Bears suffer a low-voltage effort against the Chargers
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Justin Herbert showed the Bears what a franchise quarterback looks like.
The 25-year-old Los Angeles Chargers quarterback completed his first 15 passes, carving up the Bears defense and scoring points on every possession in the first half. The Chargers beat the Bears 30-13 on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Herbert finished his day 31-for-40 passing for 298 yards and 3 touchdowns. He threw for 212 yards and all three scores in the first half.
Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bagent and the offense struggled for much of the evening. Bagent started in place of Justin Fields, who missed his second consecutive game with a thumb injury. Running back Darrynton Evans and Bagent each scored a rushing touchdown in the game.
NBC, no doubt, wanted this matchup for "Sunday Night Football" in hopes of seeing Fields and Herbert square off. Instead, it was a one-sided affair with the Bears playing their undrafted rookie quarterback.
As he has been for the first three seasons of his career, Herbert was electric with the ball in his hands. The Bears defense could not create any pressure on the quarterback and the tackling on the back end was far from clean.
In the first quarter Herbert connected with running back Austin Ekeler on a screen pass and Ekeler made Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards miss badly. From there Ekeler ran 39 yards into the end zone for the game's first score. For the Bears defense, it was a sign of things to come.
Herbert continued to carve up the Bears defense the rest of the night. The defense was sloppy and overmatched. Herbert targeted Bears rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson several times throughout the night.
On the other side of the ball, the Bears appeared to make a statement on the opening play from scrimmage. After hearing questions all week about Bagent's arm strength, the Bears dialed up a deep ball on the first play. Bagent connected with Darnell Mooney for a 41-yard completion. Mooney hit the ground but didn't appear to be touched down on the play. He popped up and ran toward the end zone. The refs, however, blew the play dead.
After that, pretty much everything went wrong for the Bears. Two plays later, Chargers edge rusher Joey Bosa sacked Bagent and the Bears were forced to punt.
A week ago, Bagent led the Bears to a convincing win over the Las Vegas Raiders at Soldier Field. In that matchup the Bears leaned on their run game and didn't put too much on Bagent's plate. Making his second start Sunday, Bagent and the Bears were forced to play from behind. They simply couldn't keep up.
Bagent threw downfield more Sunday, making a few nice passes, but there was no flow and the offense struggled to string together first downs. Bagent completed 25 of 37 passes for 232 yards with two interceptions and a rushing touchdown. One interception might have been a miscommunication between two of his receivers. The other was an unlucky break on a tipped pass.
At one point in the first half, Bears receiver Velus Jones Jr. dropped a sure touchdown in the end zone on a deep pass from Bagent. It felt emblematic of the struggles the Bears faced all night.
Everything that could go wrong did.