Chicago Bears vs. the 49ers 12/28, 5:20 - Pre-game Thread

Feel better about this game today after last nights game, only thing is, this team doesn't have the defense to fall behind teams more that 10 points or so. They won't be able to overcome a 14 point deficit. As long as they keep games close, they can beat anyone.

The problem with our secondary are the safeties. Brown and Mustapha can hit hard (assuming they don't have to wrap up because they whiff a lot) but they can't cover for s**t. And that leaves our corners on an island trying to cover receivers one on one. Need an overhaul at the position this offseason. Maybe keep Mustapha for run downs next year but definitely need to sign some legit safeties this offseason…

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:

Originally posted by ninersrule4:
I just don't see how this defense is going to keep any of the elite offense like Chicago and LA from scoring 35 plus. The offense needs to be at full throttle the rest of the season/playoffs.

I'd be pretty surprised if Chicago put up 30+ against us. We'd have to turn it over a few times for that.

Mobile quarterbacks are our kryptonite. Always has been even when we had a stout defense. I'm not worried about Caleb passing on us, I'm more worried about him extending plays with his legs and taking off for big chunks of yards

Originally posted by ninersrule4:
I just don't see how this defense is going to keep any of the elite offense like Chicago and LA from scoring 35 plus. The offense needs to be at full throttle the rest of the season/playoffs.

Hope I don't live to regret saying this but Chicago and LA are not the same.

What they are is healthy. But Caleb is completing less than 58% of his passes. He's done a good job not turning the ball over and he's had a knack for clutch performance BUT they are a running team.

One thing we showed well vs the Colts on D(there wasn't much) was that our run defense was better. If we sell out to stop the Bears run game...can Caleb dice us up like Stafford did? I find that hard to believe but I also didn't see Rivers having as much success as he did but he's a long time vet who has seen it all. Caleb is a 2nd year player, he can make mental errors and I hope he's gonna have a few saved for us.

The most posts Chicago has scored on the road was 47 vs the Bengals...the worst defense in the league(missing arguably their two best players).

Outside of that game they've averaged just under 22 points per game. Even with that game which was their season high in scoring, it gives them just 25 points per game on the road.

Unless we turn the ball over like crazy it's hard to see it happening...which is why it's critical we continue to execute incredibly well on offense and not turn the ball over.

Bears have a worse run d than us. Niners should win this, but it likely depends on Kittles health

Originally posted by genus49:
Hope I don't live to regret saying this but Chicago and LA are not the same.

What they are is healthy. But Caleb is completing less than 58% of his passes. He's done a good job not turning the ball over and he's had a knack for clutch performance BUT they are a running team.

One thing we showed well vs the Colts on D(there wasn't much) was that our run defense was better. If we sell out to stop the Bears run game...can Caleb dice us up like Stafford did? I find that hard to believe but I also didn't see Rivers having as much success as he did but he's a long time vet who has seen it all. Caleb is a 2nd year player, he can make mental errors and I hope he's gonna have a few saved for us.

The most posts Chicago has scored on the road was 47 vs the Bengals...the worst defense in the league(missing arguably their two best players).

Outside of that game they've averaged just under 22 points per game. Even with that game which was their season high in scoring, it gives them just 25 points per game on the road.

Unless we turn the ball over like crazy it's hard to see it happening...which is why it's critical we continue to execute incredibly well on offense and not turn the ball over.

Definitely not. Agree with the rest of the post as well.

Originally posted by DrEll:
The problem with our secondary are the safeties. Brown and Mustapha can hit hard (assuming they don't have to wrap up because they whiff a lot) but they can't cover for s**t. And that leaves our corners on an island trying to cover receivers one on one. Need an overhaul at the position this offseason. Maybe keep Mustapha for run downs next year but definitely need to sign some legit safeties this offseason…

What we need is a pass rush. Get Bosa and Williams back and maybe add another piece and all of a sudden our safeties don't look so bad in coverage.

