two field goals despite coming in with a hot Herbert from the end of the 2024 NFL regular season.
This time, Herbert played with only a six-point lead in the first quarter. In Herbert’s previous playoff appearance two years ago, the Chargers, then coached by Brandon Staley, couldn’t hold the 27-0 advantage they built in the second quarter in dropping a road wild-card game at Jacksonville.
With Harbaugh and Herbert, this wasn’t supposed to happen again — Chargers’ playoff games were not supposed to end in “Chargering.”
Here’s breaking down the L.A. QB’s struggles in Houston.
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Justin Herbert stats today
Herbert completed only 14-of-32 pass attempts for 242 yards, dooming his team to a losing result with four sacks and four interceptions. One of those INTs was returned by Texans safety Eric Murray returned for a TD. Beyond that game-crushing pick-six, Herbert was off for most of the game. He posted a microscopic passer rating of 40.9 despite averaging 7.6 yards per attempt.
The Chargers were rendered one-dimensional with JK Dobbins and the rushing attack limited to 50 yards at only 2.8 yards per attempt. Herbert faced a ton of pressure in the pocket and operated with only one reliable receiver, rookie wideout Ladd McConkey (8 catches, 197 yards, TD on 14 targets).
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Justin Herbert interceptions vs. Texans
Murray had one of the four, while cornerbacks Kamari Lassiter and Derek Stingley Jr. accounted for the rest.
Herbert first got intercepted by Lassiter taking a bad deep shot to Quentin Johnston in the first quarter with a 6-0 at the Houston 40. Stingley sniped Herbert early in third quarter, the possession after Murray had his pick-six on an errant pass from the Houston 39. Stingley then shut the door on the Chargers’ last-gasp drive ahead of the Texans running out the clock on their victory.
Herbert threw away two promising scoring opportunities and also gave the Texans seven extra points. There’s no doubt his big mistakes took any chance of the Chargers winning — and spawned plenty of memes on social media.
Tua Throws 3 Int vs Texans
Justin Herbert: Hold My Beer 🤝🤣 pic.twitter.com/gn4wTA38QH
— Lagi Tuaiva (@LTuaiva84538) January 12, 2025
Justin Herbert playoff stats
Herbert, in the two road wild-card games against the Jaguars and Texans, now has these combined stats:
- Pass completions: 39
- Pass attempts: 75
- Passing yards: 515 yards
- Touchdowns: 2
- Interceptions: 4
- Passing yards per attempt: 6.9
- Passer rating: 60.7
- Sacks taken: 7
- Rushing yards: 12
Herbert has been horrible in two different offensive schemes under Joe Lombardi and Greg Roman. During the Jacksonville historic comeback, Herbert went cold in the second half. He struggled wire-to-wire trying to do much in Houston.
All those stats are ugly and align with a 0-2 playoff record. Herbert isn’t on a rookie first-round deal anymore — he’s making an average annual salary of $52.5 million as part of a five-year, $262.5 million deal.
If the Chargers plan to make more playoff noise with Harbaugh and ever push the Chiefs, Herbert must execute better, stat. If not, they would develop serious doubts about whether he can reach the upper echelon of AFC QBs.
