Cameron Dicker made a 33-yard field goal with five seconds left as the Los Angeles Chargers pulled out a dramatic road win on Sunday, rallying late to beat the Dolphins 29-27 in Miami Gardens, Fla.<\/p>\n
The Chargers had to rally after coughing up a 26-13 lead in the fourth quarter. The key play came on second-and-10 with 34 seconds left, when quarterback Justin Herbert narrowly avoided a sack and found Ladd McConkey for a 42-yard gain to the Dolphins\u2019 17-yard line.<\/p>\n
The Chargers, playing without a number of key contributors, including both starting offensive tackles, their top two running backs and receiver Quentin Johnston, ended a two-game losing streak and improved to 4-2,\u00a0while the Dolphins dropped to\u00a0 1-5.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins were led by running back De\u2019Von Achane, who had 128 yards and two touchdowns on just 16 carries.<\/p>\n
Herbert and McConkey save the day<\/p>\n
The Chargers avoided a potentially season-altering disaster, and they have Herbert and McConkey to thank. The Chargers led by 13 points early in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins erased that lead with back-to-back touchdown drives, including a go-ahead score with 46 seconds remaining when Tua Tagovailoa found tight end Darren Waller wide open in the corner of the end zone.<\/p>\n
The Chargers took over, needing to pass the ball behind a beat-up offensive line. Austin Deculus was at left tackle. Bobby Hart was at right tackle. Pressure came on first down. Incompletion. Pressure came on second down. Herbert battled through a hit and found McConkey to the left. McConkey made a defender miss and surged down the sideline deep into Dolphins territory. Dicker\u2019s field goal four plays later won the game. It was two of the Chargers\u2019 most important playmakers coming up huge in one of the biggest moments of the season.<\/p>\n
Vidal comes up big as Chargers\u2019 line holds up well<\/p>\n
The Chargers entered this game down their top four tackles and their top two running backs, but they were still able to run the ball effectively against the Dolphins\u2019 porous defense. Second-year running back Kimani Vidal had a career day, rushing for 122 yards on 15 carries. Vidal created for himself at times, but the Chargers\u2019 front did an excellent job of creating movement and clearing holes. The Chargers had to be able to run the ball in this game with Deculus starting at left tackle and Hart starting at right tackle. They could not afford to be in non-advantageous down-and-distances \u2014 particularly third-and-longs \u2014 with the state of their pass protection. The Chargers succeeded in getting the ground game going. As a result, they were able to move the ball efficiently, especially in the second half, and limit the number of hits on Herbert.<\/p>\n
Achane has big game as L.A.\u2019s run defense struggles<\/p>\n
Defensively, the Chargers entered this game struggling to stop the run. That continued against the Dolphins. The Chargers had no answer for De\u2019Von Achane, whose 128 rushing yards included a 49-yard touchdown. In particular, the Dolphins were able to attack the edges of the Chargers\u2019 defense, which was an issue last week against the Washington Commanders, as well. The Chargers did not tackle well in space. They struggled with Achane\u2019s speed and elusiveness, and it almost cost them the game.<\/p>\n
Tagovailoa struggles with accuracy<\/p>\n
For the Dolphins, Tagovailoa struggled in this game. He did enough on the final drive to give the Dolphins a late lead, but a lot of that drive was spearheaded by the running game. Tagovailoa threw three interceptions. One of those, in the first quarter, was on Jaylen Waddle, who dropped a pass into the waiting arms of Chargers safety Tony Jefferson. But Tagovailoa sprayed multiple throws, including several high, when he had open receivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Dicker made a 33-yard field goal with five seconds left as the Los Angeles Chargers pulled out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":298465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,8986,5337,9003,1232],"class_list":{"0":"post-298464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-miami-dolphins","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115363782761683721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}