Justin Herbert’s brief debut stalled as San Francisco’s relentless scoring and special teams brilliance overwhelmed Los Angeles, exposing critical penalty and execution flaws ahead of the preseason finale.
Following a convincing victory in Week 1, the Los Angeles Chargers were blown out in their second contest of the preseason, falling 41-17 to the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium.
The big storyline in this one was Justin Herbert and the starting offense getting an opportunity to get on the field and showcase what they’ve been working on to open the game, but it was a three-and-out for that unit. That was the end of the night for QB1 and many other pieces of the starting offense.
With that in mind, the Chargers defense was great early on, holding the Niners scoreless in the opening quarter, forcing punts and giving the ball back to the offense.
From there, after the initial Herbert drive, Trey Lance took over and got to play against the team that originally drafted him. Lance did have a really impressive 37-yard run that got the Chargers into the red zone, but they couldn’t convert it into a touchdown and settled for a field goal. That was one of the few offensive plays that popped on the night for Los Angeles.
From that moment on, San Francisco dominated. The 49ers scored 17 straight points before halftime following the Chargers field goal, including an 83-yard punt return touchdown by Jacob Cowing, so the special teams unit had its issues as well. San Francisco carried a multi-score lead into the break.
Again, the Chargers defense was great to start the third quarter after giving up a bit too much in the second, generating a pick-six by linebacker Junior Colson that got Los Angeles back within striking distance. But that momentum wouldn’t continue, as the Niners responded with a long touchdown drive capped by a Khalil Herbert score, then added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 41-9.
While the Chargers did end up scoring one more touchdown late in the game, it obviously wasn’t enough to get the job done.
It was also a night in which the Chargers were flagged for far too many penalties, with multiple plays erased because of them. Los Angeles ended up playing all three quarterbacks on the roster, with DJ Uiagalelei serving as the third quarterback to enter the game and making a few interesting plays late.
Overall, the Chargers were dominated in this one. While that doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things given that it’s the preseason, there will be plenty to work on in practice this week as Los Angeles prepares for its preseason finale.
The result was a sharp contrast from the opener, and the biggest focus moving forward will be cleaning up the penalties, execution and special teams mistakes.
