Chargers QB and closer Justin Herbert must decipher Vikings’ defense

INGLEWOOD — Not many teams can relate to the painful moments the Chargers and Minnesota Vikings have endured over many decades.

They know the heartbreak of losing postseason games because of missed field goals and the exhaustion that comes from not winning a Super Bowl every season since the AFL-NFL merger.

The two franchises have found many ways to lose one-score games, but the Chargers have gone away from their reputation to start this season, while the Vikings continue to endure the gut punch of losing the close ones.

The 2021 Vikings are the mirror image of what the 2020 Chargers went through with rookie Justin Herbert at quarterback.

The Vikings will enter SoFi Stadium on Sunday with a 3-5 record to face the 5-3 Chargers. Each of the Vikings’ losses this season – with two overtime defeats and a few blown double-digit leads – has been by one score for a total deficit of 18 points.

Last season, the Chargers started 2-5 and lost every game by one score and a combined 19 points with two overtime defeats and a few blown double-digit leads. The Chargers lost seven one-score games last season and had nine one-score losses in 2019.

But first-year head coach Brandon Staley’s Chargers haven’t been the same ol’ Chargers. They are 4-2 in one-score games and have closed out games with lengthy final drives, fourth-down conversions and game-winning touchdowns and field goals.

Staley’s aggressive coaching approach and emphasis on ending one-score games with the ball have led to a winning formula. Staley is well aware that in today’s pass-heavy NFL the quarterbacks are generating game-winning drives at a frequent rate. Two minutes remaining on the clock is plenty of time for most quarterbacks to lead their respective teams to victory and 30 seconds might be more than enough for the elite quarterbacks.

Staley has called Herbert an elite quarterback and the second-year player has proved his coach right with his fourth-quarter performances.

Herbert has four fourth-quarter comeback wins this season and engineered two final drives that took more than six minutes off the clock to play keep away against Washington in the season opener and versus Philadelphia last week. Herbert iced the Washington victory with a third-down conversion to wide receiver Keenan Allen and kicker Dustin Hopkins sealed the win against the Eagles with a 29-yard field goal with two seconds left.

Not many teams are able to trim an extra two minutes off the clock from a four-minute drill to preserve a lead or to set up the winning score. Staley noticed similarities from what the Chargers did in Washington and Philadelphia.

“I think that there are definitely some similarities from those two games, specifically,” Staley said. “We were able to do the things that you need to do in a four-minute situation, which is run the football, protect the quarterback and convert on third down. I think that we were able to mix it up on those possessions. Both of those drives demonstrated those three things. We were able to keep the defense guessing on those particular drives.

“A lot of the time in those four-minute drives, if you’re just trying to play it conservatively, if you’re just allowing this defense to tee off on you, where you run and it’s a third-down pass, the crowd is in it, you can’t hear anything– that’s when those drives go sideways. We wanted to stay aggressive and have that balance. I thought that we did that.”

The Chargers’ offense has kept defenses guessing with a balanced attack, but the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots won the mind games earlier this season with well-disguised coverages to throw off Herbert.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is known for disguised coverages and Staley referred to Zimmer as one of the best coaches in NFL history when it comes to third-down defense.

The good news for the Chargers is Herbert won’t have to face the Vikings’ top defensive players: Minnesota will be without linebacker Anthony Barr, cornerback Patrick Peterson, defensive tackle Michael Pierce and defensive end Danielle Hunter because of injury, and safety Harrison Smith is on the COVID-19 reserve list.

Herbert and Staley, however, aren’t underestimating the Vikings’ defense and expect another complex game plan from Zimmer.

“What they’re able to do with disguises, they make everything look the same,” Herbert said about the Vikings’ third-down defense. “They’ve been historically good over the past decade or so. They’ve been able to pick that up. It’s a very tough third-down team. You have to do a good job of preparation and having a protection plan all week.”

Staley said Herbert struggled against the defenses of the Ravens and Patriots because he didn’t get enough time from the offensive line to read the coverage or to play on instincts. Staley admitted Herbert was fooled by some of the disguises, but he expects him to learn from the experiences.

“Justin will get there,” Staley said. “As you guys have seen, it doesn’t take him very long.”

The Chargers and Vikings have had a similar look on the field with many playmakers on offense and a sluggish defense that has done enough to keep games close.

The Vikings aren’t closing games, but they’re capable of high-scoring performances with running back Dalvin Cook and wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. The Vikings are at their best when streaky quarterback Kirk Cousins is pushing the ball downfield.

They’re a dangerous team itching for a bounce-back game after blowing a double-digit second-half lead to the Ravens and falling to the Dallas Cowboys with backup quarterback Cooper Rush.

The Chargers could find themselves in a shootout against the Vikings and might need another lengthy final drive to end the game with the ball. The Chargers scored too fast against the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns and needed defensive stops to close out those one-score games.

It’s been a learning process, but the Chargers have become a different team in the fourth quarter this season.

“As soon as you kind of learn to put away games like that, I think you feel more confident going into the next one,” Herbert said. “Having been through that with the Washington game and now the Eagles game, we’ve gone through it and we know what to do. We know how to execute.”