MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The play will dwell on a loop in Jim Harbaugh’s thoughts.
Thirty-four seconds left. The Chargers trailing by a degree and needing 20 yards to get into vary for a subject aim. Justin Herbert drops again beneath heavy strain from his proper aspect, and instantly has Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips hanging on his torso like a 260-pound hula hoop.
The quarterback — in what his coach would name a “Hercules” transfer — twisted freed from a positive sack and accomplished a brief move to Ladd McConkey, who shook a defender with an ankle-snapping juke and picked up 42 yards earlier than working out of bounds on the 17.
It wasn’t simply the signature second of a 29-27 victory over the Dolphins — cemented by Cameron Dicker’s fifth subject aim of the day — however a Houdini-like escape from a 3rd loss in a row.
“He’s a mighty man,” Harbaugh stated of his quarterback. “I imply, there’s only some within the sport who could make that play.”
The coach, having performed quarterback within the NFL, is aware of the problem of protecting your steadiness and your wits to make that play. It was considerably just like Herbert’s sidearmed, “Matrix”-worthy landing move within the win over Denver in Week 3.
“It’s at a bodily degree solely a pair guys can attain,” Harbaugh stated. “However mentally, it’s an emotionally hijacking factor to be spun round like that. To maintain your wits, visualize the place somebody is, relocate, lock again in, and make an correct throw. … That’s reserved for the perfect of the perfect.”
There have been many extra components to that successful drive, and Harbaugh is glad to checklist them, together with the 40-yard kickoff return by Nyheim Hines and the sure-footed kicking of Dicker, who in his four-year NFL profession has by no means missed a subject aim within 40 yards.
Cameron Dicker kicks the successful subject aim within the ultimate seconds of a 29-27 victory over the Dolphins.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Related Press)
However the greater image is that, like Herbert on that play, the Chargers have reset and delivered. They received their first three video games, misplaced the following two, and now have received once more regardless of key accidents all around the roster.
Their offensive line is a poker deck, shuffled and reshuffled, they usually’re all the way down to their third-string working again with each Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton sidelined by accidents. They didn’t have receiver Quentin Johnston for Sunday’s sport, both.
Then once more, they weren’t going to elicit a lot sympathy from the banged-up Dolphins, who dropped to 1-5, have the NFL’s worst run protection and, not surprisingly, morale that’s sinking just like the Everglades.
“We’ve got guys displaying as much as player-only conferences late,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa revealed from the rostrum in his post-game feedback. “Guys not displaying as much as player-only conferences …
“There’s quite a bit that goes into that. Do we’ve to make this obligatory? Can we not should make this obligatory?”
The season is slipping away for the Dolphins and the workforce is awash in questions. The sparse crowd that confirmed up for the muggy day at Arduous Rock Stadium practically noticed the house workforce pull off a dramatic victory. After producing minus-11 yards of offense within the third quarter, the Dolphins got here alive within the fourth and scored a pair of touchdowns.
With 46 seconds to play, Tagovailoa discovered Darren Waller with a seven-yard landing move that gave Miami a 27-26 benefit, the sixth lead change of the day.
The Chargers regarded doomed. To everybody however the Chargers, that’s.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert scrambles throughout the second half in opposition to the Dolphins.
(Lynne Sladky / Related Press)
“We knew we had a timeout left,” guard Zion Johnson stated. “We knew if we had a possibility, we had been going to have a shot to win that sport.”
The Chargers had already gotten an amazing efficiency from little-used working again Kimani Vidal, who ran for 124 yards and turned a dump-off move right into a seven-yard landing.
Miami is aware of sufficient to concentrate to no-name backs. Every week earlier, the Dolphins had been burned for 206 yards by Carolina reserve Rico Dowdle.
However Vidal, a sixth-round choose from Troy College in 2024, is a widely known playmaker within the eyes of his teammates.
“We all know how electrical he’s,” Johnson stated. “It’s nice for the world to see what kind of working again he’s.”
Chargers working again Kimani Vidal scores a landing within the third quarter Sunday in opposition to the Dolphins.
(Carmen Mandato / Getty Photos)
Vidal was fast, and so too was the flight again to Los Angeles — or at the very least that’s what the Chargers had been anticipating.
“It’s going to really feel quite a bit shorter,” offensive sort out Austin Deculus stated. “And tomorrow morning, breakfast goes to style a complete lot higher.”
Harbaugh, in the meantime, intends to savor the second, and that basic play from his quarterback.
“That play,” he stated, “will burn in my thoughts till they throw grime on prime of me.”
