Justin Herbert had a horrible day in the Chargers’ playoff game against the Texans, confirming his critics.

They are a recurring feature in sports: horror statistics. Statistics that no athlete wants to see their name next to. Justin Herbert produced such horror statistics in the Wild Card Game of his Los Angeles Chargers against the Houston Texans – and more than just once.

In the 12-32 loss, the 26-year-old was only able to complete 14 of his 32 pass attempts, and one of his passes landed in the hands of the opponent four times. Never before in his career had Herbert had to accept four interceptions in just one game.

But that’s not all. In the Expected Points Added (EPA) category, the playmaker performed historically poorly. This is the difference between a team’s expected points before and after a play.

Looking at the 214 quarterback performances over the past ten years, only once has a signal caller been even worse than Herbert: Brian Hoyer, when he threw four interceptions in a 30-0 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs with the Houston Texans in 2015.

What’s more, never in NFL history has a quarterback (at least 200 pass attempts) thrown more interceptions in a playoff game than he had previously thrown in the entire regular season. For Herbert, it was just three.

Herbert himself was self-critical of his performance. “I let the team down,” he was quoted on the Chargers’ website.

And further: “You can’t just give the ball away and expect to win. I put the team in a difficult position with four such turnovers. Our defense was strong, they made some turnovers and gave us chances. I just have to be better.”

Herbert as “social media quarterback”

His teammates were encouraging after the bitter defeat. Offensive tackle Rashawn Slater, for example, said Herbert was “the best football player I’ve ever had around me”.

Of course, the playmaker is not 100 percent responsible for each of his four interceptions. But the impression that was created remains.

Above all, however, it is a loud confirmation for all those critics who have dubbed Herbert a “social media quarterback” in recent years. In other words, a playmaker who, while always creating a spectacle, achieves little in terms of scoring.

One of his biggest critics in this regard is Emmanuel Acho, an analyst at Fox Sports. “I was never wrong about Justin Herbert. I was just the first,” he said on ‘X’: ‘I never said Justin Herbert is bad, he’s not. I just said he was overrated and overpraised. Neither has ever been more obviously true.’

Justin Herbert has played in two NFL playoff games in his career, both of which backfired. Although the loss to the Texans doesn’t come close to the Chargers’ elimination in the 2022 playoffs, when Herbert led the Chargers against the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-0 in the middle of the second quarter but ended up losing the game 30-31.

It should be noted that with 273 passing yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, he did not have a bad game compared to the previous weekend against the Jaguars.

But what Herbert’s performance in both games had in common was that he disappeared from the scene in the second half of both games.

Five years of NFL with a record of 0-2 in the postseason. To silence critics, only victories are likely to help in the future. And the absence of any horror statistics.