Dhruv Koul shares his in-game reactions, thoughts and observations from the 49ers-Bears game at Soldier Field. Follow him on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
CHICAGO — The NFL is back, and so are the Chicago Bears. After a long, almost endless offseason of change, surprises, intrigue and some optimism, it’s finally time to play the games.
The first matchup was a spicy one: Trey Lance and the San Francisco 49ers came to Soldier Field to take on Justin Fields and the Bears. Of course, we all know the storyline here. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan mortgaged their future to trade up to #2 in the 2021 NFL Draft, taking Lance over Fields.
The 49ers came to town on Halloween in 2021, with Lance on the sidelines in favor of Jimmy Garoppolo, and steamrolled the Bears in the second half en route to a 33-22 win. This year, Fields and the Bears hoped to get revenge. And there was no reason to think it was impossible…
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If George Kittle doesn't play on Sunday, the Bears actually have a few advantages over San Francisco:
QB
RB
TE
SSF's DL is a nightmare. Chicago's DL could beat parts of SF's OL.
WR is closer to a wash than you think.
Quite an intriguing matchup at Soldier Field.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 9, 2022
In the end, the Bears turned things around impressively midway through the third quarter to score a wild upset of the 49ers at rainy Soldier Field.
I shared in my reactions, thoughts and observations from the game below. Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Thoughts and Observations
1. (PREGAME) — Kittle indeed is inactive for the Niners. For the Bears, rookie WR Velus Jones Jr., OL Alex Leatherwood and OL Ja’Tyre Carter are inactive. Lucas Patrick being active tells me one of two things: He will either start at RG (which would be a bad move) or back up Teven Jenkins (the right move). With a likely club on his hand and the inability to snap the ball, the Bears elevated C Dieter Eiselen to back up Sam Mustipher.
Inactives for #SFvsCHI: pic.twitter.com/Jl2IpHx0d5
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 11, 2022
Update: in warmups, Jenkins was with the first-team OL at RG. That’s the right long-term move.
2. Pretty Bearsy opening sequence for the Bears. Fields had pressure on the first snap, and almost threw a pick on a dump-off pass. And on third down, he double-pumped after decent protection and got sacked. A -7 yard drive for the Bears to open the season.
Three and out to open the season. Fields sacked. The Bears are back.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
On defense, the Bears allowed Brandon Aiyuk to get wide open for 31 yards on a third down, before they forced a Deebo Samuel fumble in the red zone. Jaylon Johnson with the punch and Jaquan Brisker with the recovery. HITS principle already coming into play!
Great play by Jaquan Brisker. Already making an impact.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
3. Really rough start for Fields today. While under some pressure, he’s eaten a sack he shouldn’t have, missed a dumpoff throw, missed a floater to Ryan Griffin, and thrown one of the worst interceptions recently seen (stared down Darnell Mooney with Cole Kmet wide open in the flat). He’s gotta clean this up.
JustINT Fields.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
Another development — it looks like Lucas Patrick is replacing Jenkins at RG on drive #3. Not sure if it’s a benching or injury. Either way, rough for Jenkins.
4. Luke Getsy has had a terrible first quarter calling plays so far. There’s no rhyme or reason to anything he’s doing, and it’s been very vanilla overall. Lots of things have just been bad at the same time.
The Niners marched right down the field on their first possession in the second quarter, highlighted by a beautiful crosser to Ray-Ray McCloud from Trey Lance. Deebo Samuel ran it in from six yards to put SF up 7-0 with 10:11 remaining in the first half. With the way things have gone offensively, the Bears just can’t afford to be behind. Now they are. And San Francisco gets the ball after halftime.
Big drive by the 49ers there. Playing from behind the way things have gone is just bad news for the Bears right now.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
5. The Bears were kicked out of field goal range before halftime by… an illegal use of towel penalty. Unsportsmanlike conduct. You read that right.
That is the most insane rule I've ever heard.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
7-0 at halftime, and the Bears are lucky it isn’t more. They’ve been atrocious on offense.
6. Kyler Gordon got beat badly out of halftime, allowing the Niners to get into scoring range. He played it like he expected safety help, so clearly someone messed up somewhere. The 49ers have had folks running free at various points in this game. The Bears are quite lucky it’s just 10-0 right now. On the bright side, Dominique Robinson has 1.5 sacks in his debut. Great impact from the rookie.
