LOS ANGELES — Justin Herbert made his NFL debut as a last-minute starter for the Los Angeles Chargers, who watched Tyrod Taylor sustain a chest injury during warm-ups then nearly defeated the mighty Kansas City Chiefs.
Herbert, the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft, threw for 311 yards and accounted for two touchdowns, but reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to a come-from-behind 23-20 victory in overtime, spoiling the Chargers’ debut at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
Herbert, 22, stood on the sidelines with his helmet off and his hands on his hips while Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker nailed a 58-yard field goal following a false start penalty to extend the Chiefs’ winning streak to 11 games.
Herbert’s only glaring mistake came in the final seconds of the third quarter, when he scrambled to his left, ignored several yards of open space and instead threw deep to Keenan Allen and into double coverage, getting picked off by Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed. The Chiefs proceeded to tie the game on a miraculous, 54-yard connection between Mahomes and Tyreek Hill that saw Mahomes unleash a pinpoint deep ball while rolling right and throwing off one foot.
But Herbert came back to lead the Chargers on a 17-play, 82-yard drive that absorbed 10 minutes, 21 seconds and stood as the franchise’s longest drive in four years. The 6-foot-6, 237-pound quarterback faked a pitch and picked up 11 yards on the ground to make it first-and-goal from the Chiefs’ 4-yard line. But the Chargers ultimately settled for a field goal — repeating what could have been a crucial missed red zone opportunity in their Week 1 win at the Cincinnati Bengals — and Mahomes marched the Chiefs 63 yards up the field to set up the game-tying field goal as time expired in regulation.
The Chargers went three-and-out to begin overtime, with Herbert’s pass to Mike Williams a yard short of the first-down marker. Mahomes then led the Chiefs 39 yards on 13 plays, including a key fourth-down conversion, to set up the winning kick.
With Taylor watching from the sidelines with a trainer by his side, Herbert led the Chargers on a 79-yard touchdown drive to open the game, accentuating it with a 35-yard dump-off to fellow rookie Joshua Kelley and finishing it with a 4-yard scramble. The run broke a streak of 137 consecutive regular-season games without a rushing touchdown from a Chargers quarterback, a byproduct of Philip Rivers not being particularly fleet of foot. The next-longest streak was by the Jacksonville Jaguars with 28.
Later, moments after Taylor was officially ruled out for the game, Herbert completed a 14-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Jalen Guyton to give the Chargers a 14-6 lead with 2:30 left in the first half. With that, Herbert became the first player with a rushing touchdown and a passing TD in his NFL debut since Bobby Clatterbuck of the New York Giants in 1954.
Taylor appeared on the Chargers’ injury report this week with a rib injury, but he was a full participant in Friday’s practice.