The Chargers dropped to 3-3 with Monday night's 17-15 road loss to the Cardinals.

Here are five takeaways from Week 7:

1. A tough final stretch

The Chargers suffered a bitter loss in primetime Monday night.

And while the Bolts were certainly frustrated in the postgame locker room, they also acknowledged the defeat had plenty to do with their own doing, too.

"We didn't play a lot of detailed football and it showed throughout the game," Khalil Mack said.

Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh said: "It was a game of a lot of near misses or close calls … came down to a lot of details, a lot of things. I'm not putting it on one play."

The play Harbaugh was referring to came with just under two minutes to go.

The Chargers, leading 15-14, had Arizona facing second-and-10 at its own 30-yard line.

The Bolts broke up a pass on the right sideline but rookie cornerback Cam Hart was flagged for unnecessary roughness.

"We try not to be surprised about the call, but just try to move on to the next play," Derwin James, Jr. said. "Even if they make the call, we can't change the call in that moment.

"We just trying to go to the next play and get a stop, but we didn't get a stop," James added. "That flag was devastating, kind of hurt us."

Mack added: "He's just playing hard-nosed football. Even though the call was questionable, I don't know what you can do when a guy is lowering is head and you're trying to make contact so he can't make the play. We've got his back."

Harbaugh said: "I saw what I saw, but I have no comment about it."

Given new life, the Cardinals hit a 33-yard pass on the ensuing play and later drained the clock before kicking a game-winning field goal.

A few minutes before all that, the Bolts thought they would have a chance to salt the game away.

But a third-down flag thrown by the officials was picked up despite an Arizona defender getting up close and personal with wide receiver Simi Fehoko.

Instead of a fresh set of downs after the 2-minute warning, the Bolts only took a one-point lead on a field goal.

"I saw our receiver get held, wrapped around. They were doing the uncatchable sign," Harbaugh said. "We had a double move on, he got grabbed. I'll let them explain how they officiated that play."

The four-minute sequence didn't break the Bolts way as the Chargers came up agonizingly short in Week 7.

The focus now turns to a short week as the Bolts are at home Sunday against New Orleans.

Harbaugh said he wants the loss to put "steel in your spine" for his team.

"You have a [bad] taste in your mouth and you have to suck it up," Harbaugh said.

He later added: "This is the kind of stuff you use as fuel and learn from."

James said: "Frustrating. You don't want to lose no games, especially because we know how much they count in the end. We going to look back at this game and I don't want to just dwell on it … we need these type of games. We need to win these types of games to position ourselves where we want to be at the end of the season."

Justin Herbert added: "There's a lot to improve and we're looking forward to the challenge of this week."

2. Dicker shines in primetime

On a night where the Bolts offense couldn't find the end zone, Cameron Dicker provided all of the Chargers points with his right leg.

Dicker made all five field goals he attempted Monday night, hitting from 59, 50, 29, 47 and 40 yards out.

"I was very happy the way I hit, I think I've changed some things to be smooth and hit well all week," Dicker said. "Did what you can, but at the end of the day a loss is a loss."

The highlight of Dicker's big night was the 59-yarder, which tied a Chargers record and set a career high for the 24-year-old.

"Felt good. It's nice to get those," Dicker said. "You don't think about it in the moment, but it's nice to have that and be able to continue rolling with it."

Harbaugh added: "You can see the type of confidence we have in him, snapper, holder, the protection. You understand that if that's not made, the ball is sitting at the 49 yard line and you give them very good field position. We have the upmost confidence in Cameron. Incredible player."

While Dicker's offensive teammates lauded his performance, they also were disappointed in the unit's inability to get six points.

The Chargers were just 0-for-1 in the red zone Monday night but had multiple drives stall out just outside of the 20-yard line.

"I thought we did a lot of good things, but we have to score more points in the red zone," Herbert said. "That's the biggest takeaway from tonight's game. We got an amazing kicker, but we have to do a better job for our defense, for our special teams. We have to score points in the red zone."

