Bears Takeaways: Week 13

11.) The 49ers are really bad

I thought the Bears were bad until watching the Niners play this week. The Bears defense played really well, but the Niners gained just six net passing yards. Six! That’s hard to do.

Not only was the Niners passing game disastrous, but their defense seemed to be giving a half-ass effort. There were multiple runs by Jordan Howard that should have been stopped for less yards, but the Niners defenders just didn’t seem all that anxious to tackle Howard.

The Bears haven’t played the winless Browns yet, but the Niners are by far the worst team I’ve watched this season. It could be worse Bears fans!

12.) Player development is key for last few weeks

I’ve already covered the extended looks the Bears got on Kwiatkoski, Brown, and Braunecker, but there are plenty more young players who should see the field over the next few weeks. Here are a few guys that will see more snaps before the end of the season:

S Deon Bush – He played the majority of safety snaps last week and played decent. It could be that the Niners are just awful, but Bush looked noticeably more comfortable this week.

Bush was a huge hitter in college, which we haven’t seen any of yet, but he has the potential to develop into a force as a run-stopper and midfield enforcer for the Bears. His pass coverage will need to improve, but the Bears have a chance to see if he can hold his own the next few weeks.

*Bush will have to get a lot better to stop talk about the Bears passing on QB Dak Prescott for Bush (Kwaitkoski & Hall) in the 4th round while Prescott was available. 

CB Deiondre Hall – After flashing potential in the pre-season, Hall has spent most of the season injured. He should be back within a week or two and will have a chance to show the Bears brass if he can handle playing corner at the NFL level. I still think he’ll end up at safety, but also think he has enough talent to be an impact player in the Bears near future.

CB Kyle Fuller – After spending the whole season on IR so far, Fuller is reportedly close to returning. The 2014 first round pick has been a huge disappointment but has occasionally flashed talent in his young career. The Bears are way too thin at cornerback to give up on a potential starter like Fuller and I think they will give him as many snaps as he can handle the last fourth of the season.

DL Jonathan Bullard – It’s a really bad sign for Bullard’s future that he was a healthy scratch this week, but I’m not ready to give up on him quite yet. Bullard has gotten some chances to play this year and hasn’t produced, but he’s talented enough that most draft sites had him graded as a late first-round pick in this year’s draft.

The Bears need to figure out what they have in Bullard. He’s been passed on the depth chart by Cornelius Washington, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Bullard can’t play. Washington has flashed a ton of potential in his career, just hasn’t been able to stay healthy until this season.

Hopefully, Bullard will get plenty of snaps over the next few weeks, instead of losing them to Mitch Unrein like in this week’s game. The Bears know what Unrein can do, but Bullard hasn’t gotten enough snaps to show his talent yet. Playing Unrein makes no sense for a team already playing for 2017, which means that the Bears will probably give Unrein all of the 5-tech snaps moving forward.

13.) The Bears offense exploded for their highest point total of the season!

26 points. Ugh.