Chargers look uneven in preseason-ending loss to 49ers

SANTA CLARA >> The ugly started early.

On the sixth play of the Chargers’ preseason finale, Cardale Jones zipped a pass to tight end Sean Culkin. It was a solid choice: The undrafted rookie out of Missouri had been reliable this month, catching six of his eight targets for 56 yards.

The ninth? It bounced off his fingers, and into the hands of 49ers coerback Asa Jackson. The Chargers tued the ball over four more times.

“Any time you tu the ball over five times, you have no chance of winning,” Coach Anthony Lynn said. “But let me tell you something — I saw some guys playing their tails off tonight.”

Jones deserved some of the blame too, having thrown the ball a bit too hard and a bit too high. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound yard has a strong arm, and enough talent to warrant a second look from front offices. That’s why the Chargers decided to trade for him days before training camp, and why they started him on Thursday against the 49ers — an important data point in deciding whether or not to keep a third quarterback on the roster come Saturday’s 1 p.m. cutdown deadline.

But weeks away from his 25th birthday, he still looks very much like a project.

At Levi’s Stadium, he mixed good plays in with the bad, misplacing throws moments after a third-down dime. Just past the midpoint of the second quarter, he held on to the ball too long — allowing linebacker Dekoda Watson to size him up for a strip-sack. By the end of the third quarter, he had gone 18 of 24 for 158 passing yards, but tued the ball over twice without reaching the end zone.

“That one where he held onto it too long and it was a sack-fumble, that was his fault,” Lynn said. “But other than that, that’s a leaing thing for a young quarterback.”

Still, Jones didn’t exactly lose ground on the depth chart. Fellow quarterback Mike Bercovici, who is in his second training camp with the Chargers, entered the game in the final minute of the third quarter. His first play? An interception – also to Jackson.

Such is the risk in playing the fourth preseason game. Few fans will care about the final score – the Chargers lost to the 49ers, 23-13, if you were wondering – but the contest looms large for those on the roster bubble. For them, a strong performance can nudge them onto the 53-man roster.

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But too many reps? That could also be a sign that the coaches don’t hold you in high esteem. And with less than 40 hours to shave the roster down from 90 names, any final mistakes are likely magnified.

Take, for example, Kenjon Baer. The 28-year-old tailback signed with the Chargers in March, retuing to his native Southe Califoia with the hopes that quarterback Philip Rivers would give new life to his career. But Baer – once a consensus All-American at Oregon – suffered a concussion in a joint practice with the Rams at UC Irvine.

That sidelined him for the first preseason game, and kept him out of kickoff retu duty in his second. Entering this week, his six carries this month had netted a 1-yard loss. This, then, was a crucial outing — one in which he started alongside Jones.

Baer got the ball to begin the Chargers’ second possession, gaining 10 yards up the middle. But defensive back Adrian Colbert lowered his pads and dislodged it, giving the 49ers possession just 16 yards from the end zone. They settled for a field goal. Baer eventually found more of a rhythm, finishing with 28 yards on eight carries.

Even veteran safety Dwight Lowery got embarrassed, losing his balance trying to defend a 63-yard touchdown run by quarterback C.J. Beathard.

The mistakes popped up until the very end – on both ends. With five minutes left on the game clock, Chargers linebacker Kyle Coleman picked off fourth-string 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens and raced 30 yards to the end zone. It was the Chargers’ first touchdown of the game.

Signed just two weeks ago, Coleman might have lifted his hopes at cracking a thin linebacker corps — or at the very least, eaed consideration for a spot on the 10-man practice squad.

More hijinks ensued. Undrafted rookie Younghoe Koo lined up for the extra point, but wound up kicking it into coerback Will Davis. The ball skittered down the field.

But Davis had taken a comically early start, eaing himself an offsides penalty. Koo kicked again. He made it.

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