The Chicago Bears offense reached its excessive level on its first play of Sunday’s recreation in opposition to the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.
Rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent launched a go down the precise sideline, and Darnell Mooney reeled it in as he dived to the bottom. Mooney mentioned when the Bears went into their walk-through Sunday morning they knew they had been going to take a deep shot to open the sport, they usually transformed it right into a 41-yard go play.
The remainder of the evening didn’t reside as much as that promise in a 30-13 Chargers victory.
Three performs after the Mooney catch, on third-and-11, Chargers defensive finish Joey Bosa sacked Bagent for a lack of 10 yards, and the Bears punted. On the subsequent drive, the Bears received behind due to Lucas Patrick’s unlawful use of fingers penalty — certainly one of seven Bears penalties — and went three-and-out. On the subsequent drive, Bagent threw an interception. On the subsequent possession, Velus Jones Jr. dropped a landing go earlier than the Bears finally received into the tip zone.
While the Chargers offense thrived with quarterback Justin Herbert, the Bears couldn’t maintain tempo behind the litany of errors and fell behind 24-7 by halftime.
After notching a win in his first profession begin final week, Bagent, the undrafted rookie from Division II Shepherd, struggled to dig the Bears out of the outlet. He accomplished 25 of 37 passes for 232 yards, no landing passes and two interceptions.
“Penalties are never good,” Bagent mentioned. “You want to play clean as much as possible. And besides that, I can’t make it worse. I have to do a better job taking care of the ball.”
Now the query turns into if Bagent may have one other shot to get a second victory or if starter Justin Fields will probably be able to return when the Bears journey to New Orleans to face the Saints on Sunday. Bears coach Matt Eberflus mentioned final week Fields was progressing in his restoration from a dislocated proper thumb, and he promised to replace Fields’ standing Monday.
“That’s out of my control, so I’m going to attack the week the same way I always do,” Bagent mentioned. “Everything stays the same.”
Bagent led a 14-play, 75-yard landing drive within the second quarter that was capped by Darrynton Evans’ 11-yard landing run, certainly one of 4 performs the Bears transformed on third down on that drive. Bagent additionally scored on a 1-yard landing run late within the fourth quarter on a drive that began with the protection’s solely takeaway.
But Bagent additionally turned the ball over twice, the primary on a second-quarter go to DJ Moore that Bagent referred to as a miscommunication. Mooney mentioned Moore ran the right route based mostly on the protection, however Bagent anticipated him to run one thing completely different.
“He was expecting him to run a hitch, but based on the coverage DJ has to continue to go,” Mooney mentioned.
Ja’Sir Taylor jumped on the go that was nicely in entrance of Moore, and the Chargers turned the takeaway right into a area purpose that put them forward 17-0.
Bagent was practically intercepted to open the fourth quarter, nevertheless it was dominated an incomplete go. The Chargers received the choose on the subsequent drive when Bagent despatched a go to Mooney in the course of the sphere. Mooney was hit onerous, and the ball bounced off him and into the fingers of security Derwin James.
“There were a lot of plays where I’m getting through my reads and making the correct throws, and then there are a couple where I did maybe force the issue a little bit,” Bagent mentioned of his efficiency general. “So I’ve got to do a better job of that moving forward.”
Besides the errors, it didn’t assist the Bears that the run recreation wasn’t as much as their latest requirements.
The Bears had totaled 162 or extra dashing yards in every of their final 4 video games. They solely had gone underneath 100 in a single different recreation, in Week 2 in opposition to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
So placing up solely 73 dashing yards — on 2.9 yards per carry — was out of character. Yes, they trailed nearly the whole recreation, and that performed into the overall. But tight finish Cole Kmet mentioned he thought the Bears additionally had been missing of their physicality within the run recreation, particularly in comparison with per week earlier in opposition to the Las Vegas Raiders.
“It just didn’t come with us from Chicago, which is too bad because that’s our identity and that’s what we need to play into,” Kmet mentioned. “That edge we’ve usually got in the run game, I didn’t feel like it was there this week.”
That the efficiency got here on “Sunday Night Football” made it all of the extra disappointing.
“As a kid, these are the games you dream about playing in, nationally televised and all that stuff,” Kmet mentioned. “So when you have that type of performance out there, you’re definitely not too happy about it.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com