Game Comments: Bears at 49ers 9/14/14

Offense

Start on the ground. The 49ers played straight up seven in the box and stopped it. The 49ers keyed on Forte and just didn’t let him do much of anything.
Bears had slightly more success in the short passing game, especially to Martllus Bennett. But they really weren’t executing a lot better than they did last week. It was pretty obvious that they were going to leave the game in the hands of Bennett and the injured wide receivers and see if the Bears could beat them with them.
Jay Cutler had a lot of problems with his accuracy tonight. He seemed to be having a hard time gripping the ball for some reason. He was also very jittery in the pocket.
I think color man Cris Collinsworth was correct in that the 49ers didn’t think Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall could run. They were sitting on the routes.
On a related note, the Bears really struggled with the deep routes. It wasn’t just that Jeffery and Marshall were covered. Cutler was having a hard time connecting with them, maybe because he was used to them running faster to get under the passes.
I thought the pass protection was a bit inconsistent. It was OK most of the time but there were occasional breakdowns that hurt. Cutler was nervous enough in the pocket as it was. In fairness I thought it improved in the second half.
Awsome catch by Brandon Marshall for a touchdown at the end of the first half. Really a pleasure to watch.

49ers also came out ready to run and did it more successfully. Bears spent a lot of time in the staight up defense grouping trying to stop it. Of course, as happened last week, this set up the play action pass. Like last week, it worked.
The 49ers really didn’t play very well. Lots of dropped balls.
I was really puzzled by the fact that the 49ers went away from the run so often. I thought they could have run a lot more up the middle.
It looked to me like the Bears just plain decided that they weren’t going to let Colin Kaepernick run. They basically sacrificed everything to contain him.
Vernon Davis just did whatever he wanted tonight.
Jared Allen looked better at times this week rushing the passer. Shea McClellin looked better and so did Jeremiah Ratliff. Willie Young pinnd his ears back and did a good job rushing the passer once the 49ers were playing from behind. Some nice effort out there.
I liked the spirit I saw from the defense tonight. Guys seemed to be genuintely excited to be out there. I thought I saw a lot of effort.

Al Michaels did his usual nice job. Cris Collinsworth is the best color man in football.
There was a blocked punt in the first quarter. Looked like Danny McCray missed the block. Other than that I suppose they did little harm.
Like all sloppy games there were plenty of penaties on both sides. Defensive holding Kyle Fuller gave the 49ers a first down when the Bears had them stopped in the first quarter. That turned in to 3 points.
Martellus Bennett had drop in the first quarter. But really the vast majority were dropped by 49ers.
Another pick by Chris Conte this week. A Kaepernick funble took points off of the board for the 49ers in the second quarter. Kudos to Jared Allen for forcing that one. Kyle Fuller came up with two huge interceptions in the fourth quarter.
When I wrote my blog entry yesterday I said that the Bears were going to need a lot of help from the 49ers to win this game. And boy did they ever get it. The 49ers committed penalty after penalty, had drop after drop and turnover after turnover to hand the Bears a victory.

But that’s not to say that the Bears didn’t make some plays – they did. Chris Conte, Kyle Fuller and Brandon Marshall all did some great things. But perhaps I was most encouraged by the enthusiasm and discipline I saw from the defense tonight. That’s going to be good enough to win a lot of games against many a lesser opponent as the season rolls on. I think Bear fans have reason to be encouraged.