Deceiving Matchups in Bears and Chargers Game
Sometimes in the NFL it's who you've played that matters and not the record.
When the Bears offense matches up against the Los Angeles Chargers defense Sunday night it would appear an ideal opportunity presents itself. The Chargers have the second-worst pass defense in the league, but this can be deceiving because they have been conditioned by facing a series of high-powered opponents in the AFC West and elsewhere.
The last was Patrick Mahomes with four touchdown passes.
"I think, you know, the Chiefs do that to pretty much everybody," Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "You gotta kind of take that outta the picture there."
The Bears' own defense found this out.
The Chargers defense is ranked 31st in the league stopping the pass because they have had to defend against the Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins, Chiefs and Vikings rank 1-2-3 in passing.
"On top of it, you have one of the best pass rushes in the National Football League," Getsy said, pointing out Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa and Morgan Fox have led the Chargers to 16 sacks. "You have to take all of that into account as far as where our best matchups (are), where do we have the best opportunity to go find success."
The Bears still have opportunties on both sides of the ball because there are matchups where they have strength against weakness. They also are facing some matchups where statistics say one thing but the reality is something else.
This could all enable them to be competitive with a team that has been through the real NFL ringer, so to speak.
Here are the Bears who can do the most damage to the Chargers on Sunday Night Football.
WR DJ Moore
The Bears' receiving ace needed a game or so to figure out how it could work with Justin Fields. He has had about that long now to see where he and Tyson Bagent could become a connection and the nine completions they've had in two games is only a small sample of what can happen when the ball comes out in time. Expect he'll take a next step with this even if he gets double coverage all over the field. That kind of thing hasn't stopped him in the past. Moore is graded sixth by PFF right now and fifth at pass catching. Bagent will need him available every down and all over the field in routes to do damage to the 31st-ranked pass defense, one which is 31st in net yards per attempt at 7.4 yards. That's really bad considering net yards takes into account the yards lost by opponents to sacks, and Mack and Co. make plenty of those. The opponent's top receiver seems to be able to burn the Chargers pass defense regardless of their position. Tight end Travis Kelce had 179 yards, while Ceedee Lamb had 117, Tyreek Hill 215 and Justin Jefferson had 149 before he got injured and had to leave that game. Expect something big from Moore, as well.
RB D'Onta Foreman
How can the Bears expect a running back to gain ground on a defense fairly stout, and ranked 10th against the run overall? Well, again, this has to do with past matchups. The reason the Chargers rank so well against the run isn't because they did a great job stuffing the run and forced opponents into another method of attack. Rather, their opponents wanted to pass it and did. There was every sign early that the Chargers could struggle stopping the run. They gave up 130 yards rushing to Minnesota. The Vikings are about as committed to the ground as the average bird. The Titans had 141 on the ground, too. But then the Chargers ran up against the Raiders, Cowboys and Chiefs. Mike McCarthy never met a run play he would rather call than a pass. Obviously Matt Nagy thinks he's still an Arena League quarterback, which is how he treated the Bears offense as coach. And the Bears saw last week how committed to running the Raiders are despite having the leading rusher in the league last year. Those teams just stopped running because they wanted to pass. Foreman and Roschon Johnson could get their carries and yards against a defense that normally doesn't face teams so committed to rushing the ball. Also, teams have gotten into shootouts with the Chargers where one good TD pass deserves another. They give up on the run, then, too. The Chargers have faced the ninth fewest rushing attempts per game but they're only average in yards allowed per attempt at 3.9, which is 16th. They can be run against and Foreman's angry runner style is a good option for doing it.
TE Robert Tonyan Jr.
The Bears might need to pull Cole Kmet in for pass blocking duty again after he was relegated to this and other blocking assignments last week. You're going to need to do something extra besides a tackle to slow down Khalil Mack because it's unlikely Darnell Wright alone will be able to do it with his ailing shoulder. The Chiefs used tight end Noah Gray to help on Mack at times. However, in double tight end formations, Tonyan could do damage this week as a receiver. Former Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks is 31 years old and the other linebacker, Kenneth Murray, is graded 67th among 83 linebackers Pro Football Focus has graded. Attacking the linebacker group with passes can work and Tonyan, who has been greatly under-used so far, is a good weapon for this.
LB T.J. Edwards
The Bears have a linebacker who can handle the middle in coverage. If they send T.J. Edwards on a number of A-gap blitzes, they could get the desired effect of an interior pass rush in Herbert's face that they want. The problem with blitzing is it can leave either Austin Ekeler coming out of the backfield or room for Herbert to scramble. And he can do this. But the Bears have speed in Edwards who can handle that coverage issue or the scrambling, and safety Jaquan Brisker or slot cornerback Kyler Gordon can make up for it, as well. They should not avoid the blitz in this matchup and Edwards is exactly the player to cause those problems. He did it against the Vikings with a strip-sack of Kirk Cousins.
CB Jaylon Johnson
The Chargers could be down two of their best three wide receivers in this game. Already Mike Williams is out for the year (ACL). The receiver who has stepped up into a second receiver role behind Keenan Allen is Josh Palmer. He has a knee injury and didn't practice at all Wednesday and Thursday. Johnson covering all over the field against Keenan Allen can leave Herbert with a very limited number of proven targets available downfield. Allen is 31 years old now and never was a burner with 4.58-second 40-speed in his youth. His expertise is route running and going vertical. Johnson can stay with him.
DE Yannick Ngakoue
Ngakoue is off to a slow start even by his standards. He has just two sacks and hasn't had one since the win over Washington. If he lines up on the left side of the defense, he'll have the opportunity this week because Trey Pipkins, the Chargers right tackle, has allowed five sacks this year. He's ranked 49th among tackles by Pro Football Focus. Ngakoue has never had less than eight sacks in a year so he has some making up to do and this is a real opportunity when the quarterback is a classic pocket passer who will hold onto the ball on occasion waiting for his receivers to get open. A prime-time game is just the situation Ngakoue would enjoy showing off his edge rusher skills.
G Teven Jenkins
Jenkins had a strong game in his move back to right guard because of line injuries. He went 33 pass blocking plays without allowing a pressure. This year Pro Football Focus has him at allowing pressures on just 2.4% of pass plays after 4.6% last year. He has come back strong from the calf injuries that left him out at season's start. He could be playing against Sebastian Joseph-Day in pass rushing situations. Joseph-Day, the former Rams player, is graded 54th among interior defenders by PFF.
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