NFL

Chargers Get Scare But Beat 49ers

San Francisco makes too many mistakes to steal a win in Carson

The 49ers didn’t have their high-profile (and highly paid) quarterback against the Chargers on Sunday.

But they did have the grandson of the man who put together their only Super Bowl team and he was nearly enough to engineer an upset. Quarterback C.J. Beathard (Bobby’s grandson) played a heck of a game in a 29-27 loss to the Chargers at StubHub Center in Carson.

The Bolts got off to a truly horrific start. On the third play of the game, Philip Rivers threw a terrible pass that was picked off by 49ers defensive back Antone Exum, who took it back 32 yards for a touchdown (much to the delight of the overwhelmingly pro-Niners crowd in attendance) to put San Francisco up 7-0.

Two possessions later kicker Caleb Sturgis missed (another) field goal from 54 yards out, giving the 49ers a short field. C.J. Beathard took advantage, hitting wide receiver Kendrick Bourne for a 2-yard TD and a 14-0 advantage. After that, the Chargers offense started to figure things out.

Rivers threw a 5-yard TD pass to tight end Antonio Gates, who was inexplicably standing all by himself in the end zone. Sturgis missed the point after try so the lead was 14-6.

Then the 49ers put together a looooooooong drive. They ran 21 plays, converting five times on 3rd down (one with help from a penalty), going 72 yards in 10:44 before kicking a 21-yard field goal to go up 17-6.

Then things got nutty.

The Chargers scored on a 22-yard TD pass from Rivers to running back Austin Ekeler and converted the 2-point conversion to cut the lead to 17-14. The Bolts forced a 3-and-out and defensive back Desmond King, on punt return duty because J.J. Jones was inactive, ripped off a 56-yard return with less than a minute to play to set Sturgis up for a 48-yard field goal, which he made this time, to send the game to halftime tied 17-17.

The third quarter was just as crazy as the second.

A 22-yard punt return from King put the Chargers in good field position and led to a 6-yard TD pass from Rivers to Melvin Gordon to make it 23-17. You guessed it, Sturgis missed the extra point.

It looked like the 49ers were going to at least tie it up. Back-to-back roughing the passer penalties on Kyle Emanuel and Melvin Ingram had San Francisco inside the 20-yard line. Beathard’s pass went right off of tight end Garrett Celek’s hands and was picked off by Trevor Williams at the 2-yard-line. He ran it back 86 yards to the San Francisco 12.

Two plays later it looked like the Bolts gave it back. Gordon fumbled and the ball was dancing along the sidelines. The 49ers recovered but were sitting out of bounds when they did so the Chargers retained possession. Sturgis made a 25-yard kick to pump the lead up to 26-17.

Beathard then found tight end George Kittle, who streaked (as much as a tight end can streak) 82 yards for a San Francisco TD that cut the lead to 26-24. The teams traded short field goals and the Niners had a chance to get in range of a walk-off FG but Beathard was hit by a blitzing Derwin James, the ball floated into the arms of defensive lineman Isaac Rochelle, and that was that.

The Chargers improve to 2-2. Next week, they host the Raiders in what should be another pro-Oakland crowd in L.A.

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