Justin Herbert's Escape From The Clutches Of Defeat Spurs Chargers To Comeback Win

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert avoids being sacked by Miami Dolphins safety Dante Trader Jr. during the second half of the Chargers' 29-27 win Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

The play will live on a loop in Jim Harbaugh’s mind.

Thirty-four seconds left. The Chargers trailing by a point and needing 20 yards to get into range for a field goal. Justin Herbert drops back under heavy pressure from his right side, and suddenly 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” move — twisted free of a sure sack and completed a short pass to Ladd McConkey, who shook a defender with an ankle-snapping juke and picked up 42 yards before running out of bounds at the 17.

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

WILD PLAY BY HERBERT AND MCCONKEY.

LACvsMIA on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVntpic.twitter.com/9zWXv9zzGD

— NFL (@NFL) October 12, 2025

“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 played quarterback in the NFL, knows the difficulty of keeping your balance and your wits to make that play. It was somewhat similar to Herbert’s sidearmed, Matrix-worthy touchdown pass 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 were many more elements to that winning drive, and Harbaugh is happy to list them, including the 40-yard kickoff return by Nyheim Hines and the sure-footed kicking of Dicker, who in his four-year NFL career has never missed a field goal inside of 40 yards.

Cameron Dicker kicks the winning field goal in the final seconds of a 29-27 victory over the Dolphins. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP)

But the bigger picture is, like Herbert on that play, the Chargers have reset and delivered. They won their first three games, lost the next two, and now have won again despite key injuries all over the roster.

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

Then again, they weren’t going to elicit much sympathy from the banged-up Dolphins, who dropped to 1-5, have the NFL’s worst run defense and, not surprisingly, morale that’s sinking like the Everglades.

Read more:Chargers' Odafe Oweh eager to prove his doubters wrong: 'I have a little animosity'

“We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa revealed from the podium in his post-game comments. “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 team is awash in questions. The sparse crowd that showed up for the muggy day at Hard Rock Stadium nearly saw the home team 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 a pair of touchdowns.

With 46 seconds to play, 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 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 tremendous performance from little-used running back Kimani Vidal, who ran for 124 yards and turned a dump-off pass into a seven-yard touchdown.

Miami knows enough to pay attention to no-name backs. A week earlier, the Dolphins were burned for 206 yards by Carolina reserve Rico Dowdle.

But Vidal, a sixth-round pick 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 running back Kimani Vidal scores a touchdown in the third quarter Sunday against the Dolphins. (Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

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

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

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

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

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.