San Francisco 49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo (10) waits to take the field before an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)
This is the live blog for the 49ers Week 8 matchup with the Chicago Bears from Soldier Field in Chicago. I will provide updates and analysis throughout the game.
8:43: Inactive for the 49ers today: DL Dee Ford, OL Aaron Banks, LB Azeez Al-Shaair, DL Maurice Hurst, CB Deommodore Lenoir, CB Ambry Thomas, WR Travis Benjamin
8:45: Inactive for the Bears today: LB Khalil Mack, LB Caleb Johnson, QB Nick Foles, WR Brashad Perriman, DB Artie Burns
9:39: After missing the Colts game, Trent Williams is active and will be starting at left tackle. His presence should help Jimmy Garoppolo in the pocket and help in the run game.
9:43: With Azeez Al-Shaair inactive, it’s likely that Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles will be starting in his place. This will mean two of the three starting linebackers for San Francisco today are converted safeties. Marcell Harris is making the transition this season, and Flannigan-Fowles was a safety in college at Arizona.
10:02: 49ers will start the game on offense.
10:04 Deebo Samuel with a drop on the first play of the game.
10:13 Two drops by Deebo Samuel on the opening drive of the game, a holding call on Trent Williams. Running JaMycal Hasty into the middle of the line of scrimmage. Joey Slye misses a 48-yard field goal attempt after Garoppolo hits Sanu with a 19-yard completion to set up the attempt. This is a terrible start for the 49ers.
10:24 49ers defense is going to have its hands full with Khalil Herbert today. The rookie gains 22 on his first carry of the game, but penalties stop the drive and Cairo Santos hits his field goal attempt. Bears 3 49ers 0
10:31 Elijah Mitchell kicks off the 49ers drive with a 26 yard gain on a toss sweep around the left side. Mitchell and Harbert were both 6th round draft picks this year.
On the next play Deebo Samuel finally holds on to a Garoppolo pass for a gain of 11. A short run by Mitchell and a completion to Hasty on third down set the 49ers up for a 48-yard field goal and this time Slye hits it to tie the game at 3.
49ers need to focus on running to the left side. They run the ball much better in that direction.
10:35 On first down, Bears quarterback Justin Fields can’t keep his eyes off the pass rush before throwing incomplete. Then on third down Arik Armsted jumps offside making it 3rd and 4. Fields hits it for a first down.
10:38 Bears driving into 49ers territory as the first quarter comes to a close. 49ers 3 Bears 3
The mistakes that have hurt the 49ers over the current four game losing streak, penalties and drops, have shown up already.
10:44 Chicago with a methodical drive wrapped up by a nice throw from Justin Fields to Jesse James for an 8-yard touchdown while rolling to his left off play action.
San Francisco had Chicago in 3rd and 9 to start the possession. Armstead’s offside penalty made it 3rd and 4, from that point the 49ers defense had no answer. Bears 10 49ers 3
10:52 Nice job by Garoppolo to buy time and move left, finds Brandon Aiyuk for a gain of 23. Next play hits Samuel for a gain of 16. On third and seven Mohamed Sanu drops the pass over the middle. That’s three drops in three possessions for 49ers wide receivers today. Joey Sley hits the field goal. Bears 10 49ers 6
10:59 49ers defensive line getting no pressure on Justin Fields so far today.
11:05 And just like that Nick Bosa comes up with a big sack.
11:07 On 2nd and 21 Fields takes off and gains 16 yards on a scramble, plus an illegal hands to the face by Arden Key and it’s a Chicago first down.
11:11 Santos hits the 40-yard field goal. Bears 13 49ers 6
11:13 Justin Fields with 150 yards in the first half, 11-13 for 82 yards and 1 touchdown through the air plus five carries for 48 yards.
11:23 Garoppolo hits Aiyuk on back-to-back throws to gain 21 yards, then goes over the top and hits Deebo Samuel for a gain of 50 to set up a chip shot field goal by Joey Slye to end the first half. Bears 13 49ers 9
11:26 Garoppolo finishes the first half 10-19, 163 yards. Brandon Aiyuk has 44 yards receiving in the first half. That’s more than any game this season.
Chicago has found a lot of success when running to the left, and the 49ers defense has struggled to get pressure on Justin Fields so far. Will be interesting to see if DeMeco Ryans can come up with any adjustments at halftime.
11:47 More of the same from the 49ers defense on the opening drive of the second half. Fields starts the drive with an 18 yard completion to James, two plays later scrambles around the right side for 15 and then hits former 49er Marquise Goodwin with a slant for a gain of 22 on 3rd and 13.
Four possessions for Chicago so far in this game. They’ve scored on all of them. Bears 16 49ers 9
12:02 On 3rd and 20 Deebo Samuel takes a screen pass from Jimmy Garoppolo 84 yards. The run after catch looked like former 49ers great John Taylor. Samuel drops the ball a lot, but plays like that are why you keep feeding him.
On 3rd and goal, Garoppolo keeps the ball and runs it in for a two-yard touchdown. Joey Slye misses the extra point though. Bears 16 49ers 15
12:04 Let’s see if the 49ers defense can get a stop.
12:14 They do. After giving up a couple first downs the 49ers defense finally gets a stop, sacking Fields on second down and force an incompletion on third and 16.
Brandon Aiyuk returns the punt 21 yards to set the offense up near midfield. This will be the best starting field position for the 49ers in this game.
12:19 49ers offense drives deep into Chicago territory as the 3rd quarter comes to a close. Bears 16 49ers 15.
