LOS ANGELES -- Quarterback Justin Herbert furiously slammed his hands on the SoFi Stadium turf. He yelled as he stood up. Yelled as he began walking. Turned around and yelled some more. In the background, wide receiver Tre' Harris lay with his head buried in the turf.
Just a moment before, the Chargers failed to convert on third down in the third quarter of their Week 2 loss to the Raiders, with the play failing basically before it even started. Harris came in motion as the play clock wound down on third-and-inches with Herbert in the shotgun, but as center Jake Slaughter snapped the ball, it hit Harris in the leg.
Herbert jumped on the ball, and what followed was as intense of an outburst as he has had during a game in his seven-year career.
The moment was a microcosm for the Chargers' 2026 season through two weeks: an offense seemingly too complicated for this team and a quarterback who appears as frustrated as he ever has been in a season that's trending toward being another year where success remains a hypothetical. The offense will look to bounce back this Sunday against the Buffalo Bills (1 p.m. ET, Fox).
"Growing pains," coach Jim Harbaugh said. "Yeah, we got some growing pains."
"We're not standing on business in the least," offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel said.
McDaniel was the proverbial crown jewel of the Chargers' offseason.
After two seasons of middling offensive play, Harbaugh fired Greg Roman, the only offensive coordinator he had worked with in two stints in the NFL, following the Chargers' 16-3 wild-card round loss to the New England Patriots.
Fired in January after four seasons as the coach of the Miami Dolphins, McDaniel was still widely considered the top candidate available after the season. He's one of the most respected offensive minds in the NFL and chose to join the Chargers for the chance to work with Herbert and learn from Harbaugh.
General manager Joe Hortiz spent the offseason retooling the team's offense to suit McDaniel's vision, which needed a different type of player for his wide zone scheme.
McDaniel put up "wanted" posters for players he deemed essential, running back Keaton Mitchell and fullback Alec Ingold among them; Hortiz signed both. He added right guard Cole Strange, who worked with McDaniel when he coached the Dolphins, and drafted speedy wide receiver Brenen Thompson, partly at McDaniel's request.
Players and coaches were equally excited about the offense's potential in the offseason. McDaniel promised "career highs across the board" for all the wide receivers.
Instead, the Chargers had six fumbles versus the Raiders. Offensive tackle Joe Alt had three false starts. And Herbert didn't complete a pass of 20 air yards.
"I think I can just plain and simply say that it's below our expectations," McDaniel said. "I know it's below a lot of people's expectations as well."
Amid the struggles, McDaniel said that Herbert has blamed himself, which McDaniel doesn't believe is fair. He said the two of them have begun meeting more frequently and grown closer than they've ever been over the past two weeks.
"It can be a lonely world as a starting quarterback," he said "... It can be lonely as a playcaller or an offensive coordinator. And the only way to approach it is that you're not alone."
In the locker room after the loss to the Raiders, there was a mix of confusion and frustration. One team source told ESPN that the offense's poor execution doesn't make any sense because of how they practiced all summer. "We're making OTA mistakes," he said.
Herbert's outburst on the third down was a reflection of the poor execution. If the play had continued without the fumble, an open running lane was forming on the left side of the line of scrimmage for Omarion Hampton to run through with Harris as a lead blocker. Mistakes caused the play to fail.
And yet that poses a different question: Why was the playcall so complex in the first place? It was third-and-inches. The quarterback is 6-foot-6; the running back is a 220-pound, former first-round pick. It would seem that a sneak or under-center run would have done the trick.
The complexity -- or the overcomplication even -- of this offense appears to be stumping the Chargers two weeks in. But Herbert rejected that theory.
"I think every NFL offense is a complicated one," he said. "But I think it's just on us to be studying our stuff, making sure that we're ready to go."
McDaniel said he has considered simplifying things as he gets to learn the players but is wary of overcorrecting.
"Of course I consider [it]. I consider pretty much everything," he said. " What's important for my position is that if I'm saying not to overreact either way, good or bad.
"What I know how to do is evolve. And so I think it's kind of lazy to just say, 'OK, there's the result. Not good. Let's do the opposite.' That's not why I'm here. That being said, you don't just point a finger and say, 'Well, it worked before.' So I think all of that is being taken under consideration."
Nevertheless, the Chargers' offense has never looked this disjointed in the Harbaugh era.
When comparing L.A.'s opening two games in the past two seasons under Roman with McDaniel's first two games, Roman's offense had far better numbers across the board, most notably a 75.82 offensive efficiency for Weeks 1 and 2 in 2025 (10th highest in the NFL) versus McDaniel's 17.97 offensive efficiency in 2026 (29th).
Roman's scheme was simpler than McDaniel's, an approach Roman was criticized for. McDaniel uses pre-snap motion (74.1%) far more than Roman did last season (59.2%).
Still, it has been an uncharacteristically bad start from a McDaniel offense, too.
The Chargers' five turnovers are the most by a McDaniel offense through its first two games. Los Angeles' seven fumbles are its most through the first two games since at least 2000 and the most by a McDaniel offense.
"We know we got to get better at a lot of different things and got to get better quick," Harris said.
Even with the discouraging stats, the Chargers believe there are no fundamental issues with McDaniel's scheme. When they watch the film, they grow frustrated with the mistakes they are making that they say they don't see in practice. They'll get a chance to prove themselves this Sunday.
"There are a lot of plays that we left out there," Herbert said. "I think it's promising to see all the plays that we could have made and how close we are."