7. Two plays after Fields should’ve been picked yet again, a broken play resulted in Dante Pettis sitting all alone on the right side of the field, as Fields ran around and finally found him. Pettis did the rest, running ~30 yards the rest of the way for a 51-yard touchdown. Brand new ballgame.
Luke Getsy… sheesh.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
Fields should've been picked again.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
I'll say this, it sure is nice to see the Bears benefit from something like that.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
Make no mistake, the Bears’ offense has been absolutely brutal today. But maybe they just needed something good to happen?
8. It looks like that’s exactly what it was. Because after the Bears forced a punt from SF, the Bears drove down the field, helped by another late-hit penalty on Fields, and scored a touchdown. A beautiful PA-pass to Equanimeous St. Brown and the Bears took the lead.
Cairo Santos sailed his extra point wide right, so it’s 13-10, Bears. But that’s a big turnaround in this game. The 49ers have started to get sloppy and undisciplined, and the Bears made them pay there.
EQSB and the Bears lead.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
9. Eddie Jackson doing what he did in 2018. He read Trey Lance’s eyes on third down and jumped a slant for an interception. Beautiful play and nice return. That’s a big one for the Bears there. HITS principle paying off big time on defense today.
EJax is back!
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
10. The implosion from Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers in the second half has been immeasurable. They look rattled, they’ve been undisciplined and very sloppy. They probably beat last year’s Bears anyway, but Chicago’s redemption in the 2H has been great to see. That broken play TD to Dante Pettis woke them up.
Kyle Shanahan's team has absolutely imploded in the second half. This is impressive.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
Oh, and by the way, the rain is back in droves here at Soldier Field. We’ll see what that means as Trey Lance attempts his version of a comeback now.
11. After a few first downs on the drive, the Bears buckled down, forced a 4th and 8 and Lance fired incomplete to turn it over on downs near midfield.
Phenomenal turnaround for this team.
Soldier Field is rockin' and it's a monsoon for 4th and 8.
Ball falls incomplete and the Bears look like they may have stolen this.
Wow.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
12. I’m gonna have fun with this one. Not sorry!
Absolutely F that roof in Arlington Heights.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
13. What a great win for Matt Eberflus and this Bears team. After a woeful first half, Chicago turned things around impressively, aided by the 49ers’ meltdown, to steal a win to start the year 1-0. This didn’t seem possible after the first half, nor did it seem possible after the first drive of the second half when SF went up 10-0.
An impressive showing of mettle and character from this Bears team.
Lance fires to no one and the Bears score an impressive upset at Soldier Field after a woeful first half.
Great win for this team.
Next week in prime time just got a lot more juice to it.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) September 11, 2022
14. After a wild turnaround and upset at Soldier Field, the Bears go up to Lambeau Field for an early season primetime bout with their biggest rivals. We know how those games usually go, right?
Early prediction: Packers 23, Bears 16.
Honestly I’m not as nervous for next week as I was before the game. The Bears defense looks legit and the offense has some good pieces. Rodgers looked horrific without Davante Adams and the defense was much worse than everyone was hyping it up to be. If we can slow down their run game, I could easily see this being a W.
The BIGGEST change was Half Time adjustments. I can’t tell you how after 4 seasons of watching Nagy play the same crap for ALL 60 minutes and then come to the podium after the game and say he had to look at the tape tomorrow, THANK GOD WE HAVE A COACHING STAFF WHO CAN THINK ALL GAME AND ACTUALLY MAKE EFFECTIVE HALF TIME ADJUSTMENTS.
The Defense looked good, but if Roquan wants to be the highest paid Linebacker in the league, he has to come down with that Interception not just a PBU. I don’t care if it was raining or not (he is wearing gloves) it hit him square in the hands. #54 would have come down with that!
Everyone mad at the Packer game prediction.. I hope yall are right and Rodgers looks like shit again next week. But the last 2 years Rodgers has looked like hot garbage in week 1 then comes and tears defenses apart in week 2 to make up for it. So if next week is a game we win, WE WINNING THE NORTH BAYBEEEE!!!!
Fields looked like diarrhea. Dude was an absolute joke. The 49ers fell apart and gave away that game. If Jimmy G were handed the ball this game goes differently. They suffer from the same problem the Bears do. Their starting raw high ceiling low floor QBs that are not good right now.
Bears D played great. Bears offense.. 🤢🤮