Bradley Bozeman added: "We kind of sputtered out … you've got to score. And score touchdowns."

3. Run defense struggles in Arizona

Entering Week 7, the Chargers had boasted one of the league's top run defenses, which including allowing among the fewest missed tackles in the league.

The opposite happened Monday as Arizona ran for 181 total yards, including 101 from running back James Conner, who possessed a nasty stiff arm against the Bolts.

"We've been a very good tackling team and some was the detail of our angles, but I give him a lot of credit, too," Harbaugh said. "He was making us miss and doing the things that make a guy have a big night like that."

James said the defense needed to be better collectively against the bruising back.

"The man is like 230 [pounds], he's not going down with an arm tackle or just sticking out there," James said. "He's got good contact balance, we knew that coming into the game.

"One of the top backs in the league that we play this year and we knew that. We just got to be better," James added.

While Conner did most of the heavy lifting, the Bolts were also burned by Kyler Murray's athletic ability at times, too.

The quarterback ripped off a 44-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter that Mack put on himself for losing containment.

"Got to tackle better. I've got to be better and contain the quarterback," Mack said. "That touchdown is on me. I definitely went inside too much. Gotta contain him."

4. Herbert looks sharp

A healthy Herbert looked like himself in primetime.

The Chargers quarterback completed 27 of 39 passes for a season-high 349 yards. He had no touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 97.1.

"He's an incredible player. Incomparable," Harbaugh said.

But Herbert was in no mood to hype up his own game and instead kept harping on offensive shortcomings.

"It's just to execute. To lock in, focus," Herbert said. "We got the right plays, we got the right guys out there.

"It just didn't go our way tonight and we got to do a better job of executing those red-zone plays," Herbert added.

Will Dissly had a monster game with eight catches for 81 yards while Joshua Palmer (four catches for 63 yards), Ladd McConkey, five catches for 46 yards) and Simi Fehoko (three catches for 45 yards) all came up clutch.

Overall, the Bolts put up a season-high 395 yards of offense.

"I though we moved the ball very effectively through the air," Harbaugh said. "Kept waiting for the running game to pop but we weren't able to."

The Chargers ran for just 59 total yards on 22 attempts, with J.K. Dobbins gaining 40 yards on 14 carries.

"They were forcing guys in the box and doing a couple different things," Bozeman said. "At the end of the day, we have to execute and give J.K. those seams."

Harbaugh added: "I thought they tackled well and we had some free hitters in the hole. Got to look at it, but from my impressions of the game we just we just weren't covering up guys enough. We were getting some people in the hole, free hitters in the hole."

5. A few bad bounces

The game got off to a wacky start for the Chargers, who couldn't seem to catch a break (or a bounce) against the Cardinals.

The Bolts actually recorded a takeaway on Arizona's first possession as Teair Tart intercepted Murray.

But the defensive lineman was stripped of the ball by Conner as Arizona recovered to give the Cardinals a fresh set of downs.

Later in the quarter, Herbert hit Jalen Reagor for a deep pass, but the receiver fumbled near the goal line. The ball bounced out of the end zone for a touchback and Arizona possession.

And early in the second quarter, Hart punched the ball free from Conner but the pigskin landed right in the gut of tight end Trey McBride.

"I don't like to say bad luck, good luck. I just feel like we didn't capitalize on it," James said. "It wasn't about luck, we got the ball out. Tart got the ball out, we just got to hold it. Then Cam made a good punch out. We just got to recover it.

"You see how close it was. Field goal game, two points," James added. "I feel like those two turnovers would have been big for us."

Harbaugh added: "We'd love to not have that happen. The details of locking it up, whether you're an offensive player or a defensive player. Just going to continue to emphasize it."

The Bolts, who came into the game with a plus-seven turnover differential, lost that battle two to one in primetime.