12:24 Talk about teamwork. Elijah Mitchell runs into the center of the line, and the entire offense pushes him across the goal line for a five-yard touchdown. Garoppolo then hits Aiyuk over the middle to convert the 2-point try. 49ers 23 Bears 16
12:34 Just like that the 49ers defense gives up another scoring drive. This time it’s Justin Fields making Arik Armstead miss on fourth and one, and then scrambling 22 yards around the left side. Cairo Santos misses the extra point though. 49ers 23 Bears 22
12:41 The 49ers offense responds, going 75 yards on only five plays. Garoppolo with big throws to Mohamed Sanu and JaMycal Hasty to pick up 42 yards, a 27-yard run by Elijah Mitchell, and Garoppolo keeps on the zone-read for the a five-yard touchdown run. 49ers 30 Bears 22
Coming off his worst game of the season, Garoppolo is playing his best.
12:46 Jimmie Ward has been ruled out for the rest of the game. Tavon Wilson is in to replace him.
12:50 Big stop for the 49ers defense. Samson Ebukam finishes it off with a sack of Fields.
1:00 49ers ride the back of Elijah Mitchell to get into field goal range and Joey Slye hits the 32-yard field goal to ice the game for San Francisco. 49ers 33 Bears 22
1:04 Josh Norman intercepts the deep throw by Justin Fields. Final Score: 49ers 33 Bears 22
1:12 Be back shortly with the game wrap.
An outsider would never suspect that Deebo is our best WR.
2 missed catches in the first series is not a good look.
Well, maybe the bright side is that we can resign him at a relatively low price. He is dynamic after the catch.
Can’t be a receiver if you can’t catch the ball.
See what I mean.
I am still rooting for 49ers but it has been difficult week. We lose to Colts in a Stormy game. I dont like Stormy conditions or Stormy womans. Today we play Duh Bears and we are off to most inauspicious start. The Bears Offensive is driving on 49ers.
Jimmy deserves a fair amount of blame but these receivers sure don’t make things easy at times. Two guys in the same area running into each other and Jimmy is almost intercepted.
I’m beginning to think that the departure of E. Sanders was a huge loss for the WR corps. In hindsight they should have ponied up the money to keep him.
What’s happened to that great defense we used to have. Chicago is just marching down the field.
Crap tackling for one thing. Luckily, so far Chi coaches and Fields haven’t seemed to realize Niners lead the league in PI.
At least there was no DPI allowed on that TD. They made the Bears earn it by cutting through the Niner D like a hot knife through butter.
“we are off to most inauspicious start. The Bears Offensive is driving on 49ers.”
Duh Bears have surged past 49ers for the big lead. We must play better Defense and overcome so many injuries .
I have a technical question. Do we practice during the week before games?
I’m anxious to hear how the 4 drops so far are JG’s fault. It could be 21-10 right now.
Wow! Jimmy on target with a 50 yard bomb, and Deebo didn’t drop it. But then a terrible throw after that. At least it’s a FG.
Not sure it was a terrible throw. Olson indicated that Deebo got bumped into and that kills a throw made with anticipation. Not sure why a penalty wasn’t called.
yup — this is results based analysis. If it worked then it’s perfect — if the receiver didn’t get to the right place on time or stumbled or the defender made a play — it’s all crap.
Cubus, The contact was within 5 yards of the LOS, no penalty.
Thanks.
Wow. Talk about yak
Well sometimes confusion works. Nobody saw that play coming.
I’d call that a good play call and good execution.
Anyone complaining about Gould now?
Sly has stone feet. Runs in the family?
ha!
Rib,
The king of the Dad jokes and I like it.
Someone has to take the mantle from Razor!
It’s great to see Aiyuk make some plays. He’s looked good today.
Nice power run by Mitchell. Damn good for a guy known for his speed and shiftiness.
Now will the D take its turn and screw up to allow a score? Let’s hope not…
Exactly as I predicted and feared
That TD from Fields brought back a lot of flashbacks of Russell Wilson. 😱
We’re making fields look pretty good today.
Wait for Reasons. What the Bears are doing with Fields is what Shannie should be doing with Trey in 3…2…1…
Niners need a TD here. I don’t trust the D to stop the Bears.
Yeah!
The offense is rolling now.
Hospital Ward alert
Both safeties are backups, the Bears are stupid if they don’t take a deep shot.
Way to go backups!
Don’t turn the ball over, plzzz…
Great to see the offense back on track and against a good defense. 470 yards. Not bad.
Jimmy’s best game since 2019.
Niners should never play in Santa Clara again, they are the Road Warriors.
I thought Jimmy G. looked a lot like the Jimmy G we saw in 2017 . I thought he looked loose for the first time since he blew his knee out. Maybe we can get something in a trade for JG right before the draft. Wishnowski had another great game……..as a holder.
True He looked much better… I think he needs to be used more on rollouts and he needs to run the ball a bit. He seems to get better when used this way.
If Kittle can come back next week I think Charlie Woerner should be TE #2. Dwelley blocks like a matador. Woerner was the best blocking TE in college in 2019. He struggled mightly last year but so far this year his blocking has been dominant. He also seems to get one reception per game lately. If he can continue to improve as a receiver he will be an outstanding #2 TE.
“Dwelley blocks like a matador”. Lol
OC, wasn’t lying his blocking is hard to watch as he has a ton of straight whiffs.
Dwelley is the receiving tight end who never gets thrown to. Grossly under utilized. Dwelley shouldn’t be used to block DE one-on-one like last week. If the TE is only going to be a 6th blocker, then by all means use Woerner. Dwelley could go somewhere next year and have 800-1000 yards receiving somewhere that actually uses him.
Then he’d be worth a high round draft pick but I kinda sought it.
Ah, good call Hammer.
Where is 49reasons with his usual diatribe about Jimmy G, Shanahan and Lynch?
The owners forum is over at inspired.