Three Pro Ducks save the day in SoFi with grit, one weird play

After the game reporters asked Justin Herbert when he knew he'd be playing Monday night. Last week on Sunday against the Raiders he broke his left (nonthrowing) hand. He had surgery the next day.

"Probably Sunday of last week," Herbert said.

The Chargers needed him. The team was 8-4 going into the MNF game with Jalen Hurts and the Super Bowl Champion Eagles, a game and a half behind the Denver Broncos in the AFC West, in a battle for a home playoff game.

Herbert played the whole game as the Bolts held off Philadelphia, 22-19 in overtime. With a padded glove on his still-healing left hand the three-sport star from Sheldon High lead his team in rushing with 10 carries for 66 yards, threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Omarion Hampton in the first quarter, and hung in there behind an injury-riddled offensive line, sacked seven times.

Cameron Dicker the Kicker made 5-5 field goals and the Chargers needed every one of them, the last a 54-yarder with 6:24 left in OT.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh gushed about his Oregon quarterback. "He's a competitive maniac," Harbaugh said. The former William Campbell Award winner struggled throwing the ball, just 12/26 passing for 139 yards, two fumbles, one lost, and an interception.

But he won the game. At SoFi Stadium he drove the team 43 yards in 11 plays to tie the game with :08 seconds to go on Dicker's fourth field goal, winning it in the overtime period by driving 34 yard in six plays to set up his fifth.

It's been a tough year for the sixth-year pro from Eugene, with a lot going on.

Jamaree Caldwell and Troy Dye save points with hustle, a big swing in the game

Two other Ducks were involved in the game's weirdest play. With 8:30 to go in the second quarter and the Eagles 3rd and 2 at the Charger 21, Caldwell pushed the pocket back into Hurts' face with a strong inside pass rush.

Feeling the pressure, Hurts threw the ball straight to the midsection of defensive tackle Da'Shawn Hand. Hand immediately fumbled and the ball bounced back to Hurts.

Caldwell hustled over from middle of the field to punch the ball out at the 31, recovered by Oregon's four-year starter at linebacker and second all-time leading tackler Troy Dye, a teammate of Herbert's on the 2020 Rose Bowl squad.

Hurts became the first player in NFL history to have two turnovers on the same play. The Chargers picked him off four times to reach 9-4.