3 Chargers to blame for horror playoff showing vs. Texans

The Los Angeles Chargers won 11 regular season games in their first campaign under Jim Harbaugh. It was all looking up. With an elite quarterback, a dynamic run game, and a rock-solid defense, the Chargers felt like a real threat to sneak deep into the playoffs. We know Harbaugh teams tend to thrive under the bright lights.

Well, the Houston Texans weren't having any of that.

Saturday's Wild Card matchup was all Texans, with a final score of 32-12. The Chargers opened the game with a couple solid drives and a 6-0 lead, but Houston scored 10 quick points in the final minutes of the first half and exploded after the break.

Joe Mixon couldn't run in the first half, but he found endless running room in the fourth quarter. The Houston defense was airtight, with the typically efficient Justin Herbert struggling to locate open receivers while operating under constant duress. C.J. Stroud, on the other hand, reminded us of his sky-high ceiling, showcasing impressive poise and his trademark, turbo-charged arm.

This was a dominant performance for the Texans — and a baffling meltdown from the Chargers, who were the more dependable, calm and collected team all season long. It's hard to blame a specific player for this debacle, but here are the Chargers most worthy of criticism at the end of their season.

Cameron Dicker made one of the dumbest plays of the Chargers season

Look, in the end, two points was not enough to sway the game in Los Angeles' favor. That said, this baffling decision from Cameron Dicker on the Chargers' fourth-quarter PAT attempt — to bat down a tipped kick in the backfield — defies logic. Rather than catching it and eating the loss, Dicker hit it to the ground, which allowed a Texans scoop-and-score. That killed all Chargers momentum.

Instead of a 10-point deficient with regained moxy, the Chargers faced a 12-point deficit and appeared utterly deflated. This was after a miraculous 86-yard TD catch from Ladd McConkey to stem the tide and put the Chargers back in a position to win the football game. There's an alternate timeline where Dicker eats the PAT miss, the Chargers lock in, and this is a slightly more competitive ballgame.

Dicker made both his field goal attempts in the first quarter, but this mistake sticks out like a sore thumb when canvassing the landscape of this loss. It was a disasterous special teams performance all around for the Chargers, but Dicker will end up as the butt of jokes for a long time to come. And frankly, he deserves it after such a silly (and costly) brain fart.

2. Will Dissly compounded mistakes for the Chargers

Justin Herbert was not at the peak of his powers on Saturday, but he didn't exactly receive help from his teammates either. Aside from McConkey, who looks like an absolute superstar, it was a series of rampant miscues and poor efforts. J.K. Dobbins was completely stifled in the run game, the offensive line was bleeding pressure all day, and Will Dissly made the costliest drop of the afternoon.

After Herbert's second INT, Los Angeles got the ball back with a chance to keep Houston within striking distance. This was early in the fourth quarter, with the Texans only up 14. Herbert threw a perfect dart to a slanting Will Dissly on first-and-10 around the Chargers 40-yard line. Not only did Dissly miss it — he whiffed so bad, the ball ended up in a defender's arms, going back toward the end zone.

Dissly was pretty much the sole person responsible for Herbert's pick six.

If Dissly catches that, coverts the first down, and kickstarts a scoring drive for the Chargers, we might be talking about a different outcome right now. Instead, the game swung wholly in Houston's direction and there was really no coming back.

The tight end finished with two catches on four targets for 16 yards. Sadly, that made him the second most productive pass-catcher for Los Angeles in their Wild Card loss.

1. Justin Herbert threw more interceptions in one game than he did all season

As the above points lay out, the incompetence ran deep for the Chargers on Saturday. This team has always felt uniquely cursed on the postseason stage, so maybe we can't even blame the players. Perhaps we should be turning our perplexed gaze to the cosmos.

That said, Justin Herbert put together what can only be called a disastrous performance on Saturday. He competed just 14-of-32 passes for 242 yards and a touchdown, going through a prolonged dry spell in the second and third quarters. More troublesome, however, were the four interceptions. There's just no winning a playoff game with so many costly errors. The possession battle is everything.

Herbert can't be blamed for all four interceptions, as evidenced above, but he was not exactly the sharpest decision-maker in Houston. His first INT, for example, was thrown across his body and across the field into tight coverage. Why? I couldn't tell you.

Herbert's four interceptions on Saturday was more than he threw in 17 regular season starts combined (three). This is a traditionally efficient, smart signal-caller who thrived in Los Angeles' balanced offense all season. This stinker came out of nowhere, and the mounting postseason narrative feels earned at this point. Until he turns in a quality performance in the playoffs, folks will continue to doubt the Chargers as a serious threat late in the year.