Jim Harbaugh: We didn’t put Justin Herbert in a position to succeed against Texas

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh was effusive in his praise of quarterback Justin Herbert throughout the regular season and that hasn’t changed in the wake of the team’s playoff loss to the Texans.

Herbert threw four interceptions in the 32-12 loss after throwing three interceptions all season and the defeat dropped him to 0-2 in the playoffs in his career. That has drawn some criticism for his performance in the biggest games on the schedule, but Harbaugh doesn’t think any of it is justified.

“This is completely unfair,” Harbaugh said at a news conference. “I’m not going to spend another two seconds thinking about what happened in that game. It didn’t go well, and that’s on me, that’s my responsibility, that’s my responsibility. I really felt going into that tournament that we were on par with the best teams in the playoffs. Not good.” Like any team, but as good as the best teams in the qualifiers that day, we weren’t the best team that day. We didn’t play good enough football. We weren’t at our best when we needed to be Our best. We hurt him and didn’t put him in a position to be successful enough, but he played like a beast.

General manager Joe Hortiz noted that Peyton Manning started his career 0-3 in the playoffs while calling it “ridiculous” to hang a storyline around Herbert’s neck after two playoff appearances. Others will be less forgiving and it will take some time before more data points are brought into the conversation.