Dolphins-Chargers: The Five Biggest Plays

Breaking down the five plays that most decided the outcome in the Miami Dolphins' 23-17 loss against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium

The Miami Dolphins dropped to 8-5 on the season with their 23-17 loss against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.

We rank the five biggest, most important, plays of the game:

1. Austin Ekeler's Fourth-Down TD Run

The Dolphins were badly outplayed in the first half, but still had a chance to get into the locker room down only 10-7 had they come up with a second stop on fourth-and-goal. But this time, on fourth-and-1, Austin Ekeler found a small hole on the left side of the line after bouncing off of Zach Sieler and sneaked through for a touchdown that made it 17-7. A stop there clearly would have been huge for the Dolphins.

2. The 16-Yard Screen Pass to Ekeler

Of course, the Chargers probably only went for the touchdown because they were able to gain 16 yards on third-and-goal from the 17 two plays after Jaelan Phillips sacked Justin Herbert. The Dolphins went the ultra-conservative route on the third-down play, dropping eight defenders near the goal line and rushing only three, but that allowed Ekeler to use a convoy of offensive linemen to make his way to the 1-yard line. The one defender with a shot to stop Ekeler around the 5 — which likely would have brought on the field goal unit — was cornerback Xavien Howard, but he couldn't disengage from the block of wide receiver Mike Williams.

3. The Intentional Grounding Penalty

The Dolphins were looking at the possibility of a comeback win when they got the ball on offense at the start of the fourth quarter trailing 20-14 and quickly moved to the Chargers 44 after a 19-yard completion from Tua Tagovailoa to Jaylen Waddle followed by a 9-yard scramble by Tua. But on second-and-9 from the 43, Tua was flagged for a crucial, drive-killing grounding penalty when he threw the ball down the middle of the field with no Dolphins player around in the face of pressure. That made it third-and-19 and going for the first down on fourth-and-11 after an 8-yard completion to Tyreek Hill didn't make much sense, so the Dolphins punted. What ensued was essentially was the game-clinching drive.

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4. Justin Herbert's Third-Down Completion to Keenan Allen

The Dolphins pretty much were done after the Chargers chewed up 8:35 off the clock — not to mention the Dolphins timeouts — and tacked on a Cameron Dicker field goal that made it a two-score game. And that long drive could have been a very short one if not for a key third-down play that was the result of Herbert brilliance more than anything the Dolphins did wrong. On a third-and-5 from the Chargers 16, Kader Kohou blanketed Keenan Allen as he ran a quick out near the sideline, but Herbert threw a perfect pass for the 9-yard completion to keep the drive alive.

5. The Onside Kick

Technically, this was the play that sealed the Dolphins loss, but we can't ever mention an onside kick too high on a list of biggest plays because it's so rare for any team to successfully execute one when the opponent knows it's coming. But in this case, the Dolphins actually had a shot at it after the ball bounced off the leg of Chargers wide receiver Josh Palmer but couldn't quite corral it before Nick Niemann recovered around midfield for L.A. There's certainly no guarantee the Dolphins would have driven 50 yards for a touchdown in 1:07 without a timeout even had they recovered, but at least they would have had a shot.

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