There was ample apprehension about the Bears getting and preventing big plays going into their game at the Chargers on Sunday, and failures on both fronts undid them in a 30-13 loss.
The Bears stumbled through missed opportunities and missed tackles, betraying everything coach Matt Eberflus has insisted he has been instilling.
He called the offense’s first drive, when it had a first down at the Chargers’ 39-yard line but eventually punted, indicative of its various whiffs throughout the night and said the defense “wasn’t what I wanted it to be.”
He wants sure tackling, sound technique, strong grasp of assignments and takeaways. It’s all he talks about, but the Bears delivered very little of it.
“It always comes down to fundamentals to me,” Eberflus said. “Once I got them in the locker room, they were good the second half.”
Too late. The Chargers were up 24-7 by the time he gave that speech.
Upon further review, there are alarming details on big plays the Bears missed on offense and allowed on defense:
Mooney’s big — but not big enough — catch
The Bears opened with a surprising deep shot from quarterback Tyson Bagent to Darnell Mooney streaking up the right side for a 41-yard catch. Mooney beat cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. even with Samuel committing pass interference, but fell and was incorrectly presumed down.
Mooney should have been clear to keep running. Samuel made contact well before the ball arrived and didn’t touch Mooney during his process of making the catch, which is the criteria for a tackle. Mooney stayed down for a moment, then jogged toward the end zone when the refs finally whistled to stop the play.
While Mooney probably wouldn’t have scored, it appeared he would’ve gotten the Bears into certain field-goal range at about the Chargers 20-yard line.
“He has to get up and be convincing,” Eberflus said. “He just needs to get up and go house the thing and then let them make the decision. Don’t have any [hesitation].”
Jones’ misadventure
The Bears were desperate midway through the second quarter, trailing 17-0. And they got the play they needed, creating a deep shot off play action with 5:14 until halftime.
The problem? That shot was to Velus Jones.
Jones created seven yards of separation from two Chargers defensive backs before slipping at the goal line. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bagent’s 40-yard pass still hit him in the chest with no one near and he bobbled it out between his legs.
The big-picture concern is that the Bears shouldn’t be featuring Jones on these plays, but rather rookie Tyler Scott. Jones is barely an offensive player and was in for just three snaps.
Make layups
Easy passes only look easy when someone like Justin Herbert throws them. Making the layups, as the Bears used to call them for Mitch Trubisky, has been difficult for Bagent and Fields.
Not only did Bagent miss Mooney open near the left sideline early in the second quarter, his throw got intercepted by cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor. It was such a bad pass that it was unclear whether Bagent was targeting Mooney at the Chargers 38-yard line or DJ Moore at the 32.
“He’s just gotta get the ball in the flat — that’s all,” Eberflus said, which was a careful way of saying it was simply an awful throw.
Arm tackles aren’t tackles
The first sign the Bears were headed for a sloppy night came halfway through the third quarter when Chargers running back Austin Ekeler turned what should’ve been a short loss into a 39-yard touchdown.
Herbert threw a screen to Ekeler to the left, six yards behind the line of scrimmage, and Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards had a shot at him two yards into it. Edwards read the play the whole way, but was off balance when Ekeler caught the ball and barely got his left hand on him as he ran away.
Slippery screens
Letting Ekeler catch seven passes for 94 yards and a touchdown negated any good work the Bears did by holding him to 29 yards on 15 carries. He feasted on screen passes, and cornerback Jaylon Johnson said, “They used our aggressiveness [to stop the run] against us.”
Ekeler hit the Bears with one of the most damaging screens as the Chargers scrambled for a score before halftime. With 50 seconds left, Herbert threw to him eight yards behind the line of scrimmage at the Chargers 45-yard line, and no Bears got close to him.
Ekeler raced to the Bears 24-yard line on a pivotal play that led to a touchdown and a 24-7 lead.
Secondary lapses
Wide receiver Keenan Allen is a five-time Pro Bowl pick, so it’s a given that he’ll make some plays. But the Bears gave him an easy 26-yarder early in the fourth quarter.
Allen went up the right side against Johnson and got ahead of him, which is where safety Elijah Hicks should have been able to pick him up. But as Hicks broke to help Johnson, he tripped and never had a chance to get there.
