What History tells us about Bears and Chargers |
It is hard to believe we are one week away from the halfpoint of the NFL season, but here we are. Taking it a step further than that, the Bears are about to play their eighth game of the season and have only played two games within their division. Also, with a matchup against the Chargers set for Sunday night, they will be completely done with the AFC West this season as they try to go 2-2 against that division.
As is the case with more inter-conference games, this is considered an uncommon opponent for the Bears and a team they don't see all that often. This will be the 14th time that these teams will meet, and it is the Bears that are holding the 7-6 lead. You could say the same thing about the Raiders last week, as the Bears had the advantage in that series, too, before putting a beatdown on the Raiders. When you look at this overall series and see the Bears having the lead, it is hard to believe, especially when you look at how things started. The Chargers not only won the first-ever meeting 20-7 in 1970, but they won the first three meetings all time as the Bears had no answers for this team early on. It took 11 years for the Bears to finally beat the Chargers as they knocked them off 20-17 in OT during the 1981 season before losing their next meeting immediately after. It was the mid-1980s when this series was flipped on its head as the Bears not only started to win games, but started to dominate in the process. After losing in 1984, these teams went nine years without matching up before the Bears got the better of the Chargers in 1993 by a score of 16-13. That was the beginning of a four-game winning streak for the Bears as they went a decade without losing to this team and took a 5-4 lead in the overall series. It wasn't until 2007 that the Chargers won again by a tight score of 14-7 before the Bears retook control in 2011 and 2015. That 2015 win is telling as that was the last win the Bears secured against this team, as they are approaching 10 years between wins against the Chargers. During that 2015 game, Jay Cutler lit up the Chargers defense as he tossed for 345 yards and a pair of scores. 151 of those yards went to Alshon Jeffrey on 10 catches, as those two had a great day. The same can be said about Phillip Rivers, who tossed for 280 yards of his own with a score, with Antonio Gates, Danny Woodhead, and Stevie Johnson all having at least 68 yards receiving.
Speaking of Rivers, he was the QB under center during the team's last meeting in 2019, one that was won by the Chargers 17-16. Although he was far from perfect, Rivers still had 201 yards passing and one score. 53 of those yards went to Keenan Allen, who will once again come into play this weekend.
Opposing Rivers under center was Mitch Trubisky, who managed to outplay Rivers with 253 yards passing and a TD. Allen Robinson led the way with 62 yards, but it was David Montgomery who stole the show, rushing for a game-high 131 yards and one score. That final score follows a common trend in the history of these teams, as only three of their games have been decided by more than one score.
This season could follow the same pattern, but if there was ever a chance for a blowout win, this could be it, as the Chargers are huge favorites coming into the weekend. This will be the first time the Bears are traveling to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers, but they have gone out West to play the Chargers six times and have posted a 2-4 record.
They did win their last meeting in 2015, which marked their first win at San Diego since the 1999 season. Regardless of the results on Sunday, the Bears, at the very worst, will be tied in the all-time series, but would move ahead of the Chargers in the draft order with a loss.
