Nobody expected Jim Harbaugh to be standing at a podium in October defending an 0-4 record, yet that’s where the Los Angeles Chargers find themselves after a 30-23 loss to Seattle.

The moment of tension came when a reporter asked the question that’s been hanging over this team for weeks: why is Justin Herbert, in Harbaugh’s third season, still being asked to play hero just to keep games close?

The whole pitch of the Harbaugh hire was that Herbert would finally get the support he never had, with a sturdier line and an offense that didn’t need him to manufacture something out of nothing on every snap.

“That just sounds more like an insult than it does a question,” he said.

It’s a revealing response. Harbaugh has built a reputation on toughness and an us-against-the-world attitude, and when he feels his team is under attack, he circles the wagons.

Instead of addressing protection issues or schemes, he went straight to his quarterback’s character, describing Herbert as a competitor who never flinches and never looks shaken, someone who inspires the people around him.

The reporter, to his credit, didn’t back down. He clarified that he wasn’t trying to take a shot at anyone, and pointed out the plain reality: Herbert remains one of the most pressured and most-hit quarterbacks in football. 

He said he sees the same resilience in the rest of the roster that he sees in Herbert, and that the team is chipping away at its flaws one at a time rather than trying to repair everything overnight.

It’s classic Harbaugh, steady and process-driven, and it’s worked for him at every stop.

The problem is the calendar. “One thing at a time” sounds great in August. In October, at 0-4, it starts to sound like a team running on borrowed time for the season.

Denver, Kansas City and the Rams are next. If Herbert keeps getting knocked around the way he has, it’s hard to see the Chargers climbing out of this hole before the season is effectively over.

There’s also a bigger-picture concern as Herbert is the most valuable asset the franchise has.

Every hit he absorbs is a risk to his health and to the long-term vision Harbaugh was hired to execute. Defending your quarterback’s toughness is admirable, but potecting him is the job.

Harbaugh may have heard an insult on Monday. What he really heard was the question everyone in Los Angeles is asking. Sooner or later, he’ll need a better answer than grit.