Justin Herbert’s miracle escape spurs Chargers to win over Dolphins

GARDENS OF MIAMI, Florida — The piece will live on loop in the mind of Jim Harbaugh.

There are thirty-four seconds left. The Chargers are down by one point and need 20 yards to get within range of a field goal. Justin Herbert falls back under heavy pressure from his right side and suddenly has Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips clinging to his torso like a 260-pound hoop.

The quarterback – in what his coach would call a “Hercules” move – broke free from a safe sack and completed a short pass to Ladd McConkey, who shook a defender with an ankle juke and picked up 42 yards before going out of bounds at the 17.

It wasn’t just the defining moment of a 29-27 win over the Dolphins — cemented by Cameron Dicker’s fifth field goal of the day — but a Houdini-like escape from a third straight loss.

“He’s a powerful man,” Harbaugh said of his quarterback. “I mean, there’s only a few in the game that can make this play.”

The coach, having played quarterback in the NFL, knows the difficulty of maintaining balance and intelligence to make this play. It was somewhat similar to Herbert’s “Matrix”-worthy touchdown pass in the Week 3 win over Denver.

“It’s a physical level that only a few guys can reach,” Harbaugh said. “But mentally, it’s an emotional diversion thing to be turned like that. Keeping your cool, visualizing where someone is, moving, locking on and making an accurate throw. … That’s for the best of the best.”

There were plenty of other elements to that game-winning sequence, and Harbaugh is happy to list them, including the 40-yard kickoff return by Nyheim Hines and the onside kick by Dicker, who in his four-year NFL career never missed a field goal from less than 40 yards.

Cameron Dicker scores the game-winning field goal in the final seconds of a 29-27 win over the Dolphins.

(Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)

But the bigger picture is that, like Herbert on this play, the Chargers reset and delivered. They won their first three games, lost the next two and have now won again despite significant injuries throughout the team.

Their offensive line is a game of poker, shuffled and shuffled, and they’re on their third running back with Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton sidelined due to injuries. They also didn’t have wide receiver Quentin Johnston for Sunday’s game.

Then again, they weren’t going to get much sympathy from the Dolphins, who fell to 1-5, have the worst run defense in the NFL and, unsurprisingly, sagging morale like the Everglades.

“We have guys coming in late to players’ meetings,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa revealed from the podium in his postgame comments. “Guys don’t show up to player meetings…

“There’s a lot of things that come into play. Should we make this mandatory? Should we not make this mandatory?”

The season is passing for the Dolphins and the team is drowning in questions. The sparse crowd that showed up for the wet day at Hard Rock Stadium nearly saw the home side pull off a dramatic victory. After generating minus-11 yards of offense in the third quarter, the Dolphins came alive in the fourth and scored two touchdowns.

With 46 seconds left, Tagovailoa found Darren Waller with a seven-yard touchdown pass that gave Miami a 27-26 advantage, the sixth lead change of the day.

The Chargers looked doomed. To everyone except the Chargers, of course.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert goes wild in the second half against the Dolphins.

(Lynne Sladky/Associated Press)

“We knew we had one timeout,” guard Zion Johnson said. “We knew if we had an opportunity, we would have a chance to win this game.”

The Chargers had already gotten a tremendous performance from little-used running back Kimani Vidal, who ran for 124 yards and turned a pass into a seven-yard touchdown.

Miami knows enough to pay attention to anonymous backs. A week earlier, the Dolphins were burned for 206 yards by Carolina reserve Rico Dowdle.

But Vidal, a 2024 sixth-round pick out of Troy University, is a well-known playmaker in the eyes of his teammates.

“We know how electric he is,” Johnson said. “It’s great for the world to see what type of running back he is.”

Chargers running back Kimani Vidal scores a touchdown in the third quarter Sunday against the Dolphins.

(Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Vidal was quick, as was the flight back to Los Angeles — or at least that’s what the Chargers expected.

“It’s going to look a lot shorter,” offensive tackle Austin Deculus said. “And tomorrow morning, breakfast will taste a lot better.”

Harbaugh, meanwhile, intends to savor the moment and this classic play from his quarterback.

“This piece,” he said, “will burn my spirit until they throw dirt at me.” »