What helps our defense is that we are starting to get Takeaways now. Yes, our defense will get pushed around, but if they can get some timely turnovers, then that will mask a lot of the deficiencies.

Originally posted by walker807:
What we need is a pass rush. Get Bosa and Williams back and maybe add another piece and all of a sudden our safeties don't look so bad in coverage.

That's not going to help us this season, and who knows what Bosa looks like next year, the roster isn't getting any younger.

if this team wants to do anything, they need to continue to be carried by the offense, accept you're gonna get burned on defense, just come up with some turnovers that will be the key difference.

Originally posted by 49ers81:
Unless they can get things figured out on defense, every game from here on out is going to be a potential loss. They made a 44-year-old QB who hadn't played in five years look like a legit NFL starter. What did they have, like one sack all night and a few pressures. I'm mean it's just embarrassing how bad their pass rush is these days. Bil Walsh once said you can scheme offense, but you need to have good players on defense and right now, too many of our good players aren't on the field. If Rivers could look like a Pro Bowl player, what the heck is Stafford going to do to us if we meet up again.

Saleh made the necessary half time adjustments.

Originally posted by RiceOwensStokes:

Originally posted by walker807:
What we need is a pass rush. Get Bosa and Williams back and maybe add another piece and all of a sudden our safeties don't look so bad in coverage.

That's not going to help us this season, and who knows what Bosa looks like next year, the roster isn't getting any younger.

if this team wants to do anything, they need to continue to be carried by the offense, accept you're gonna get burned on defense, just come up with some turnovers that will be the key difference.

At least our youngsters are getting a lot of work this year, so they should be better next year. Add Bosa and Warner to the mix and our defense may be top of the league if we don't downgrade our DC position.

Originally posted by Tigerlaw:
The 49er defense can't handle intelligent QBs who know where to go with the ball b/c we currently have an imperfect defense and there is always a gdamn hole out there...

However...when we face a QB who can't pick apart our defense pre snap we have a chance

Saleh absolutely knows how to scheme to take away the primary read on a play.

The Colt gameplan was obviously stop the run and bottle up Warren...the defense did that successfully
The problem is we were missing a starting CB and unable to defend the WRs...and Rivers knew how to find those openings

We should have Green back against CHI and Caleb Williams is not anywhere close to Rivers at reading the field

But Caleb will hit those over the top throws

Originally posted by RiceOwensStokes:
Bears have a worse run d than us. Niners should win this, but it likely depends on Kittles health

Just my own quick analysis

Offense - Niners? Maybe. The bears are no slouches on offense either and have a great mind calling plays. Could be even.

Defense - Definitely Bears. They're better than us, but that's not saying much. Hopefully we can move the ball on them as well as we did against the Colts.

Special Teams - Niners. I think the Bears ST has actually cost them games this year. And of course our special teams has been solid to good.

Coaching - Probably the Niners but it's close. Ben Johnson is a pretty good coach but Kyle is probably having his best season this year.

Wives - Niners. Claire Kittle and Kristin Juszczyk carry the team here.

Gatorade - Probably the Bears

Originally posted by 49ersRing:

Originally posted by Rocket4989:
The bears are a fraud team and they're going to be exposed this Sunday.

I'm sure their fans probably think the same thing about us. Both teams are finding ways to win games.

We haven't won a close game since Week 5.

Meanwhile like the majority of the Bears' wins including Saturday have pretty much been on the last play.

I'm not saying the Bears are fraudulent because I understand the general notion that good teams find ways to win close games more often than not, but "both teams are finding ways to win games" isn't really an accurate way to put it. Our last 5 games have all been double-digit wins and our last 7 wins have all been by double digits.

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:

The 49ers are 3-point favorites over the Bears.

And it isn't crazy to think that their defense will be in much better position to defend Caleb Williams than it was vs Philip Rivers

— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) December 23, 2025

how the f**k does David figure that?

these last two games are going to be a gauntlet; going to be hard to win out