The Chicago Bears' offense was great in Week 17, but the story of the game was the defense's inability to stop the San Francisco 49ers' offense, resulting in a 42-38 loss.
San Francisco had their way with the Bears' defense en route to a 496-yard performance as the 49ers converted seven of 10 third downs and held on to the ball for over 33 minutes. The 49ers also had a nice, balanced attack with 200 rushing yards and 296 passing yards.
After the game, Bears safety Jaquan Brisker was ruthless with his assessment of Chicago's defense in the loss. Brisker knows the defense failed a good offensive performance from the Bears.
"We let the offense down," Brisker said via ESPN's Courtney Cronin. "I'm going to say it. We let the offense down, period. I feel like Caleb and them, they gave us enough points to do what we had to do to win. The defense didn't."
Bears' defense struggled in a game they should have been able to handle
This is the story of the season for the Bears' defense, as the turnovers created have masked some of the unit's fundamental problems. The reality is the Bears allow a lot of yards and points, and it hasn't improved much, as they have been wildly inconsistent.
One issue is a lack of a consistent pass rush up front, as the Bears recorded only one quarterback hit and one sack against the 49ers. Outside of Montez Sweat, no one else on the Bears has been able to help out, but a sack from Austin Booker was a good sight to see.
Chicago's secondary has also not been the strongest throughout the season despite injuries to Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon. Nahshon Wright has been a great story, but he allowed over 70 yards receiving in the first half alone against the 49ers, which has been a problem for him, as he can handle one-on-one coverages completely well.
The Bears' defense has been lucky that the offense is in the top five in the NFL. Otherwise, this team might be in worse shape than the 11-5 record they currently hold going into Week 18.
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Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has a lot of work to do to get this unit in a better position going into the postseason. If this is how they are going to play, Chicago might be out of the playoffs earlier than fans would like to think.