San Francisco has been an offensive juggernaut for years. Everybody knew going into Sunday night that it would be difficult to slow them down. Unfortunately, the Chicago Bears couldn’t even manage that. Outside of a pick-six on the first play, the 49ers had their way most of the night. Brock Purdy scored five total touchdowns, and the offense had 496 total yards. The Bears’ defense had no answers for them, which was discouraging since San Francisco didn’t even have George Kittle available and lost Trent Williams in the middle of the game.
It became clear early on that the 49ers were exploiting two glaring weaknesses in Chicago’s defense. First was their lack of pass rush. This isn’t a big surprise. That has been a problem all year. The Bears only pressured Purdy ten times and sacked him once. You won’t stop good offenses that way. What made things worse was the alarming lack of speed on the back end. Bears linebackers really struggled to contain Purdy’s mobility while 49ers receivers were open all night. Ricky Pearsall averaged 3.31 yards of separation while Kendrick Bourne averaged 4.23.
The league average is 2.99. They were wide open.
The 49ers scored touchdowns on four of their next five possessions. For the game, they had TD drives of 65, 66, 75, 72, 65 and 75 yards. There weren’t any short fields where the defense was in a bad spot. The Bears simply had no answers for Purdy, who completed 24 of 33 passes for 303 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two more scores. Even with star tight end George Kittle missing the game with an ankle injury, Purdy feasted on open windows in the middle of the field and diced up zone coverage.
The Chicago Bears badly need speed up the middle.
That goes from up front to the safeties. None of their defensive tackles can be categorized as explosive. Gervon Dexter is more of a power player. Grady Jarrett has lost a step due to age and injuries. Tremaine Edmunds is a great athlete, but he may be hampered by the injury he sustained a few weeks ago. T.J. Edwards, for all his mental brilliance, is 29 and has been haunted by soft tissue problems all season. Kevin Byard is 32 years old. Jaquan Brisker was never known for elite range.
When your defense can’t rush the quarterback and is too slow on the back end, you are in big trouble. The Chicago Bears have survived to this point because they’re outstanding at forcing takeaways. When they can’t do that, it becomes obvious how limited they are. Sadly, there isn’t much they can do about it. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen is doing his best to mask the problems, but coaching can only do so much. This group badly needs a refresh. San Francisco was merely the most recent reminder.
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