Mike McDaniel takes the blame for 0-3 Chargers’ huge slump
Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel put the team’s 0-3 start on himself Thursday, Oct. 1, telling reporters in El Segundo, California, that he is “fully responsible” for an offense that has not delivered.
“I spend zero time trying to avoid blame. It’s quite the opposite,” Mike McDaniel said, according to ESPN’s Kris Rhim.
Five takeaways and still a loss
The low point came Sunday in Orchard Park, New York. The Chargers’ defense forced five turnovers and the offense gave the ball away once, yet Buffalo won 24-16. The Chargers went 1 for 4 in the red zone, scoring one touchdown and settling for three Cameron Dicker field goals, according to ESPN’s box score.
McDaniel said he could not remember losing with a plus-four turnover margin. “We were the reason we lost the football game,” he said. “And you gotta pull your weight in this league.”
The Buffalo loss followed 26-14 home defeats to Arizona and Las Vegas. Los Angeles ranks 29th in scoring at 14.7 points per game, ESPN noted, and Justin Herbert is second in the NFL in interceptions with a 27.4 QBR that ranks ahead of only the Giants’ Jameis Winston.
Where the Chargers offense is breaking down
The problems run deeper than one afternoon. In a CBS Sports breakdown published Sept. 25, JP Acosta found the Chargers had the second-highest penalty rate per offensive snap through two games and were tied with Green Bay for the most fumbles.
The run game was even worse. The Chargers averaged 0.51 yards before contact per carry through two weeks, 29th in the league, and Acosta noted that no McDaniel-led offense had ever averaged less than one yard before contact through the first two games of a season.
Acosta also pointed to an offensive line Mike McDaniel has had to work around. It lost center Tyler Biadasz to a season-ending injury and has rotated at left guard. He criticized excess pre-snap motion that gives defenders extra time to diagnose plays.
Mike McDaniel stands by Herbert
Herbert drew a rare public critique from coach Jim Harbaugh earlier in the week. McDaniel did not pile on.
“Nothing has changed with Justin Herbert,” he said. “I think at this point I have a much better understanding of things that lead to him making good plays.”
He still said Herbert’s play, like everyone else’s, has to improve, and so does his own coaching. “There are things we’ve done in the past three games that are active participation in losing the game,” he said. “I’m not living in hope, I’m living in reality.”
A reminder from Miami
Mike McDaniel was fired in January after four seasons as Miami’s head coach, and the Chargers hired him to fix an offense that scored one touchdown across its last two playoff losses, ESPN reported. He used his Dolphins years as a warning against snap judgments.
Three years ago, his Miami offense scored 70 points against Denver in Week 3, prompting talk of an all-time great unit. The Dolphins then lost 26-7 to Kansas City in the first round of the playoffs. “I’m not minimizing it; it’s not acceptable to me,” he said of the current offense. “But also not creating a fake land that ignores annual history.”
Next up: the champions in Seattle
The Chargers visit the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET. Seattle is 2-1 after a 33-31 loss at Washington last week, and Mike McDaniel expects a hostile crowd.
“It’s going to be loud,” McDaniel said. “They’re going to be a salty team that has lost their first game in like 12 games. And you know what, that’s just what we need: an opponent that definitely is not going to feel sorry for us.”
For background on the staff he joined, see our look at the Chargers’ eight new coaches, plus Herbert’s NFL Top 100 ranking and the rest of our NFL news.