Chargers Put Bengals Playoff Hopes to Rest After Sunday Night Football Victory
Going into Week 11’s Sunday Night Football matchup, both the Los Angeles Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals desperately needed to win. For the Chargers, it would push them higher within the AFC standings, and two games behind the now 9-1 Kansas City Chiefs. Meanwhile, for the Bengals, a win would bring them closer to that seventh and final AFC Wild Card spot. After going into halftime leading by 24-6, Los Angeles looked like they had surely taken this game. However, the Bengals would tie the game up at 27 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It would come down to the closing moments when Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins ran in a 29-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left. This newly reformed Chargers team is now 7-3, while the Bengals drop to 4-7. Cincinnati will enter a Bye Week next week while Los Angeles will face the Baltimore Ravens during Monday Night Football.
The scoring began about eight and a half minutes into the game when Bengals kicker Evan McPherson knocked down a 26-yard field goal. Almost three minutes later, the Chargers would take the lead when quarterback Justin Herbert tossed a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Will Dissly. Two minutes into the second quarter, the Bengals would cut the deficit to one when McPherson hit another field goal opportunity, this time for 27 yards. About 90 seconds later, Herbert threw his second touchdown pass of the day to receiver Quentin Johnston. With less than five minutes in the first half, Dobbins rushed in a yard for another Chargers touchdown. Kicker Cameron Dicker ripped the extra point to make it a 21-6 game. As time was expiring in the first half, Dicker looped in a 19-yard field goal to extend the lead by 18 points. The first half highlighted Los Angeles’ defensive dominance run by their defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. The Bengals knew they had to play their best football of the season within the next two quarters of this game or their playoff hopes and aspirations for the season would be crushed and squandered away.
Four and a half minutes into the second half, Dicker made it a 21-point game by hitting a 53-yard field goal. The Bengals slowly started to make their comeback as they scored two touchdowns within a three-minute span. First, a four-yard touchdown to Ja’Marr Chase, then a 42-yard pass to Tee Higgins. With McPherson hitting both extra-point attempts, this was now a 27-20 game heading into the fourth. Three minutes into the final quarter of action, Chase caught his second touchdown pass of the night from Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. The 17-yard touchdown pass and McPherson’s clearing the extra point attempt made this game all tied at 27 with about 12 minutes to go. Remember when this game was 27-6? Cincinnati was proving the doubters wrong and looked to make a statement by playing their best football of the entire season. These two teams fought back and forth preventing the other from scoring and yet it would come down to the closing moments. Dobbins ran 29 yards for a touchdown and Dicker made the extra point to make it 34-27. The Bengals got about halfway down the field before attempting the Hail Mary pass for the win, as the Chargers’ defense deflected the ball and celebrated the win with a jam-packed energetic SoFi Stadium you could see the non-energy and no emotion within this Bengals team.
Herbert finished the game going 17 for 36 with 297 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed the ball five times going for 65 yards. Dobbins had 11 carries for 56 yards and two touchdowns. Chargers receiver Ladd McConkey had six receptions for 123 yards in the win. For Burrow, he went 28 for 50 in the loss, hurling 356 passing yards and three touchdowns, while rushing the ball twice for 28 yards. Cincinnati’s running back Chase Brown went on the ground for 22 carries racking up 86 yards while Higgins had nine catches for 148 yards and a touchdown in the loss.
