Bears-49ers postgame: Bears win ugly in 14-9 nail biter

It wasn’t a pretty game, but the Chicago Bears came away with a win.

Fumbles, minor injuries and poor field conditions plagued the Bears all game. However, their defense stepped up to shut down the San Francisco 49ers on their way to a 14-9 victory. Many saw this game being relatively close, and close it was. The game was tight until the very last minute, and in the end, the Bears picked up yet another win.

Mixing things up gets mixed results

With only two more games left in the regular season, the Bears decided to do some experimenting with a few new offensive plays. Matt Nagy threw in a couple of jet sweeps and option plays to try and look for some creative plays to use in the playoffs. They got a handful of their option plays to work, and they picked up a nine-yard gain on an Allen Robinson jet sweep. They also had a few plays backfire on them, like a read option in which Trubisky made the bad call to pitch the ball off to Tarik Cohen, who dropped the pitch to turn the ball over. The phrase “cute” has been used to describe Chicago’s offense, and while there’s nothing wrong with a creative offense, there are certainly some times when the Bears would be better off making safer play calls.

Akiem Hicks is that dude

In his first game since being named a Pro Bowler, Akiem Hicks was everywhere today. The defensive lineman finished up with three passes deflected at the line of scrimmage, as well as multiple pressures on Nick Mullens. Though his tackling numbers didn’t set the world on fire, he more than lived up to his Pro Bowl status this week.

Not as good as Gould

Cody Parkey hasn’t lived up to his contract this season, and his inconsistencies continued this week. He missed a 37-yard field goal, his sixth miss on a field goal attempt of the year. The miss was made even worse by the fact that Robbie Gould, Chicago’s all-time leader in points who was released in 2016, went three-for-three for San Francisco. Although the Bears have had bad luck at the kicker position since they cut Gould, one should remember that he was coming off of a poor season in 2015 and was making quite a bit of money at the time of his release. Plus, the Bears released him to sign Josh Sitton, who made the Pro Bowl in 2016 and had a good season in 2017.

Would the Bears rather have Gould? Yes, but it’s way too easy to look at things in hindsight and ridicule such a decision.

That’s my quarterback

Trubisky had a few bad plays this week, but he had an overall good performance today. He was able to throw the ball into tight windows throughout the game, and he used his athleticism to evade sacks, as has been the case all year. When he is on, he’s good enough to help the Bears beat any team in the league. He was on for the most part this week, and it resulted in a win, no matter how boring it may have been.

The Bears have rallied around Trubisky, and they are firmly set on making sure that he is their franchise quarterback. This was evident in the fourth quarter, when his teammates attacked Richard Sherman for a cheap hit on the second-year quarterback. Anthony Miller and Josh Bellamy were both ejected from the game for fighting Sherman, and several other players, including Kyle Long, got into it with San Francisco players. Though fighting is not an ideal situation, it was good to see Trubisky’s teammates stick up for him.

The Bears improved to 11-4 with their victory on the road. Though a first-round bye is unlikely, they have the chance to finish the year at 12-4 with a win next week against the Minnesota Vikings.