Cardinals turned four Chargers setbacks into 16 points

A four-yard sack by Jordan Burch put Justin Herbert and the Chargers in second-and-14 with Arizona ahead 16-14. A three-yard completion and an incompletion made it fourth-and-11 at the Los Angeles 19. Simi Fehoko blocked JK Scott’s punt; Alec Ingold recovered it for the Chargers at their 3, where Arizona took over.

From there, the Cardinals needed two plays. Tyler Allgeier ran for no gain, then Jacoby Brissett threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Trey McBride. The lead became 23-14.

The sack did not have to cause the block to matter. It created the long-yardage situation that preceded it; the block, in turn, gave Arizona possession three yards from the goal line. They were consecutive contributions with different functions, not proof of a particular special-teams design.

The Cardinals had more work ahead of them after Dante Stills sacked Herbert on fourth-and-3 with Arizona leading 10-7. The 10-yard loss ended the Chargers’ opportunity, but Arizona’s next possession began at its own 13.

Brissett completed passes to McBride and Michael Wilson before a 24-yard defensive pass-interference penalty moved Arizona into Chargers territory. A later 15-yard face-mask penalty pushed the Cardinals back, but Chad Ryland made a 44-yard field goal for a 13-7 halftime lead.

The distinction matters: Stills ended a Los Angeles scoring chance, while the ensuing possession still required Arizona to advance most of the field. The sack and the field goal belong in the same sequence; the sack alone did not supply the three points.

At 7-7, Omarion Hampton fumbled and Will Johnson recovered for Arizona at its own 34. The recovery changed possession, but it did not put the Cardinals close to the end zone.

Jeremiyah Love’s 18-yard run moved Arizona forward, and Brissett later converted third-and-1 with a four-yard rush. On third-and-8 at the Chargers’ 28, Brissett found Kendrick Bourne for 12 yards and another first down. Arizona eventually failed on third-and-3 and settled for Ryland’s 27-yard field goal and a 10-7 lead.

The two conversions are part of the value of that possession. Johnson’s recovery gave the Cardinals the ball; Brissett’s run and Bourne’s catch extended the opportunity before the kick.

The final scoring sequence began with a different kind of constraint. Down 23-14, Los Angeles faced second-and-10 at its own 31. Two false starts and an offensive-holding penalty pushed the Chargers back 20 yards, leaving second-and-30 at their 11.

After an incompletion, Herbert found David Njoku for 12 yards, then completed another pass to him for 15 on fourth-and-18. The second catch fell three yards short. Those 27 yards were productive, but not enough to recover the distance the Chargers needed after the penalties.

Arizona took over at the Los Angeles 38. Three Allgeier runs gained eight yards, and Ryland made a 49-yard field goal for a 26-14 lead. The penalties increased the distance Los Angeles needed before the failed fourth down; the subsequent field goal was Arizona’s separate return on that opportunity.

Arizona’s 125-yard advantage came in two parts: 277 to 187 in net passing yards and 116 to 81 on the ground. The full-game totals were 393 to 268. That describes how much each team gained, not how any particular play worked.

The per-play line was closer: 5.5 yards for Arizona, 5.3 for Los Angeles. The Cardinals recorded 37 pass attempts and 34 rushes, compared with 27 and 21 for the Chargers. Those are attempt counts, not a complete inventory of every play, but they help distinguish the accumulated yardage margin from the average gain.