Which Chicago Bears were winners in Week 8 vs. Chargers?

The Chicago Bears continue to embarrass themselves on national television. Besides their Week 5 victory over the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football, the Bears have had some rough outings on prime time over the last few years. Their Week 8 outing continued that narrative. In a crushing 30-13 defeat, not much went right, but a few areas of positivity are worth noting.

Chicago Bears Week 8 Winner No. 1: Cole Kmet

Cole Kmet bounced back in a big way this week after not having a single catch against the Raiders. He caught ten passes for 79 yards on the night. While he did not secure a touchdown pass, he showed once again how dependable he can be in the short to intermediate passing game. Kmet has been very active for the most part this season, and the only thing that can be a knock on him has been his lack of touchdowns throughout his career. That is more on the lack of targets in the red zone rather than the lack of ability on Kmet's part, though.

For a lot of young quarterbacks, a dependable tight end can be their best friend. Having that safety valve to dump a pass off to or a big body to utilize on third down can be crucial to the success of an offense behind a young quarterback. We saw Justin Fields start to form a nice chemistry with Kmet last year, and that had carried over into this season, and now Kmet and Bagent seemed to have something going.

While most of the passes to Kmet were check-downs, with the longest connection going for only 17 yards, they did connect on all ten targets. There were some key third-down conversions from Bagent to Kmet as well that helped keep drives alive while the Bears were trying to mount a comeback. Anytime a tight end gets ten catches, especially for the Bears offense, it is worth highlighting. Kmet is developing into a well-rounded tight end and is doing a good job this season of being available for his quarterback as a safety valve.