There are rough afternoons, and then there is the one Justin Herbert endured at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. The Los Angeles Chargers quarterback was sacked eight times in a 44-22 loss to the Houston Texans before he exited in the fourth quarter after hurting a finger on his left, non-throwing hand.
The defeat dropped the Chargers to 0-8 as the NFL’s only winless team, leaving plenty of room to argue how much of the collapse belongs to their franchise quarterback.
However, CBS sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala and former Steelers safety Ryan Clark both chose to spread the blame well beyond Herbert, as Kinkhabwala added a thought about the punishment he keeps absorbing.
Aditi Kinkhabwala Weighs the Blame and the Beating on Justin Herbert
Houston’s pass rush got home again and again. The Texans sacked Herbert eight times for 40 yards, and when he did get rid of the ball, he went 13-of-23 for 193 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Clark chose to shift the blame on Jim Harbaugh and his coaching staff, saying, “I’m all the way in on the Justin Herbert is imperfect conversation, but he ain’t this kind of imperfect. I mean, this is the quarterback of the worst team in the world. If we didn’t know his pedigree, (we) would want a new guy, and team is ruined-type bad. I refuse to believe all this is on him!! This entire staff needs a gut check!”
Kinkhabwala took notice of Clark’s assessment and added: “It’s not remotely all on him. But I’ll tell you this… after standing on the sideline for every minute of that, I don’t know how many more hits he can take before he decides it’s not worth it.”
@Realrclark25 It’s not remotely all on him. But I’ll tell you this… after standing on the sideline for every minute of that, I don’t know how many more hits he can take before he decides it’s not worth it.
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) November 9, 2026
The hits she referenced are piling up, too. Sunday’s eight sacks pushed Herbert’s total to 31 through Week 9, nearly four a game for a team still looking for its first win.
The call to take him out after the injury wasn’t Herbert’s, though. Harbaugh chose to send in backup DJ Uiagalelei and said afterward that “Justin wanted to go back in the game.” Asked about the 0-8 start, Herbert said, “I just got to keep fighting.”
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Whether the finger cooperates is another matter. Harbaugh’s early assessment was that it “could be a fracture. We’ll find out,” while Herbert sounded more optimistic: “We will probably take a look at it but it shouldn’t be an issue.”
Where Chargers Stand After Yet Another Loss
The Chargers won 11 games in each of the past two seasons under Harbaugh, who is in his third year as head coach. This year’s offense, coordinated by Mike McDaniel, went 37 straight possessions without a touchdown before Herbert’s 58-yard strike to Quentin Johnston early in the fourth quarter Sunday, the team’s first touchdown since an Oct. 11 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Herbert’s own numbers paint a grim picture. Pro Football Network’s NFL QB Impact Grade has Herbert at 59.9 through Week 9, 35th of 35 graded quarterbacks, after a 75.9 for the full 2025 season, and he has thrown 11 interceptions in eight games.
Herbert, for his part, kept the blame off offensive coordinator McDaniel. “It’s not on him, it’s on us as an offense,” he said, and he put some of the sacks on himself, too: “Understanding that throwing the ball away is better than a sack, so that’s something that I could’ve done better.”
Herbert is on pace to be sacked about 66 times this season, a dozen more than the 54 he took across all of 2025, with nine games still to play.
