The Chargers beat the Chiefs last Friday night for the first time since 2021. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman called a heck of a game and Justin Herbert had one of the best performances of his career.
But let’s start with Roman. His play-calling broke tendency from what we saw last year. In 2024, the Chargers threw the ball on just 42.3% of first downs, which ranked 25th in the NFL. On Friday night against the Chiefs, however, they did so on 15 of 26 first downs (removing QB kneels). That’s a rate of 57.6%, which would have been 3rd in the NFL last year, for reference.
Herbert completed 10 of those 13 first-down passes for 150 yards and a touchdown. He also scrambled for 13 yards. That’s an average of 10.9 yards per play, which is not a bad way to start off a new set of downs at all.
The Chargers also had a lot of success using play-action, with Herbert completing 9 of 11 passes for 169 yards. Between play-action and their aggressiveness on first down, L.A. caught the Chiefs off guard enough to create steady offense and some big plays.
Roman’s use of formation, personnel, and alignment also played a big role in giving the Chiefs Defense issues.
You could see it all put together on this first down on the Chargers’ third drive.
First, notice that they used 21 personnel (2 RB, 1 TE) with 6 O-linemen and tight end Tyler Conklin in the backfield:
Then they motioned former D-lineman-turned-fullback, Scott Matlock (Roman’s Patrick Ricard stand-in), across the formation just before the snap:
Given the situation and initial look, this appeared to be a run. But of course, it would end up being play-action. This was a sail concept with the sail route coming from Conklin in the backfield: