The Chargers tricked Tyson Bagent.
Two minutes into the second quarter Sunday, the Bears quarterback lined up in shotgun with DJ Moore and Darnell Mooney to his left. Before the snap, Mooney motioned back toward the quarterback and Chargers safety Ja’Sir Taylor went with him. That indicated the Chargers were in man defense.
Except they weren’t. At the snap, Taylor dropped into Cover 2, playing where the cornerback would go. Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel dropped back and played the safety spot.
Bagent took the snap, looked left and threw the ball into Taylor’s arms for an interception.
“They kinda got him,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said Thursday.
Moore saw the Cover 2 and adjusted his route accordingly. Bagent threw the pass as if it were man coverage.
“That’s something that just from experience and playing more,” Getsy said. “Our defense does the same stuff to us, but he doesn’t get those first-team reps through training camp. So he didn’t get that opportunity. But he’ll learn from that.”
Two weeks ago, Bagent was the great unknown — a rookie who’d never started a game above Div. II Shepherd University getting ready to play the Raiders. Bagent leading the Bears to victory, albeit with a conservative game plan against a team nine days from firing its coach and general manager, was a charming development in a season that’s had so few of them.
Sunday night, though, he was another quarterback getting tricked by a foreign defense. How he reacts to his first loss as a starter should be the way he’s judged when the Bears play the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday.
“Everybody has to come meet the standard of what we wanna go to,” Getsy said. “Not just quarterback, but everybody.”
That’s how Justin Fields was judged. Mitch Trubisky, too. Bagent’s underdog story doesn’t preclude him from it.
Getsy said mistakes will happen but he’s confident that Bagent won’t make them twice.
“Repetition is the mother of all learners, so the more reps I can get at this full speed in the game, I’m sure the more comfortable I’ll be,” Bagent said. “It’s always good to continue to get reps and I’m just looking forward to continue to develop the best that I can through this time.”
Time is running out. Sunday could mark Bagent’s last start before Fields returns from a dislocated right thumb, though the short lead up before the “Thursday Night Football” game against the Panthers might make that difficult.
Bagent is trying not to look too far ahead.
“I don’t want to do anything else other than do my job at the highest level possible,” Bagent said
Receiver Tyler Scott, a fellow rookie, knows first-hand the learning curve that Bagent is facing — starting with the blurry looks the defense gives at the line of scrimmage.
“In college,” Scott said, “they pretty much line up and tell you what they’re doing.”
When players talk about game speed, Scott said, what they mean is how long it takes to process what they see in front of them. If a veteran can run with him, Scott, said it’s “because his mind is faster than my legs.”
Experience is a great teacher, and it’s easy to be upset by your own rookie mistakes.
“A huge thing as far as the frustrating part is giving yourself some grace,” Scott said. “I had to learn to do that. … and understand that that’s part of the process. That’s the reason you have to go to practice every day.”
Bagent hasn’t let himself get too down as he prepares for another start.
“All that stuff about feeling sad or feeling high,” Getsy said, “he’s just not one of those guys.”.
