The 49ers got the ball first and easily drove right down and scored a touchdown. It wasn’t a good start. And it didn’t get better.
The Bears looked to me like they came out expecting the 49ers to try to run on them. They didn’t. The first drive was 1 run and six passes, and they drove through the Bears like a hot knife through butter.
Big plays were the name of the game early as the 49ers hit on mid- to long-range throws over and over. It was an ugly first half.
The 49ers did what other teams have been doing, which is throw at everyone except Jaylon Johnson. They seemed to pick particularly on the Bears safeties.
I was definitely underwhelmed by the performance of the Bears defensive line. They lost the line of scrimmage most of the time, and any plays that were made were on the second level. This was not good.
I’m reminded of Brad Biggs column on Sunday morning which profiled Brock Purdy. A scout stated that Purdy had been struggling all season because he couldn’t get the ball out on time. Well, it wasn’t a problem today. The ball came out fast and on time, and his receivers made mincemeat of the Bears secondary. So either Purdy was a lot better than he has been all year or the Bears weren’t doing something to him that the rest of the league has been.
T.J. Edwards was all over the place. Very good game for him.
Offense
The 49ers went with the “drop 8 and try to confuse the rookie” approach to defense today. And it certainly looked like it worked as the Bears tried to use the short passing game that they had been using to duck the blitz in the previous few games. Though they did better in the second half, it didn’t work well.
The Bears offensive line just couldn’t get any movement in the run game in the first half. Caleb Williams was sacked three times. It was total dominance up front.
The Bears came out in the second half with a nice drive, but it took up 2/3 of the third quarter. The Bears ran the ball well, and protection for Williams was better. A similar drive to end the quarter might have put the Bears back in it, but Caleb Williams fumbled the ball as he tried to stop himself from passing a ball forward, and the ball game was over with the ensuing touchdown. The Bears were never going to get enough points to catch up after that.
Williams showed more of a tendency to run in the second half as well, and that seemed to help.
Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze also had better play in the second half.
Miscellaneous
There were some bad drops in this game. For instance, D.J. Moore dropped a ball that was right on the money in the first half that would have helped stop the early bleeding. Cole Kmet dropped a ball in the end zone on a 2-point attempt. The balls were right on the money. You wonder if Chris Beaty moving to offensive coordinator had an effect on the wide receivers’ preparedness to play.
The Bears were on the road again, and they played poorly again. Words like “soft” and “mentally weak” start to come up when this happens. Always with a question mark. But the Bears need to do something to erase this tendency to lose away from home.
One of the questions coming into the week was whether the Bears highly rated defense would regress without Matt Eberflus running the show in the same way that the Jets defense regressed in the absence of Robert Saleh, who was also fired midseason. I’d say that the Bears are in danger of having the same thing happen to them. It’s a bit disturbing to think how badly the Bears were outcoached this game. It makes you wonder how bad the last four games of this season could be.