3 winners, 2 losers in Chargers-Bengals: Ladd McConkey is WR1

The Chargers needed big plays from several players Sunday night to ensure they escaped the rampaging Bengals. Admittedly, many more names could have been included in this week’s winners and losers, but we settled on two and two.

Let’s go ahead and dive in.

Winners

WR Ladd McConkey

While teammate Quentin Johnston may be scoring touchdowns, McConkey has continued to be the most productive receiver on the Chargers as a rookie. It also happens that McConkey’s catches come at crucial times.

With the score tied at 27-27 and the Chargers’ offense staring at a clock with 45 seconds left while positioned on their own 16-yard line, McConkey made two massive plays back-to-back to single-handedly put the Chargers in field goal range. The first was a 28-yard grab near the right sideline on a beautiful breakaway cut. After the Chargers’ second timeout of the half, Herbert found McConley again on a deep crossing route near the second sideline for another 27 yards, putting them at the Bengals’ 29.

From there, JK Dobbins took care of the rest.

McConkey finished the game with six receptions for a career-high 123 yards and has certainly solidified himself as the Chargers’ bona fide WR1 for the 2024 season and potentially for years to come.

EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu

After posting two sacks against the Titans a week ago, Tuli followed up that performance with another 1.5 sacks in place of the injured Khalil Mack, who missed Sunday night with a lingering groin injury. He also posted two big tackles for loss that helped keep the Bengals behind the chains for most of the night.

After going without a sack through the first six games of the season, Tuli has racked up all seven of his sacks in the past four games alone. In that same span, he has also scored six of his eight total tackles for loss on the year.

In a year where Mack hasn’t posted as many sacks as expected to this point, it’s been a refreshing scene to see younger players step up when needed most. The Chargers really got a good one in Tuipulotu.

Losers

CB Yes’Sir Taylor

Taylor has been having a rough time lately.

Against the Titans a week ago, he was dusted by Calvin Ridley for a 42-yard touchdown. Against the Bengals on Sunday night, he was one of two players in coverage on Tee Higgins on the massive touchdown that helped bring the Bengals within a touchdown in the third quarter.

Earlier today, Pro Football Focus dropped their grades from last night’s game, and Taylor finished as the lowest graded player on the entire team with a 38.9, which included a team-low 37.2 in coverage.

DT Otito Ogbonnia

Tito nearly cost the Chargers the game when he was flagged for overrunning the pass on a play that ended in an interception for his defense. The former fifth-round pick broke free of a block up the middle and proceeded to take Burrow down just as he was coming off a pass. All of that sounds like a great thing for a defensive lineman to do, but the mistake here was that Tito landed on Burrow with all his weight.

He didn’t try to fall to the side or roll off him immediately in any way. It’s the fastest way to draw a flag when you land a hit on the quarterback in today’s NFL, and it almost cost the Chargers the game. Tito is by no means a green rookie at this point. He should know the nuance of hitting quarterbacks by now.

I’ve really felt that Tito has been a better player than his PFF grades have suggested in recent weeks, but this one was hard to ignore. He needs to nix some of these things before they potentially cause problems in future games with even more at stake.