2 Winners, 2 Losers from Chargers-Titans: Tuli Tuipulotu continues to step up - Bolts From The Blue

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Tuli Tuipulotu spearheaded a pash rush that sacked Titans QB Will Levis seven times on Sunday afternoon.

The Chargers beat the Titans 27-17 at home despite missing a number of their starters for the day.

Right guard Trey Pipkins did not suit up with a lower-body injury. Khalil Mack was limited to just four snaps on the day, and both starting cornerbacks who began the year in Asante Samuel Jr. and Kristian Fulton were both out another week with the former still sitting on injured reserve with no timeline for return in sight.

The Chargers are now 6-3 and still own the number one scoring defense despite having several rookies and other young starters taking prominent roles each week.

Don’t look now, but the future is bright for the Chargers.

Here are this week’s winners and losers.

EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu

Tuli left Sunday’s game as the highest-graded defender for the Chargers against the Titans. The second-year pass rusher recorded two sacks on the day which vaulted him into the team lead with 5.5 on the season.

The crazy part about this? Tuli entered the Week Eight game against the Saints with ZERO sacks. He has recorded all 5.5 over the last three games, alone. After impressing as a rookie, seeing Tuli step up against in a game where both Khalil Mack (groin injury) and Joey Bosa (hip) were very limited in their snaps is very, vert encouraging for a defense that has managed to stay elite despite a number of their staters missing time through the first half of the year.

QB Justin Herbert

For the second time in the last three weeks, Herbert finished with an overall game grade above 90.0 by Pro Football Focus. Against the Saints, Herbert had a career-best 95.3. This week, he hit 91.6 to lead all Chargers players in Week 10.

Herbert did not need to toss the rock a ton this week to make sure the Chargers won by double-digits. He was efficient (14-of-18) but only totaled 164 yards through the air. He more than made up for it with 32 yards and a rushing score which helped jumpstart the offense after a slow start.

It wasn’t JUST that he ran a bit more. It’s that he converted first downs and showed fire and emotion while doing it. Herbert has recently begun throwing the “first down” signal whenever he makes a big play, and his teammates have noted how much that energizes and inspires them. When the usually-stoic quarterback starts raising his volume, you know this group is having fun.

Justin Herbert out here making guys touch turf ‍ pic.twitter.com/klxlq4YHJ0

RB J.K. Dobbins

With Gus Edwards on injured reserve, this was Dobbins’ backfield all the way through. Heading into Week 10, he was on pace for over 1,300 rushing yards which would cement his first 1,000-yard season in the NFL. On Sunday, Dobbins led the team with 15 carries but his 50 total rushing yards was second to Edwards’ 55 on only 10 totes.

I’m still rooting like crazy for Dobbins to get back to hitting more explosive runs each week, but as of now, there’s a chance Edwards starts to eat into his snap share, especially if the Bolts want to utilize Edwards to close out more games, similar to what they did on Sunday against the Titans.

TE Hayden Hurst

Hurst has ben dinged up a bit this season so he hasn’t been able to string many games together thus far in 2024.

After returning to the lineup recently, Hurst was thrust into the offense right away. Early on against the Titans, Hurst was in on a play-action pass play where he ran a shallow crosser out of the backfield. Herbert hit him in stride and with only a few cards to run and his momentum going strong, Hurst would have surely scored had he hung on to the ball.

It’s been a tough season for Hurst and a score would have certainly lifted his morale a bit, but sometimes that’s just how it goes in the NFL.