INGLEWOOD — Keenan Allen sprinted across the middle of the field in the third quarter Sunday, racing through traffic as he went from his right to his left. A nanosecond later, he caught a pass from Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert for a 12-yard gain and a first down at the Detroit Lions’ 18-yard line.
Suddenly, he was down and injured along the Lions’ sideline. The crowd of 70,240 at reSoFi Stadium went silent. The Chargers were already without wide receivers Mike Williams and Joshua Palmer because of knee injuries. The last thing they needed to see was Allen sidelined by an injury.
Allen went to the sideline, then the locker room and then, soon enough, he was back on the field in the fourth quarter. He returned to the game after the Chargers announced that his return was questionable because of a shoulder injury. Jalen Guyton and Quentin Johnston caught touchdown passes in his absence.
But there was Allen with the ball in his hands again on the Chargers’ final drive, completing a 38-yard touchdown pass play that would make it 38-38 with 3:34 remaining in a game they would ultimately lose 41-38. Allen would catch 11 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought early on it would be a shootout and that’s what it ended up being, a shootout,” said Allen, who dismissed his shoulder injury during his postgame media scrum at his locker. “You’ve got two great offenses, and no matter how good a defense is, it’s hard to stop a great offense.”
WELCOME BACK
Guyton’s touchdown reception, on an 18-yard laser from Herbert in the third quarter, was the highlight of his return to SoFi Stadium. He had actually made his return last Monday night from a yearlong layoff because of a knee injury that ended his 2022 season in Week 3, but he didn’t catch a pass.
Guyton had four receptions for 41 yards Sunday against the Lions.
“Priceless,” he said of playing at SoFi Stadium again.
With the Chargers playing without Williams for the rest of the season and Palmer for at least the next three games, Guyton and Johnston figure to be Herbert’s top targets beyond Allen for the foreseeable future. Johnston caught four passes for 34 yards and his first NFL touchdown.
Guyton said consistency, elusive as it’s been so far this season, must be captured and maintained for the final eight games. Mostly, he’s watched from afar as the Chargers have lost two games, won two games, lost two games and won two games before losing to the Lions and falling to 4-5 overall.
“I think we have a great process,” he said of the game plan. “The last couple of weeks we’ve been very heavy on not changing the good parts about what we do, but just trying to find and diagnose the kinds of stuff that we struggle with and get those things fixed. It’s kind of a juggling act.”
PASS RUSHERS SACKED
One game after sacking Jets quarterback Zack Wilson eight times, the Chargers failed to sack Lions quarterback Jared Goff once. Goff completed 23 of 33 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns. He did not throw an interception as the NFC North-leading Lions improved to 7-2.
“It was one of those games where they tried to keep us out of our rhythm, especially up front,” said Chargers outside linebacker Khalil Mack, who has a team-leading nine sacks. “It was very frustrating. We pride ourselves on (defending) the run, so that’s even more frustrating for me.”
The Lions 200 yards on 31 carries, an average of 6.5 yards per attempt.
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