The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears in a thriller on Sunday night, winning on the final play of scrimmage with a defensive stand to keep their No. 1 seed hopes alive heading into Week 18.
It was a shootout from the start, as the score was 14 apiece after one quarter and 28-21 at halftime. The 49ers punted just once on their first eight drives after not punting in their previous two games, but they couldn’t fester many stops in the high-scoring affair.
Ultimately, a goal-line stand got them the win and the 49ers improved to 12-4 with the No. 1 seed on the line next weekend against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium.
Here are three quick takeaways from the 49ers 42-38 win over the Bears on Sunday.
Purdy leads efficient offense
The 49ers offense has been on a tear since Brock Purdy returned to the starting lineup, averaging 35.7 points per game, good for best in the NFL during that stretch.
That continued on Sunday, as the 49ers had six touchdown drives, bouncing back from a Brock Purdy pick-six on the first play of the game to win a big one.
Purdy had another highlight performance, throwing for 303 yards and totaling five touchdowns, while making a number of incredible plays. He was especially dialed in on throws over the middle as Kyle Shanahan exploited the Bears defense, throwing with high accuracy.
Purdy has had a few heaters during his career, but he’s arguably playing the best football of his career right now. Here are his stat lines from the past three weeks:
Week 15 vs. Tennessee: 295 passing yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, 76.7 percent completion rate, 9.8 yards per attempt
Week 16 vs. Indianapolis: 295 passing yards, five touchdowns, one interception, 73.5 percent completion rate, 8.7 yards per attempt
Week 17 vs. Chicago: 303 passing yards, five touchdowns, one interception, 72.7 percent completion rate, 9.2 yards per attempt
The 49ers are generating explosives at a high level, being efficient on offense, and deadly in the red zone. We’ve seen several different versions of Purdy, but the current one is protecting the football well enough, while making enough off-schedule plays to elevate the 49ers to one of the best offenses in the NFL.
The best part? The offense is playing their best football at the right time, even with injuries to skill position players (Ricky Pearsall, George Kittle).
Run game thrives
I wrote in my keys to the game that San Francisco needed to continue its focus on the run game, which has started to see some growth as of late.
They had a pristine matchup there, as the Bears came into Sunday as one of the worst rush defenses in the NFL. Well, Christian McCaffrey went for a season-high 140 yards on 6.1 yards per carry, while the 49ers had 200 rushing yards as a whole on just 34 attempts.
If the run game can flow with the passing game, the 49ers offense is nearly unstoppable. That was the case on Sunday. San Francisco scored touchdowns on six of its nine drives (not including drive to end the half).
Defense remains a big question mark
The 49ers defense hasn’t been good. They’ve struggled on the backend, aren’t generating much pressure, and also have issues against the run game.
There were quite a few missed tackles, especially from the team’s safeties, on Sunday, as the 49ers gave up 440 yards of offense while failing to force a turnover.
We’re seeing the path for San Francisco to win: they need their offense to come out strong and play at a very efficient level against top teams. Defensively, the 49ers need just a few key plays to go their way, but they just don’t have the personnel right now to be a force.
Things aren’t going to get easier the rest of the way. The Seahawks have a quality, efficient offense, while nearly every NFC playoff team is a top-tier offense. So, the 49ers are going to have to ride their offense the rest of the way.
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