Bears Get That Sinking Feeling Out West Again

Give the Bears credit for not quitting, except when they refused to use any timeouts in the last two minutes and took a knee to end the game.

Earlier, they did keep trying and trying harder, and for their efforts they only sank faster anyway, like someone in quicksand.

It happens often when this franchise goes to the West Coast, especially L.A.

The Los Angeles Chargers and quarterback Justin Herbert dominated Sunday night from the outset and made it look like a pro team against a college team in a 30-13 victory over the Bears.

"Obviously the start we had today was not what we wanted," coach Matt Eberflus said.

Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent couldn't escape without blame as he threw two interceptions, the Chargers turning the first one into a 17-0 lead on a second-quarter field goal. Bagent went 25 of 37 for 232 yards but couldn't offset the turnovers or seven penalties on the Bears.

"You know penalteis are never good," Bagent said. "You want to try to play clean as much as possible and, you know, besides that I can't make it worse—no bad plays, just neutral plays or good plays.

"So I've got to take that into next week and continue to get ready and do a better job of taking care of the ball."

The question now for the offense is whether there will be a next week for Bagent, or if Justin Fields is ready to return from thumb injury to face New Orleans

The Bears defense struggled even worse than an offense that gained 295 meaningless yards. They sat back in coverage, had no pass rush and watched Herbert go after rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson with about every healthy wide receiver he had available and some who weren't healthy.

Herbert finished 31 of 40 for 298 yards with three touchdown passes.

The Bears defense did hold the Chargers to 54 rushing yards but who needed to run when Herbert could simply stand in the pocket and pick apart the Bears by throwing it to running back Austin Ekeler or wide receiver Keenan Allen, Donald Parham or even Simi Fehoko? Those connections keyed the seventh straight Bears loss on Sunday night and ninth straight loss on trips to Los Angeles.

It was Ekeler who made Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards whiff on a short pass before he then turned up the sidelines for a 39-yard TD and a 7-0 lead on the Chargers' first possession. Ekeler went on to finish with 94 yards receiving on seven catches and the Bears went on to miss on a lot of tackles.

"I don't think it's frustrating because we know we can do better," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. "I think it's something that in a sense is not something that you've got to learn or figure out what it is, you've just got to do it better."

The Chargers offense scored on their first five possessions, including a 9-yard pass to Fehoko for the 14-0 lead and an 11-yard pass to the 6-foot-8 Parham four seconds before halftime—a score that was the back breaker because the Bears had pulled back within 17-7 on an 11-yard toss play around end to Darrynton Evans.

"Defensively, that first drive coming out in second the half we needed to get that stopped right away," Eberflus said. "If we were going to give ourselves a chance to get a scoring opportunity there and they ended up getting a few first downs."

The Bears were down 24-7 at halftime, 30-7 late and then got a Bagent QB sneak in the fourth quarter to slightly lessen the embarrassment of another West Coast national television disaster.

"Again, we didnt play complementary football as we have been last week, the last couple weeks," Eberflus said.

The first step into the proverbial quicksand wasn't quite as bad for the offense as for the defense. Bagent hit Mooney on the game's first play going down the sideline for 41 yards to the Chargers 38.

As usually happens on Sunday night for the Bears and also the West Coast, something strange occurred. Mooney went down untouched, got up, hesitated, then ran and officials mistakenly ruled he had been touched.

The play should have been a touchdown. Instead, they punted when the drive died and the rout began on the Chargers' 92-yard drive to Ekeler's TD.

"I was just telling Mooney that he's got to get up and be convincing," Eberflus said. "When he gets up, go. That's what I told Mooney he just needs to get up and go and go house the thing, and then let them (officials) make the decision."

As it turned out, it might have made the score 31-20 or 31-16 instead.

The Bears simply were not in the Chargers' class and sank fairly fast after their first big play.

"We'll just try and get it going again," guard Teven Jenkins said. "There's always going to be setbacks. It's the NFL. I mean, they're good."

It's also the West Coast and Sunday night and that's not when the Bears get that sinking feeling.

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