Herbert went to the locker room after a 14-play, 74-yard drive that ended with his 10-yard touchdown toss to Quentin Johnston and was unable to take the field to start the Chargers’ next drive.
Trey Lance entered the game as Herbert was listed as questionable to return late in the first quarter, but his relief would not last long.
Herbert, wearing a white glove on his left hand and what appeared to be a brace on his middle finger, came back in during the drive that Lance started, marching the Bolts into the red zone before throwing an interception on a pass intended for Ladd McConkey near the goal line pylons.
That would be Herbert’s only miscue of the afternoon, as the Chargers star quarterback went on to lead three more TD drives, one of which ended with a throw to McConkey, to handily defeat the Raiders.
Harbaugh acknowledged there were some limitations to the game plan after Herbert’s injury.
“There are some things that — getting under center — I thought it was going to be difficult,” he said. “So we only worked with the shotgun.
Herbert completed 15 of 20 passes for 151 yards with two TDs and one INT for a 108.5 passer rating. He wasn’t relied on much as running backs Kimani Vidal (126 yards; TD) and Jaret Patterson (54 yards; TD) provided a healthy ground attack in the easy win, but Herbert was clutch on third down, converting 8 of 12 first down passes with a pinpoint arm.
“They’re a lot of fun to play with,” Herbert said of Vidal and Patterson. “Those two guys have done such a great job this year. To have J-Pat back out there, I’m really happy for both of those guys because they work really hard week in and week out and to see them go get that kind of success today, it’s really well done.”
The Chargers (8-4) are competing in a heated AFC wild card race and sit just behind the first-place Broncos (9-2) in the division.