I think we saw on the opening weekend of the NFL that coaches are human and that they often make poor decisions when the pressure is on. One of the decisions that played out this weekend was just insanity and really makes you question what you see. It involved Justin Herbert the Quarterback for the LA Chargers.
In week 2 he suffered a very painful looking injury to his ribs that was later diagnosed as fractured rib cartilage. Apparently, it is an injury that wont get worse and is about coping with the pain. There was a lot of speculation before the match as to whether he would play. The betting markets had moved from LAC -7 down to -3 assuming he would be missing. The talk was that they would give him a pain killing injection using an Xray. This is a story because the doctor in charge is still the same one who was responsible for puncturing QB Tyrod Taylor’s lung whilst administering a pain relieving injection. It is now subject to a lawsuit.
Justin Herbert’s talent has to be put into some context. If you were doing a draft today he would probably be the second QB taken after Allen. He has a simply incredible arm. The NFL is a league dictated to by the quality of your Quarterback. The Chargers have a young stud who will be the face of the franchise for a long long time. It seemed a little crazy that they would even risk him at all with so much of the season left to play. He is too important to them. Having made the decision to play him what followed was just insanity and there can be no justification for it.
You could see very early on that he wasn’t quite right and was still feeling the pain. Pretty quickly the Chargers were down 13-0 and 16-7 at half time. They then lost their left tackle Slater. Its an incredibly important role because they protect the QB. His replacement is awful. By the end of the 3rd quarter the score is 31-10 to the Jags. You have also lost one of your star defensive players in Bosa. Surely, its time to shut up shop and take Herbert and others out of the game. You could make a good case it should have been well before then. The Jags would have been trading at 1.01. The Chargers literally had no chance of winning that game at that stage. Nope Herbert stayed in taking further punishment before finishing the game on the wrong end of a 38-10 scoreline.
Apparently, he wanted to stay in and try and help his team. The coach let him. It is one of the dumbest moves I have seen by any coach in any sport. You are risking the already injured face of your franchise for absolutely no reason. I just cannot fathom what played out. The coach Staley clearly isn’t capable of being trusted to make the right decisions. It was insanity.
Whilst we are at it though he isn’t the only one guilty of it. I have seen it happen so often in the NFL. I see so many times where a star player is left in the game far longer than necessary. If a team is at 1.01 or their opponents are, it should be a pretty big indicator to pull your star players. Mahomes in week 1 when his team were up by 30pts towards the end of the 3rd quarter. If you keep leaving your stars out there to get injured unnecessarily don’t complain when it happens. It is just ridiculous. Yes the odd 1.01 will be turned over but it is also incredibly rare when teams are missing key starters.
Its tough to believe what we watching at times. It isn’t just limited to NFL. I see it with football and particularly key players like Kevin De Bruyne. Left on far too long or brought off the bench when not needed. The extra minutes really add up over a long season. Some really poor decision making by coaches.
ProPunting 