Herbert battered as Chargers bottom out in Jaguars' rout

He gets sacked twice and body-slammed as 35-6 loss, the worst of Harbaugh era, forces a 'look in the mirror.'

- SAM FARMER

JOHN RAOUX Associated Press QUARTERBACK Justin Herbert is tackled by Travon Walker as the Chargers' star continues to suffer behind a patchwork offensive line. Herbert finished with a career-low 81 yards passing.

Numbers don't lie. But sometimes NFL teams do.

That's why All-Pro safety Derwin James Jr. believes the Chargers need to be unmercifully honest in sorting through Sunday's 35-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the most lopsided defeat of the Jim Harbaugh era.

The Jaguars collected 30 first downs, held the ball for nearly 16 minutes longer, and limited Justin Herbert to a career-low 81 yards passing.

Candor incoming.

"Sometimes you can lie when you want to protect the other side or protect the player," said James, standing in a cramped and somber visitors' locker room. "But I feel like this team is very honest, very transparent and everybody don't got no soft skin. So I feel like everybody can look in the mirror and we'll be straight."

The Chargers came to Jacksonville having won four of five, and the Jaguars had lost three in a row. That wasn’t indicative of what was to come, however, as Jacksonville dominated the line of scrimmage and the Chargers were as mild as the balmy day.

A Jaguars defense that entered the game with an NFL-low 12 sacks was transformed into a pass-rushing tsunami, one that sacked Herbert twice and pressured him on nearly every drop-back, sending him to the blue medical tent - albeit on a roughing-the-passer body slam - before the end of the first half.