Ten Interceptions and Zero Wins: The Chargers' Season Is Now About What They Refuse to Change

The Los Angeles Chargers are the last winless team in the NFL, and the tape is no longer hiding why. Sunday's 24-9 loss to the Rams dropped them to 0-7, their first 0-7 start in decades and their worst opening stretch since 2000 — back when Jim Harbaugh was taking snaps for this franchise rather than answering for it.

The most compelling story of the week in Los Angeles isn't the record itself. It's that the people in charge have responded to it by doubling down.

Harbaugh confirmed after the loss that Mike McDaniel will keep calling plays, backing both his coordinator and Justin Herbert. That's a defensible locker-room stance and a fascinating football bet: the Chargers have now lost seven straight while running the least efficient offense in the league, and the two men responsible are being retained on principle.

Herbert's turnover problem is now a crisis, not a slump

Herbert threw two more interceptions against the Rams and was strip-sacked — a turnover that nearly became a scoop-and-score. He now has a league-high 10 interceptions through seven games against just five touchdowns, with a 69.3 passer rating, 1,398 yards and a 61.8 completion percentage. He's been sacked 23 times and has fumbled seven times. Five seasons removed from looking like the league's next great quarterback, he is having a season that will require a real offseason explanation.

Worth noting: Week 8's pass protection was widely graded as solid with Joe Alt back in the lineup. Herbert struggled anyway. That's the part Harbaugh has to reconcile with his continued faith.

The numbers behind the loyalty

The Chargers are averaging 14.1 points per game while allowing 25.0, a minus-10.9 differential that ranks among the league's worst. Their 44.4 percent red-zone touchdown rate is the definition of a broken scoring operation — they've run 74 red-zone plays for eight touchdowns. They convert 37.1 percent on third down, have turned the ball over 17 times (minus-6 differential) and sit at minus-0.248 EPA per play, the worst mark in football. They've scored 99 points in seven games.

They're also 0-6-1 against the number with one over in seven tries — a team that has lost in every conceivable way.

The defense is being wasted, and thinning out

The underrated casualty of this season is Chris O'Leary's unit, which has been respectable in yards allowed (332.3 per game, better than Houston's 360.7) while living on a short field. That group just lost Derwin James to injured reserve with a hamstring injury — he hasn't played since Sept. 27 and can't return until late November. James had 21 tackles and a pass defensed in three games. His absence removes both the defense's best communicator and its last safety valve.

The trade deadline is the real fork in the road

Khalil Mack (3.0 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, 6 quarterback hits, 21 combined tackles) is the subject of a league-wide conversation ahead of the Nov. 10 deadline, and the reporting suggests the Chargers have resisted moving him. Whether that's conviction or stubbornness is the defining question of the next seven days. With the Broncos at 6-2 and the Chiefs at 5-2 in the AFC West, the standings have already answered the playoff question.

Up next: Houston at SoFi

The Texans (2-5) are imperfect, but C.J. Stroud has thrown 11 touchdowns against a single interception with a 100.7 passer rating. Houston is scoring 23.6 per game. The market has pushed this to Houston -4.5 with a total of 40.5, and the Chargers' one statistical edge — they've gone under in six of seven — says plenty about what's expected here.

The Chargers won't be favored again for a while. What they do between now and Nov. 10, and whether the Harbaugh-McDaniel-Herbert alignment produces anything other than another 14-point afternoon, is the only story left worth tracking in Los Angeles.