This moment was far from a sure thing for the second year running back, who was not on the active roster until last week when Omarion Hampton was placed on Injured Reserve.
After not making the Chargers initial 53-man roster prior to the season, he decided to return to the team on the practice squad with a determination to not let it affect him in any way.
Instead, he took it as a way to continue to dial in and improve in the areas for when the time came.
"I just took it day by day," Vidal said. "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. I just knew if an opportunity came by again, I wanted to be ready."
He made it his mission to approach it as if he was and used all the time he got to continue developing, even though he wasn't playing early in the year.
Each game week was another opportunity to get better, even on the sidelines.
"Especially in the situation I was in starting off in the first week, I knew I wasn't going to play in that game, so I was just trying to get better," Vidal said. "It sounds crazy but not playing in the game, using that to my advantage as much as I can, training harder, training longer.
"Just treating it like you're working towards something," Vidal added.
This approach Vidal took was one that Harbaugh could tell in real time and had high praise for.
"It's high-level competitor, high level mindset of a person that doesn't get discouraged," Harbaugh said about Vidal. "'Oh, I didn't do this, they got this back, they didn't keep me on the 53.' I think his mindset was good, that makes me work harder, train better, and listen more.
"He's really good at all those things, but you can see it amp up," Harbaugh added. "Not flinch one bit and work on getting better each day. Better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today. There was never a word said by him, he was saying everything by what he did."
Chargers Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman added: "A guy that's kind of had to wait his turn, really maximized his opportunities. First time out there as a starter and had a big game for us, a big difference in the game for us. Always things to learn and grow from, and he will. Back to work the next day, you wouldn't know anything had changed."
It showed on the field in a variety of ways in Week 6 as he was able to give the Bolts some explosive runs to keep the chains moving.