49ers Can’t Hold On To Early Lead, Fall To Bears
By David Ochoa
The San Francisco 49ers hosted the Chicago Bears in the first ever regular season game at Levi’s Stadium. The 49ers were hoping to christen their new stadium with a win, but came up short. The 49ers gave up an early lead in the home opener, and ultimately lost by a score of 28-20.
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The 49ers jumped out to an early 17-0 lead in the first half, but Chicago was able to claw its way back. The Bears scored an important touchdown right before the end of the first half that cut the 49ers’ lead to 10.
The second half started well for the 49ers as they drove down the field on their first possession. Unfortunately they settled for a field goal that only gave them a 13 point lead. That wasn’t enough to keep the Bears down, as they ended up taking a 28-20 lead. The 49ers had a late game surge, but were not able to tie the game.
One of the big factors of this game was Colin Kaepernick‘s turnovers. Kaepernick had a total of four turnovers which consisted of three interceptions and one fumble. Two of these turnovers had no real effect on the game, but the other two proved to be costly, as the Bears took advantage and turned them into points.
Despite being questionable before the game, Brandon Marshall showed up in a big way. He caught three big touchdowns on much shorter, rookie slot corner Jimmie Ward. The 49ers couldn’t find an answer for Marshall in the red zone, and he made them pay for it.
The concern coming into this game was the 49ers’ run defense. The run defense actually played extremely well and held Matt Forte to just 21 yards on 12 carries. The 49ers’ defense also did a good job in first half at limiting the pass, but after multiple turnovers, they were unable to keep up in the second half.
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The other main factor of this game was penalties. The 49ers had 16 penalties called on them for 118 yards. There were multiple times where the Bears’ drive was extended because of dumb penalties on third down. The 49ers must fix this problem because they can’t possibly hope to beat any team when they’re playing against the refs as well.
The silver lining of this loss is that the Seattle Seahawks also lost earlier today. Unfortunately, this was the 49ers’ chance to get an early cushion on them in the standings, but they failed to get the job done.
Next Sunday the 49ers visit the 2-0 Arizona Cardinals who are first in the division. With a win against Arizona, the 49ers will be back on track to winning the division. However after how the 49ers played tonight, there are definitely no guarantees.