Kicker Chad Ryland hit a 32-yard go-ahead field goal in the final seconds, and the Arizona Cardinals escaped a defensive back-and-forth with the Los Angeles Chargers to steal a Monday Night Football game in the final seconds, 17-15.
The Chargers had taken a 15-14 lead with Cameron Dicker’s fifth field goal in five tries and 1:54 left in the game. Los Angeles powered through more than eight minutes of the game clock in the fourth on a 15-play drive to leave Arizona with little time to work with.
But Arizona quickly moved the ball, taking advantage of a questionable unnecessary roughness penalty on the Chargers after a Marvin Harrison Jr. drop to set up the Ryland chip shot.
James Conner showed up with a 33-yard reception on the drive on top of his 101 rushing yards on 19 carries for the night.
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray didn’t have the cleanest of games but put together a trio of strong drives. Early in the fourth quarter with Arizona trailing 9-7, he felt the pressure looking right and spun left before realizing the Los Angeles Chargers didn’t contain the edge. He then beat linebacker Junior Colson to the sideline and scooted for a 44-yard touchdown run to put the Cardinals ahead, 14-9.
KYLER DOWN THE SIDELINE FOR A 44-YARD TD.
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— NFL (@NFL) October 22, 2024
Murray engineered a few strong offensive possessions for Arizona, but that was enough to maintain a lead against a Los Angeles team that only got to the red zone once and lived on the leg of Dicker.
The Chargers kicker hit two field goals in the second quarter, one in the third and another two in the fourth. He hit a 59-yard make for his first attempt of the night.
Arizona, meanwhile, got off to a rough start. Murray was interception on the first possession of the game by defensive lineman Teair Tart, but running back James Conner punched the ball out from behind and the Cardinals recovered before ultimately punting. They punted away their third possession but finally got a rhythm behind 42 rushing yards from Conner on the fourth possession of the game.
That set up Murray for a 5-yard pass to receiver Greg Dortch to put Arizona ahead 7-3 with 5:40 left in the first half.
Los Angeles kicked a 50-yard field goal just before halftime, and the Cardinals’ first touch of the second half died when backup quarterback Clayton Tune failed to convert from third- and forth-and-1 on quarterback sneaks. The Chargers took a 9-7 lead on another field goal to follow before Murray’s pulled out his 44-yard run on the fourth play of the next Arizona possession.
Murray finished with six rushes for 64 yards to complement Conner’s busy night on the ground.
The quarterback completed 14 of 26 passes for 145 yards, a touchdown and the pick.
Meanwhile, the Chargers moved the ball with more success before their possessions died. Justin Herbert threw for 349 yards, but Arizona controlled Los Angeles’ run game, holding the Chargers to 59 total yards on the ground.
Arizona finished with 181 rushing yards.