Chicago Bears Shock The (NFL) World, Upset 49ers

Not many people gave the Chicago Bears any chance of beating the San Francisco 49ers, they kept grinding and pulled off an incredible upset.

The Chicago Bears finally got their 2022 season underway this past weekend. We got to see what happens when the curtain opens and the games are for real.

The Bears have gotten a lot of attention this offseason but not for the right reasons. Many so-called experts felt that this team could be historically bad. There were comparisons to the 2008 winless Detroit Lions. Not many gave Chicago a chance to win more than three games this season.

Well, the Bears already got their first win out of the way. There will be no winless season and they are one-third of the way to three wins.

The Bears opened up the season against the San Francisco 49ers. Many of those same experts who trashed the Bears felt that the Niners could make a lot of noise in the playoffs this season.

Things did not work out so well for San Francisco. They could not keep up with the hard-working Bears and gave up 19 straight points. Chicago pulled off the monumental upset 19-10 and provided hope for Chicago Bears Nation.

The Bears take the attitude of their head coach

Things did not look good early in the game. The offense looked much like last season — pedestrian. Quarterback Justin Fields went the entire first half without completing a pass to his wide receivers. Additionally, the offensive line struggled to protect Fields and open holes for the running game.

At halftime, the Bears had a 7-0 deficit. Unfortunately for San Francisco, they could not take advantage of their good fortune in that first half. With the Bears constantly having to start drives inside their own 10, the Niners had great field position. They could not take advantage of that, however. Their drives stalled and they allowed Chicago to hang around.

One of the best attributes of new Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus is how hard he works. He gets his players to play as hard as he works. With the Indianapolis Colts, his defensive players would run through the wall for him.

It appears as if his entire Chicago Bears roster would do it as well.

The Bears continued to work hard. San Francisco went downfield on their opening drive in the third quarter. Again, the Niners’ offense stalled again and they settled for a Robbie Gould field goal to extend the lead to 10-0.

That 10-point deficit could have been 50-0 considering how much the Bears’ offense struggled. However, the Bears did not give up or let down. They scored a touchdown on their first drive of the third quarter.

Fields scrambled and found a wide-open Dante Pettis for a 51-yard touchdown connection. That play, which should have resulted in a sack, fired up Chicago.

The defense, which did a great job of keeping the score close, just roared after that touchdown. The unit harassed Niners quarterback Trey Lance all game long.

One player of note was Dominique Robinson. He is supposed to be a project that the Bears were high on. In his first game as a pro, he showed why. He recorded 1.5 sacks in his NFL debut.

Despite only recording two sacks, the Bears kept pressuring him into making mistakes. He missed open receivers and threw a key interception late in the game.

In the fourth quarter, the Bears scored two more touchdowns. Fields connected with Equanimeous St. Brown for an 18-yard score. Later, Khalil Herbert scored on a 3-yard run.

There are still some concerns

While the win was great, there are still some concerns. The offense had some big plays but still didn’t move the ball much. Chicago finished with just 204 total yards on offense, 68 of them in the first half. They can’t continue to have slow starts and depend on the defense to keep them in games. Of course, this is just the first game with offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. They should get better as they begin to jell.

The normally dependable Cairo Santos missed two PATs. In the past three seasons, he missed two PATs. Some might say that the bad conditions might be a reason but the torrential rainfall didn’t occur until after his second miss.

Hopefully, this was just a hiccup. Overall, it was a horrible day for kickers throughout the day so maybe he was just a victim of that.

One thing we learned from this game is that the Bears’ sheer work ethic will keep them in games. That, and the suffocating defense. We can hope that this unit continues to play hard and hold down the opponents the Chicago Bears will pull off more of these incredible upsets.

Next up for the Bears are the hated Green Bay Packers. They took a beatdown at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings so they’ll be seething when they face Chicago.

Let’s hope this is the start of a new era of winning for the Chicago Bears.