Justin Herbert and Chargers suffer first loss of

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Before they boarded their airport-bound buses for their 3,000-mile journey across the nation Sunday, the bodily spent Chargers had been a assortment of thousand-mile stares.

Not that they had been anticipating an undefeated season — they had been certain to lose someday — but did anybody suppose they’d fall to a winless crew beginning a rookie quarterback who had never thrown an NFL go?

“It stings,” said coach Jim Harbaugh, making an attempt to wrap his head around a 21-18 defeat to the New York Giants and savvy-beyond-his-years quarterback Jaxson Dart, making his rookie debut in place of the benched Russell Wilson.

Dart, who started his school profession at USC before shifting on to Mississippi, was both deft and sturdy, operating for a landing, scoring a second with a shovel go, and repeatedly climbing back to his toes after absorbing 5 sacks, 4 by linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu.

Now it’s on the Chargers to climb back onto their own toes after beginning the day as one of the NFL’s six undefeated groups, emboldened by three consecutive AFC West victories.

They may need to do so without left sort out Joe Alt, who left Sunday’s recreation in the first quarter with an ankle injury. He was carted off after Kayvon Thibodeaux collided with him, caving in the sort out’s leg from the facet, and wound up watching the second half in avenue garments and a protecting boot.

It was Alt, bear in mind, who changed the injured Rashawn Slater as blind-side protector to Justin Herbert. So now the Chargers are on their third left sort out (Austin Deculus), second proper sort out and second proper guard.

Reshuffling the offensive line is like folding and refolding an previous paper map. At some level, it all falls aside in your arms.

Is it any surprise Herbert is taking such a beating? He was hit a mixed 23 occasions in the past two video games, and powerful and stoic as he’s, that has to give his coaches pause.

“Very concerned,” Harbaugh conceded. “We’ve got to go back and look at it. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to put him in a better position. Don’t think he’s been in a good position.”

That almost resulted in a pair of pick-sixes Sunday, with the Giants stopped just short of the aim line on two interception returns. The first got here on a batted go in which 340-pound nostril sort out Dexter Lawrence caught his own deflection — the first interception of his seven-year profession — and rumbled 37 yards on the runback.

On the second interception, Chargers receiver Ladd McConkey and tight end Tyler Conklin collided and the ball sailed over them. Cornerback Dru Phillips made a sliding choose, popped back to his toes and returned it 56 yards before receiver Keenan Allen made a shoelace sort out.

“You just can’t put the ball in harm’s way like that,” said Herbert, talking rapidly and robotically and wanting as if he’d somewhat be anyplace but at the rostrum. He had come into the sport having thrown 396 consecutive passes in regular-season street video games without an interception. Despite his slow begins, he was large in his first three video games.

A quarterback can’t anticipate every recreation to be a gem, and those interceptions weren’t fully his fault. But the troubling fact for the Chargers is that they’re going to have to get inventive to dial back the stress on Herbert, particularly if Alt goes to miss any vital time.

One manner to do that is by leaning into the operating recreation, which the Chargers didn’t actually do against the Giants — even though the Giants had been awful at stopping the run to this level. The Chargers only ran 13 occasions, one of which was a 54-yard landing by Omarion Hampton.

By comparability, Herbert dropped back 43 occasions.

Could the Chargers have run more?

“Yeah, in hindsight, you always look at some things you could have done different,” Harbaugh said.

Deep introspection is an unavailable luxurious for groups in a fast-moving season, and the Chargers, who play host to the 2-2 Washington Commanders on Sunday, have to repair their leaks rapidly. The banged-up offensive line makes that particularly tough.

They weren’t the only ones to lose a key participant in the sport. The injury cart didn’t keep parked long. Shortly after trainers rolled it out to choose up Alt, they had been doing so again for star Giants receiver Malik Nabers, who appeared to suffer a vital knee injury making an attempt to make a catch along the sideline.

“Malik’s one of one,” Dart said. “When you have a guy like that on the field, you have all the confidence in the world that he can be a dominant game changer. It’s really hard seeing one of your best friends go down. But we rallied, and the guys made some good plays. Still, it hurts.”

There’s some bizarre synchronicity to Dart successful Sunday. According to ESPN, the last time a rookie quarterback began for a winless Giants crew against an undefeated opponent was when Phil Simms guided the 0-5 Giants to victory over the 5-0 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1979.

Then got here the best Dart recreation since Ted Lasso.

The rookie called Wilson one of the gamers “you look up to, emulate them in the backyard playing with your friends.”

In fact, the first pair of cleats Dart had had been Russell Wilson cleats.

No drawback Sunday filling those footwear.