Two of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL will square off Sunday night as Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals travel to Los Angeles to face Justin Herbert and the Chargers.
After a rough start to the season, Cincinnati is working to right the ship. The Bengals have won three of their last five and nearly outdueled the Baltimore Ravens in an instant classic last weekend.
The Chargers, meanwhile, are riding high. Winners of four of their last five, Jim Harbaugh's team has their sights set on a postseason berth.
Who will come out on top Sunday night under the lights? Stay with NBC News all long for the latest from Los Angeles.
Can Chargers unleash their “Beast”?
After quarterback Justin Herbert showed his dual-threat ability while running for a touchdown on his season-high nine rushes last week, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh took to calling the QB a “beast” -- so often, in fact, the team released a video showing every time the coach marveled at Herbert. At one point, he even brought it up in a conversation with an official.
Herbert has been an exceptional athlete all of his life — I once spoke to an MLB scout who tried repeatedly, to no avail, to get Herbert to consider pro baseball. But it’s one thing to find running room against a team that wasn’t game planning to stop it. Will his running be a wrinkle again tonight? If Cincinnati devotes a “spy” to contain his running, it could only open the field for his passing.
Bengals continue to come up short in close games
Cincinnati’s 35-34 loss at Baltimore in Week 10 dropped the Bengals to 0-5 in games decided by six points or fewer. The only other team with more than five losses in games decided by six points or fewer is Jacksonville, who is 2-8 overall and 1-6 in such games.
Along with a six-point loss vs New England in Week 1 and a five-point defeat vs. Washington in Week 3, the Bengals’ close losses include three games against AFC contenders that easily could have gone the other way.
Jim Harbaugh leading another turnaround
After nearly three full seasons under Brandon Staley (who was fired in December last year with LAC sitting at 5-9), the Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh as head coach in January.
Harbaugh has won everywhere he’s coached, including in his most recent stop at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, which he led to its first national title in 26 years last season.
In their first season under Harbaugh, the 6-3 Chargers have already surpassed their win total from last season, when they finished 5-12, losing their final five games of the season.
Herbert taking care of the ball this season
Herbert’s numbers this season are less gaudy than Burrow's, but he’s thrown just one interception (fewest of any QB with 200+ attempts) and ranks in the NFL’s top 10 among qualified QBs in passer rating (103.2 — sixth) and yards per attempt (7.8 — ninth).
Herbert's only turnovers (1 INT, 1 fum lost) this season came in Week 2 at Carolina. He’s gone a franchise-record seven straight games without an interception — the longest active streak in the NFL and his 210 straight passes without a pick is the second-longest streak in franchise history (he has the longest streak — 233 passes in 2022-23).
Burrow having monster season
This season, Burrow is once again among the NFL’s best QBs. Burrow leads the league in passing yards (2,672) and is tied for the league lead in touchdown passes (24), with his passer rating (108.1) ranked second among qualified passers behind Lamar Jackson. Burrow has two games this season with five touchdown passes, while the rest of the NFL has combined for one (Jackson).
He threw 4+ touchdown passes in each of the last two games (five in Week 9 vs. the Raiders and four in Week 10 at the Ravens) and can become the first QB to have three straight four touchdown pass games in the same season since Russell Wilson for SEA in 2020.
Burrow, Herbert set to go head-to-head
Burrow and Herbert have been two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL since they were two of the first three QBs selected in the 2020 NFL Draft (Burrow was picked first overall, while Herbert went sixth, one spot after Miami took Tua Tagovailoa). Since coming into the league, they both rank in the NFL’s top five in passing yards per game, in the top six in touchdown passes and TD/INT rate and in the top eight in passing yards.
While Herbert is ahead of Burrow in terms of passing yards, passing touchdowns and regular season wins, Burrow has enjoyed significantly more postseason success than his L.A. counterpart, reaching the playoffs twice — making the AFC Championship both times and reaching Super Bowl LVI in the 2021 season.