Justin Herberts miracle escape spurs Chargers to

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The play will live on a loop in Jim Harbaugh’s thoughts.

Thirty-four seconds left. The Chargers trailing by a level and needing 20 yards to get into vary for a discipline aim. Justin Herbert drops back under heavy stress from his proper facet, and all of a sudden has Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips hanging on his torso like a 260-pound hula hoop.

The quarterback — in what his coach would call a “Hercules” transfer — twisted free of a sure sack and accomplished a short go to Ladd McConkey, who shook a defender with an ankle-snapping juke and picked up 42 yards before operating out of bounds at the 17.

It wasn’t just the signature second of a 29-27 victory over the Dolphins — cemented by Cameron Dicker’s fifth discipline aim of the day — but a Houdini-like escape from a third loss in a row.

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

The coach, having performed quarterback in the NFL, is aware of the issue of holding your steadiness and your wits to make that play. It was considerably comparable to Herbert’s sidearmed, “Matrix”-worthy landing go in the win over Denver in Week 3.

“It’s at a physical level only a couple guys can reach,” Harbaugh said. “But mentally, it’s an emotionally hijacking thing to be spun around like that. To keep your wits, visualize where someone is, relocate, lock back in, and make an accurate throw. … That’s reserved for the best of the best.”

There had been many more parts to that profitable drive, and Harbaugh is glad to checklist them, including the 40-yard kickoff return by Nyheim Hines and the sure-footed kicking of Dicker, who in his four-year NFL profession has never missed a discipline aim inside of 40 yards.

But the larger image is that, like Herbert on that play, the Chargers have reset and delivered. They gained their first three video games, misplaced the next two, and now have gained again despite key accidents all over the roster.

Their offensive line is a poker deck, shuffled and reshuffled, and they’re down to their third-string operating back with both Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton sidelined by accidents. They didn’t have receiver Quentin Johnston for Sunday’s recreation, either.

Then again, 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 have guys showing up to player-only meetings late,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa revealed from the rostrum in his post-game feedback. “Guys not showing up to player-only meetings …

“There’s a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory? Do we not have to make this mandatory?”

The season is slipping away for the Dolphins and the group is awash in questions. The sparse crowd that confirmed up for the muggy day at Hard Rock Stadium practically noticed the home group pull off a dramatic victory. After producing minus-11 yards of offense in the third quarter, the Dolphins got here alive in the fourth and scored a pair of touchdowns.

With 46 seconds to play, Tagovailoa discovered Darren Waller with a seven-yard landing go that gave Miami a 27-26 benefit, the sixth lead change of the day.

The Chargers seemed doomed. To everybody but the Chargers, that is.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert scrambles during the second half against the Dolphins.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

“We knew we had a timeout left,” guard Zion Johnson said. “We knew if we had an opportunity, we were going to have a shot to win that game.”

The Chargers had already gotten a large efficiency from little-used operating back Kimani Vidal, who ran for 124 yards and turned a dump-off go into a seven-yard landing.

Miami is aware of enough to listen to no-name backs. Every week earlier, the Dolphins had been burned for 206 yards by Carolina reserve Rico Dowdle.

But Vidal, a sixth-round choose from Troy University in 2024, 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 operating back Kimani Vidal scores a landing in the third quarter Sunday against the Dolphins.

(Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

Vidal was fast, and so too was the flight back to Los Angeles — or at least that’s what the Chargers had been anticipating.

“It’s going to feel a lot shorter,” offensive sort out Austin Deculus said. “And tomorrow morning, breakfast is going to taste a whole lot better.”

Harbaugh, meanwhile, intends to savor the second, and that basic play from his quarterback.

“That play,” he said, “will burn in my mind until they throw dirt on top of me.”