Grading the Bears for Week 8

A 30-13 loss to Chargers is just another game film in many for the Bears to burn.

Eddie Jackson was simply ahead of the game.

The Bears announced prior to kickoff Sunday that safety Eddie Jackson was healthy, but would not play.

It soon became apparent this was true about the entire team.

The Bears lost 30-13 to the Los Angeles Chargers in a game that wasn't as close as the final score indicated. Their production failed to meet their level of effort in this one, which meant someone should have checked their pulses.

It took only one series to know what kind of night it would be. Darnell Mooney lunged  forward on the first play and caught a 41-yard bomb down the sidelines, fell obviously untouched, hesitated when he got up and then ran, only to be told the play was blown dead. The end result of what should have been a touchdown was nothing, as the Bears went three-and-out and punted.

Frustration?

 "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about," coach Matt Eberflus said. "You get a big explosive play, and we don't and we don't take advantage of that.

"Take that opportunity and create a scoring opportunity, at least a field goal. We got behind the sticks there. And again, that's kind of the operation we had a little bit in the first half."

The frustration hit a new height just before halftime when Tyson Bagent threw 40 yards and Velus Jones was wide open in the end zone after the Chargers' struggling secondary blew the coverage

Jones seemed to pirouette as the ball was in the air, or stagger around. This is never a good sign for a wide receiver. Then he fell but created hope anew as he sat up with the ball coming right on the money to him. It landed in his lap. 

And then he dropped it.

This was all Bagent's fault. The pass must have been too high and it confused Jones, making him think it was a punt because this was how Jones treated punt returns before getting that responsibility taken away last year.

It was all the typical stuff that happens to the Bears when they go to Los Angeles, as they've lost nine straight in that city. The best thing that ever happened to them was when the NFL had no team there. Now there are two.

This was Hollywood, after all, and it all proved to be just another zombie horror sequel starring the Bears again. No special effects required. 

Check out the grades, then it's time to quickly move on to New Orleans and the Big Not So Easy for the Bears.

Passing Game: D

They protected Bagent well enough despite Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa being on the other side. He also got the ball out too fast for the rush to get there. Bosa got a sack on the first series but no other sacks. That's two straight Bagent starts and two straight games with one sack allowed in the game. The good news pretty much stopped here, aside from the fact Bagent and Cole Kmet were 10-for-10. But is it really a good thing to be 10-for-10 to the tight end when DJ Moore gets targeted once in the second half and Mooney catches no passes after the bomb on the first play? Bagent threw a pass for an interception that had everyone scratching their heads over what he was trying to do but this time, unlike in the Vikings game, he didn't crash into anyone as he was short-arming it. Bagent's 62.0 passer rating spoke well to the air game's inefficiency. Jones' dropped pass from a sitting position following a spin-o-rama provided the night's comic relief.

Running Game: D+

This aspect of offense proved almost inconsequential on both sides, beyond the late 1-yard TD sneak by Bagent and the nice run around right end of 11 yards on a toss play by Darrynton Evans for the first Bears TD. The holes for good gains were there for the most part, as they wound up starting the same offensive line for consecutive weeks for the second time all year. They had only 73 yards rushing because they were trailing too quickly by too much to worry about running it.

Pass Defense: F

Tyrique Stevenson had a target on his back and Chargers QB Justin Herbert was throwing the darts. They went after Stevenson repeatedly. It was how he wound up with 10 solo tackles as a cornerback, the high for solos in any game this season by any Bears defensive player. Tackling is part of pass defense but T.J. Edwards made it seem like it wasn't when he whiffed entirely on the 39-yard TD pass play to Austin Ekeler. Then they had three players fail to tackle tight end Donald Parham on a TD catch. Covering Ekeler was probably the worst thing the Bears pass defense did all game and it's hard to believe this could happen when Ekeler's ability as a receiver is what everyone talks about. Maybe they should pay more attention to fantasy football if they were unaware. The second worst was how they let the 6-foot-8 Parham, a backup, get so open for his four receptions. He's pretty easy to see at that size. When they didn't have either of their starting safeties on the field it seemed to provide an omen for what kind of night it would be, but neither substitutes Elijah Hicks nor Duron Harmon proved a real detriment. There were too many other places to throw the ball for Herbert, who completed his first 15 and 31 of 40 for 298 yards on the night. Herbert had already thrown for 212 yards on 21 of 25 by halftime and the Chargers finished the game 7-of-13 on third downs (53.8%), which was the way the Bears pass defense looked earlier in the year.

Run Defense: B

The Chargers ran for only 2.2 yards per rushing attempt but didn't even need rushing yardage with the pass so wide open to them. They could have run for 10 yards and it wouldn't have mattered. The Bears had a very healthy six tackles for loss and held Ekeler in check as a runner. They just couldn't defend Ekeler where he's most dangerous, as a receiver.

Special Teams: C-

Velus Jones made one bad decision on a kick return, when he failed to get past the 21 from the end zone, and then made a play nearly as bad as his dropped pass in the end zone when he ran into the punt returner for a penalty from the gunner position. The Bears also allowed one more double-digit punt return, and have had quite the collection of those this year.

Coaching: D+

The game plan on both sides of the ball were exactly what was needed to attack the Chargers because it's what was used to get them four losses earlier this season. The problem came when the Bears coaches were slow to adjust after it was apparent the Chargers had accounted for their past weakness pass defense and were going to be  effective throwing against a Bears zone supported by no pass rush pressure. When the Bears finally did go to the blitz it worked initially for a few series and made it obvious they probably should have gotten off their regular coverages to go to more pressure earlier. Luke Getsy trotted out a decent number of creative plays, like the throwback pass that Khalil Mack sniffed out and covered, but there wasn't much trickery would do once they fell so far behind because the Chargers were just sitting back and waiting for anything at that point.

Overall: D

The Tyson Bagent fascination is over. His inexperience with a higher level of football and his weaker arm were exposed. This one really provided proof it doesn't matter who is passing when a stronger team isn't there to support them, and also that Bagent lacks the invididual ability to elevate a team beyond mediocrity the way Justin Fields can still do with his athletic gifts. The problem is, neither Fields nor any other NFL quarterback has enough athletic ability to elevate this group above mediocrity anyway.

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