INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Everybody loves SoFi Stadium, the sparkling diamond of the NFL, except the Bears.
They’ve played here only three times, but each visit has been an embarrassing unraveling of progress they mistakenly believed they’d been making. The Chargers exposed them in a 30-13 clobbering, knocking coach Matt Eberflus and his team back to reality.
The Rams did that to Matt Nagy in this building in each of his last two seasons, also in nationally televised games, signaling the beginning of the end.
The Chargers dropped the Bears to 2-6 on Sunday, one game worse than where they sat at this point last season, and stopped Eberflus from his first back-to-back wins. He now stands 5-20 with the Bears, and it looks increasingly unlikely that he’ll be able to dig himself out of that hole.
The Chargers are hardly a heavyweight and have been in their own crisis with a losing record and pressure mounting on coach Brandon Staley. They’re middling, which is exactly the type of opponent with which the Bears should be able to trade punches.
But for all their shortfalls, the Chargers have two things Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles haven’t been able to find. And they happen to be the two most important things for any team: a quarterback and a pass rush.
The Chargers went in with quarterback Justin Herbert and pass rushers Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa. The Bears countered with fledgling rookie Tyson Bagent and journeymen defensive ends Yannick Ngakoue and DeMarcus Walker.
They’d have a better chance with Justin Fields, who missed his second game while recovering from a dislocated thumb, but how much better? There’s no certainty they would have been in this game with him starting.
The Bears’ bigger problem Sunday, the one Eberflus seemed so confident he could solve in the offseason, was that Herbert looked as comfortable and casual as could be in the pocket. Eberflus’ and Poles’ plan to “dent the pocket” from the inside isn’t working, and Herbert was sharp enough to make them pay for it.
He completed 15 of his first 16 passes to put the Chargers up 17-0 after just three possessions. The Bears, who entered the game last in the NFL in sacks, didn’t touch Herbert in the first half as he blistered them for 212 yards to take a 24-7 lead.
The Bears never legitimately threatened the Chargers, and that was the most alarming aspect of this loss.
Eberflus’ shortcomings were especially evident on defense, which was his specialty for three decades before taking this job. The Bears looked better over the three games leading into their visit to the Chargers, but those opponents were poor offensively or, in the Vikings’ case because of wide receiver Justin Jefferson’s injury, limited.
He talks constantly about fundamentals, but there was starting linebacker T.J. Edwards missing a tackle on Chargers running back Austin Ekeler on a 39-yard touchdown catch early. Edwards could’ve stopped Ekeler for a three-yard loss, but flailed and fell as he ran by him. He and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson also whiffed on tight end Donald Parham as he muscled into the end zone just before halftime.
Stevenson, who should be moving past rookie mistakes by this stage of the season, committed a costly pass-interference penalty in the second quarter, too. Instead of the Bears stopping the Chargers on third-and-six and probably forcing a punt, that flag kept the drive rolling and led to a field goal.
Other would-be nice plays by the Bears’ defense were wiped out by defensive linemen DeMarcus Walker and Andrew Billings jumping offsides.
There was little about the Bears that reflected what Eberflus always says should be their identity. This isn’t a throwaway season, and it’ll be difficult for him to defend how things got this bad this quickly under his watch.