Rams' Quentin Lake apologizes to Justin Herbert for 'deli meat' remarks, Chargers not moving QB via trade

Coming out of last week's win over the Los Angeles Chargers, Quentin Lake insulted quarterback Justin Herbert following his interception that helped the Los Angeles Rams clinch their second straight victory.

Lake said on Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown's podcast that Herbert was "throwing deli meat out there" during the quarterback's two-interception outing that resulted in the Chargers' seventh consecutive loss to start the season.

He apologized to Herbert via text after the comments went viral.

"I don't know if he read it," Lake said Friday, via the Los Angeles Times. "He probably says, 'I don't care about it anymore. I'm not trying to see this. It doesn't matter. You said what you said.' But at the same time I . . . felt like it was right for me to at least say,' Hey, man, I didn't mean it in any disrespectful way.'"

Lake said after the game that Herbert "was seeing ghosts out there" and that his defense was expecting him to make mistakes.

"I haven't looked into it, haven't heard anything about it, so I can't really make a comment about it," Herbert told reporters this week. "We're really just focused on what's going on in the building, playing football and doing what we can and doing our best to, you know, go put our best effort out on Sunday. And that's all that really matters. Anything outside of that is out of our control."

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh refused to place blame on his quarterback.

"I thought he played — did his job exceptionally well," Harbaugh said after reviewing the game film. "You know, two throws he would have liked to have back."

Mike McDaniel, who's struggling in his first season as the team's offensive coordinator, dismissed Lake's opinion of Herbert on Thursday.

"People are saying whatever they want with whatever facts they have when we're not living up to expectations," McDaniel said. "Keep it moving."

Herbert has thrown an interception in every start this season, leading the NFL in the category (10) with the lowest QBR among starting quarterbacks (32.5). Despite his career-worst beginning to the campaign, Herbert is expected to be off-limits at the trade deadline, in light of a report this week that the Minnesota Vikings were interested.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported last month that Los Angeles would not move off their franchise player.

"The person cut me off mid-sentence, stopped me in my tracks and said, 'Let me be very clear about this: we have never even discussed that idea. Should we trade Justin Herbert has never been uttered in our organization, nor will it be," Schefter said last month. "This is what the person said. … I didn't even hear a 'we will listen.' They won't discuss it, they won't think about it."

The Chargers, who haven't scored a touchdown in their last nine quarters of play, host Houston on Sunday. The Texans are 2-5 this season, with both wins coming over their last three games.

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