https://chargerswire.usatoday.com/2023/09/25/chargers-vikings-winners-losers-keenan-allen-justin-herbert/

Alex Insdorf
September 25, 2023 2:34 pm PT

The Chargers got their first win of the season in Minnesota on Sunday.
In a back-and-forth contest, Los Angeles’ offense powered them over the
top with huge days from Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen. On defense, the
pass rush got after Kirk Cousins consistently.

It cannot be understated how much the Chargers needed that game. From a
win-loss standpoint, the need was obvious. But the Bolts needed to
finally close out a game for the first time since before last year’s
postseason. Let’s get to the first massive positive.

Stud: WR Keenan Allen

Year 11 and he’s aged like a fine wine. Allen is up to 402 yards on the
season after a 215-yard effort on Sunday. It was a record-shattering
performance for the Chargers receiver as he broke his single-game
receiving record by 32 yards. His previous high was set against Houston
four years ago.

Allen took advantage of Byron Murphy and whichever poor corner had the
responsibility of covering him. His route running was as smooth as it’s
looked since the pre-2022 hamstring injury days. Throw in a trick play
where he shows off his Julian Edelman arm on a trick play for a passing
touchdown. He was just unstoppable.

With the unfortunate injury to Mike Williams, Herbert and Los Angeles
will need Allen to continue playing at his Pro Bowl pace this season.

Dud: Kellen Moore’s 4th and 1 play call

Brandon Staley’s decision to attempt a 4th down conversion with the lead
sparked intense debate on Sunday. As far as that debate, I’ll say that I
agree with the decision to go for it. I’ll phrase that another way: I
trusted the offense to gain one yard to end the game more than I trusted
the defense to get a stop.

Most analytical models agreed with Staley, for what it’s worth:

My issue was exclusive to the play call. A fourth-down fullback dive
with Joshua Kelley never made sense. Kelley had rushed for 11 yards on
10 carries prior to that point in the game. The run blocking from the
line was not at its best partially because of the bodies Minnesota was
consistently sending with heavy blitz packages.

To me, there were two choices: Keep the ball in the air with Herbert and
Allen’s connection or QB sneak it. In that situation with a 6’6″
quarterback, I don’t see why a Kelley run was preferred over doing some
variation of the Eagles’ tush push.

The decision by Staley was fine, but there were so many other play-call
options Moore should’ve gone to.

Stud: QB Justin Herbert

Herbert had the first 400-yard passing game of his career. He had come
close a few times like Cleveland in 2021 and Miami in 2022, but 40-of-47
passing and 405 yards was otherworldly from him yesterday.

Herbert had played well in his first two games of the season, but there
was a different level of decisiveness and efficiency from him on display
in this one. The pocket awareness was on an elite level. Herbert also
read the looks that Brian Flores’ defense was giving him at the line of
scrimmage very well. The drive before the end of the first half that
resulted in a Donald Parham touchdown was a prime example of Herbert
dialed in and responding to everything an opposing defense was throwing
at him.

It’s not an overreaction to say that was the best game of Herbert’s
four-year career.

Dud: RB Joshua Kelley

Kelley had a great Week 1 performance that worked incredibly well in
complement with Austin Ekeler. But the last two weeks of him as the
starter have been unsuccessful. Kelley has put up 51 yards on 24 carries
as the lead Chargers’ back. Against Minnesota, specifically, it was 11
carries for 12 yards.

Getting past the statistics, it really felt like this was a game where
the Chargers missed what Ekeler could offer as both a runner and his
gravity as a pass catcher. Defenses never have to consistently account
for Kelley in the receiving game and it tends to show in the gameplan.

Kelley will have better games once Ekeler gets back, but the last two
weeks have shown why he’s more of an RB2 than an RB1.

Stud: EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu

What a start to the season from Tuipulotu in these last two weeks.
Against Minnesota, the rookie defensive lineman had nine pressures, four
quarterback hits and a sack.

Frankly, if you told me that Tuipulotu had 12 or 13+ pressures in this
game instead of the unofficial nine, I’d have believed it. He was that
impactful on every rep.

To some extent, he took advantage of a Minnesota offensive line that’s
going through a lot of turmoil right now. But his speed to power was
just unprecedented to see in this game. There were plays where Tuipulotu
just shifted Vikings tackle Brian O’Neil backward five yards seemingly
at the line.

It cannot be understated how huge his performances have been with the
impact of Joey Bosa’s nagging hamstring injury making him more limited
in these last two games.

Dud: Let’s talk about the secondary

Cornerback J.C. Jackson was a healthy scratch in this game. He signed a
five-year, $82.5 million contract just two years ago. The Chargers
allowed 149 yards to Justin Jefferson and allowed a number of Vikings to
convert more explosive plays on them.

Compared to previous weeks, I’m not sure I’d say that Asante Samuel Jr.
or Michael Davis were as bad. But the miscommunications in the secondary
were as rough as they previously had been. On Justin Jefferson’s
touchdown, for example, Ja’Sir Taylor and the other corners were unsure
as to who was supposed to follow him as he crossed inside.

If the pass rush pressure hadn’t been as good as it was for the
Chargers, Kirk Cousins probably would have had a much better passing day
than he ended up having. A lot of Samuel and and Davis’ best plays were
pass breakups because Cousins was a second late.