Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was feeling the Miami heat and it had nothing to do with the temperature or its basketball team.
Los Angeles was desperate for a big play in the final minute of their thrilling, 29-27, victory over the Dolphins on Sunday. Herbert, showing little strain of carrying the team on his back, responded.
Despite being draped by Miami edge rusher Jaelan Phillips, Herbert shook off Phillips and help discard the Chargers’ two-game losing streak as well.
L.A. (4-2) was up against it in the final minute after squandering the lead as it sought a go-ahead field goal. A 40-yard return by Nyheim Hines, recently activated, allowed Herbert and company to set up shop at their 41-yard-line.
The first play was nearly a disaster as Herbert just avoided a clock-killing sack. The second play tunred out pristine, but only because Herbert brushed off Phillips as if he was cleaning lint from a dryer.
Herbert didn’t lose his cool as he found Ladd McConkey. The shifty wide receiver planted his foot, made a move and didn’t stop until he was inside the Dolphins’ 20.
But only after Herbert had switched the football from his right hand to his left to swat away Phillips like waving off a mosquito.
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, seldom at a loss for a sound bite, had trouble explaining what he just saw.
“Justin Herbert, like Hercules, out there shrugging off the sack,’’ Harbaugh said.
It was amazing and it was typical of Herbert as he engineered his 14th career comeback in the fourth quarter with two plays that illustrate his strength, skills and smarts.
Herbert was nearly sacked on an incomplete pass on the snap before his game-changing heave to McConkey.
“It’s a race against time,’’ Herbert said of trying to avoid the pressure. “A throwaway is better than a sack and I was doing my best to just get the ball off.
“Then the next play, went through my reads, had to step up in the pocket and Ladd did a great job just running across the middle making a play and extending the play.”
Added McConkey, who finished with a touchdown and 100 receiving yards: “For him to even find me and hit me, amazing play by him.”
It was a final quarter three time zones away from home that not only produced a win thanks to Cameron Dicker’s 33-yard field goal, but it tossed a life raft to a season which had encounter angry seas.
The offensive line was in flux because of massive injuries. The backfield was a mix-and-match operation with two starters out. Penalties had dogged a defense which was having trouble making key stops.
But Herbert halted that bleeding, and a two-game slide, with a play that will be talked about for ages. It obviously wasn’t as indelible as the Chargers’ famous overtime win in the 1981 playoffs, but it was close.
Instead of digger a deeper hole, the Chargers rose because of Herbert’s highlight-reel throw.
“That play,’’ Harbaugh added, “will be burned in my mind until they throw dirt on the top of me.”
No one is dancing on the Chargers’ grave on Monday, because of Herbert’s fantastic footwork on Sunday. His production matched his jersey number.
“We love 10,’’ safety Derwin James said. ”He put us on his back.”
