Chicago Bears Upset San Francisco 49ers: A Mostly Unbiased View
Sep 14, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) is sacked by Chicago Bears defense end Willie Young (97) in the fourth quarter at Levis Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports
The offense isn’t as polished as we thought they were. Most of us (myself included) were too quick to anoint the Bears’ offense as elite, and through two games they’ve shown that they still have some major bumps in the road to overcome. I thought the offense was more to blame than the defense for the loss in the opener, as 13 of Buffalo’s 23 points were scored off of turnovers. Against the 49ers, they took better care of the football, but were still short of a dominant performance. Several of the Bears’ drives were aided significantly by penalties, and the running game was practically non-existent. The Bears tried to feed the ball to Matt Forte early, but there just wasn’t any room for him to run, and he managed only 21 yards on 12 carries. This comes just one week after DeMarco Murray put up 118 yards on 22 carries, so I’m not buying that San Fran’s defense is just that good. I think the major part of that problem is due to the injuries along the offensive line, so here’s wishing a swift return for Roberto Garza and Matt Slauson! The running game must improve or I’m going to find it hard to believe that Jay Cutler will stay healthy for all 16 games this year.
The special teams unit continues to struggle. Phil Emery stated when he took over as the GM in Chicago that he would continue to put the same emphasis on special teams that we had seen over the past decade, but I still haven’t seen it. Besides a couple of really nice punts from Bears rookie punter Pat O’Donnell, the unit had a dismal performance. I saw way more penalties than good plays, and allowing a punt to be blocked is simply unacceptable. The coverage was poor, the blocking was little more than a rumor, and I was unimpressed by any of the Bears’ kick returners. The Bears are not a good enough team to be able to overcome too many special teams mistakes, and this unit might actually be the reason the Bears don’t make it to the playoffs if they don’t find a way to fix it.
Sorry for raining on your parade Bears fans. It was a great win and I fully expect you all to keep hope alive, but hope doesn’t win football games. If the Bears don’t get some of these problems fixed we could all be in for a long season.