Phoebe Schecter: Justin Herbert is a 'shining light' who must not be clouded by Los Angeles Chargers defense

Justin Herbert has started the 2023 season in exceptional form, but will he be held back by the Los Angeles Chargers' under-performing defense? Sky Sports NFL's Phoebe Schecter casts her eye over the superstar quarterback after his standout performance against the Minnesota Vikings...

It wasn't the best day of football for either team. But actually, the shining light for all of it was Justin Herbert.

Even if you just look at his stats, he had an 85.1 per cent completion rate for 405 yards and three touchdowns with a 123 QB rating, but some of that doesn't even tell the story of what it looked like. I looked back to the game, he had that third-and-seven throw to Keenan Allen that just went perfectly between the Cover Two defenders and that kind of led to getting that Donald Parham touchdown.

Even the next touchdown, he could not have thrown that any differently, the way that he kind of thread that needle between the two defenders through their hands. I loved watching them on the sidelines, Parham is like 'woah' talking about how intense the throw was. It was like a bullet to him.

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Just watching him throughout. He was so decisive. I think he did a great job moving through his reads and throwing the check downs, he looked really comfortable, we saw him use his legs. There were so many great positives about him out there. And he's obviously found a very nice connection point with Keenan Allen now, he's like that veteran safety blanket for him.

He has arm strength, he's got accuracy, he is a definite leader out there. I think it's unfortunate that sometimes he is clouded by the fact that the team hasn't been successful. I think he was just such a shining star in the way that he utilises his receivers and the way he clearly has such an understanding with the playbook, the play calling. They did a much better job of running the football, he gives he puts the ball in his playmakers hands and it gives people a chance to be successful.

When you see him and watch him play, whether he's going through his reads or throwing a check down, he seems like he really does think about the decisions that he makes, even if it's in a a short time period. There were two plays that he double clutched, which if anybody else did, that they would have been done with or the ball would not have gone where it was supposed to. But because he's got this elite ability, he almost buys himself time to kind of be certain about the decision. I don't feel like he's the kind of guy that's going to make really poor on field decisions.

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Herbert is among the 'elite'

His arm strength alone puts him in the conversation, and we saw him really start to showcase that towards the end of last season. Everyone saw him on the rise. I think it's tough because the face the defence has been so poor, some of the decisions have been so poor, it kind of detracts from the great work that he puts in.

They are kind of lucky this season, in terms of looking at the whole team, because there's been so much noise elsewhere, perhaps there's not as much heat on Brandon Staley and the Chargers there as there could have been. You look at everything going on with the Bears and in Denver, so I think perhaps that's alleviated some of the stress, but you just want to see it be a successful team. Because we've seen other quarterback in the past, it can't just be that you have an elite quarterback and that's it, they need to have weapons around them, they need to have a top 10 defense to match them.

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The importance of Kellen Moore

Having offensive coordinators like Kellen Moore working with these young quarterbacks, that relationship is key. That's kind of been the format that I think a lot of teams are trying to replicate because you also want to give them consistency. You look at Josh Allen and Brian Daboll when he first arrived and you've got Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. There are so many great examples of those relationships, you've got Doug Pederson and Trevor Lawrence as well, I know he is the head coach, but look at how they've changed and really shaped the lives of their quarterbacks.

I think having Kellen Moore in there who likes to be creative and not afraid to take chances, I think that's also exciting for the players too, right? We know that they get excited about the idea of, 'hey, we're gonna get this trick play'. Sometimes you need someone to come in and just kind of take a fresh look and say, 'hey, look at the strength of our quarterback. And let's see how we can we can create a playbook around them.' And sometimes that doesn't happen, right?

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The ability to be efficient in the run game and in short-to-intermediate passing plays is massive. Because ultimately, in the play actions or those little screens, or swing routes or jet motions that they do, it's all designed to force your linebackers and your nickels to play up. Ultimately he's buying time for those receivers. I guess the beauty within play calling nowadays is you can see them building and building. It was a couple of times they ran some quad looks and you know what you can do off of that and how it opens up and it really forces the defence to play disciplined. You're going to get somebody who's not going to play disciplined every single play, right? So how do we attack that? It's just such creative chess that it gets you even more excited about about watching on Sundays.

Mike Williams' season-ending injury

Losing Williams for the season is a huge blow. He is so trusted by Justin Herbert but, also he opened up the game for the other other receivers. That's half of it when you've got someone like Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, there are two guys but now there isn't you might get more double teams on Keenan Allen now.

This is a time for Josh Palmer and Derius Davis and Quinton Johnston. Maybe it is a case of getting the tight ends more involved, they did use Gerald Everett and obviously Parham a couple of times. If you are looking for that bigger, tall-bodied human, maybe you can start playing different formations with the tight ends.

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Chargers expectations

They have some tough games. They've got the Cowboys coming up, the Chiefs coming up, but they've also got very winnable games as well. I think they can make it to the playoffs. If they can fix their defense, that's ultimately got to be what is going to be the big difference. You can carry one side of the triangle a little bit, but it you are compensating all the time on offense while special teams and defense fail to step up, it becomes taxing later in the season.

Naturally, I think you get some fractions within a team if one side of the ball feels like they are always doing the work. So there's an element around that conversation too. If the defense can't step up, how far can you really go?

Week Four in the NFL continues on Sunday night when the Miami Dolphins face the Buffalo Bills, with coverage from 5pm ahead of kick-off from 6pm live on Sky Sports NFL, before the New England Patriots take on the Dallas Cowboys from 9.25pm.