Chargers Fall to 0-6 as Harbaugh Won't Commit to McDaniel Calling Plays

A 22-6 loss at Kansas City was the Chargers' ninth straight and their first game this season without a touchdown.

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Chargers 22-6 on Sunday, according to TheSportsDB, and Los Angeles is 0-6.

Jim Harbaugh didn't commit to keeping Mike McDaniel as the man calling plays. Asked whether McDaniel will keep that job, Harbaugh said, "We're going to look at everything," ESPN reported. He added that the review starts with his own work and that he'd go over the film with his offensive coaches.

The Chargers go into their Week 7 bye without a win. The Associated Press reported that Miami, which also had a bye this week, is the only other team in the NFL that hasn't won. It's the Chargers' ninth straight loss going back to last season, the Los Angeles Times reported. The AP called it the franchise's worst start since 2000, when the team lost its first 11 games, and it comes after two straight 11-win seasons.

One drive tells most of Sunday's story. Down by double digits early in the second half, Justin Herbert found Quentin Johnston for 57 yards, the offense's longest play of the season, and the Chargers were at the Kansas City 1-yard line, the team's own recap said. Then came a holding penalty, a shovel pass that went backward a yard and two incompletions. They settled for a field goal.

The defense kept giving the ball back. Cam Hart picked off Patrick Mahomes in the end zone in the second quarter, and the offense punted. A forced fumble on a punt late in the game set them up at their own 41, and they lost two yards and punted again. In the final minute they got inside the 10 and turned it over on downs.

One number from the AP's account sums up the day: Herbert was the Chargers' leading rusher, with 26 yards on five scrambles. Running backs Kimani Vidal and Omarion Hampton combined for 39 yards on 14 carries. Herbert finished 22 of 37 for 204 yards, and his interception was his eighth of the season, the most in the league.

What that number doesn't show is who was blocking. The AP reported that offensive linemen Rashawn Slater, Tyler Biadasz and Trey Pipkins are on injured reserve, and that right tackle Joe Alt (neck) and left guard Kayode Awosika (fibula) were inactive. A concussion took receiver Ladd McConkey out before halftime, and he'd only just come back from a foot injury. "That injury list is about as long of a list as I've seen," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, according to the AP.

The scoring problem has lasted all season, though. The Chargers average 15.0 points a game, 30th in the NFL, according to ESPN, and they've thrown five touchdown passes in six games, the Times reported. Sunday was the first game this season they didn't score a touchdown at all, and they finished with 259 total yards.

McDaniel is in his first season as the Chargers' offensive coordinator, hired after the team fired Greg Roman in January, ESPN reported. He's also the former head coach of the Dolphins, the only other team in the league that hasn't won a game.

Asked whether he could have seen this start coming, Herbert said, "I'm not much for hypotheticals," the AP reported. Harbaugh now has a week without a game to look at everything.

Source: ESPN, retrieved October 19, 2026. Other sources: tsn.ca, chargers.com.