In the end, the 49ers got the stop.
In an intensely contested Sunday night matchup between two of the NFC’s top teams, San Francisco held on to get a 42-38 victory — setting up a matchup with Seattle for the NFC West crown and the conference’s No. 1 overall seed next Saturday night.
The 49ers and Bears went back and forth throughout the contest, with Chicago taking a 7-0 lead on a pick-six off Brock Purdy on San Francisco’s first play from scrimmage. But the 49ers came back to go up 14-7 before the game had ties of 14-14, 21-21, 28-28, and 35-35.
The two teams finally got some separation late in the fourth quarter, as Caleb Williams couldn’t complete a pass on third-and-goal from the 11, leaving Cairo Santos to connect on a 29-yard field goal to make the score 38-35 with 5:22 left in the contest.
The 49ers came back to score perhaps a little sooner than they would’ve liked, as Purdy hit Jauan Jennings for a go-ahead, 38-yard touchdown with 2:15 left in the contest.
The Bears still had all three of their timeouts ahead of the two-minute warning. They didn’t need to use one of them until there were 40 seconds left, after the Bears got down to the San Francisco 26-yard line. Williams then completed a 13-yard pass to Colston Loveland on fourth-and-5 to keep the game alive.
But after another pass to Loveland was stopped at the 2-yard line, the Bears — now out of timeouts — had to spike the ball to stop the clock with just four seconds left. On the game’s last play, Williams could not find anyone open initially and extended the play. But he was hit by Yetur Gross-Matos just as he was trying to deliver the ball to Jahdae Walker in the end zone, and the ball was short and incomplete.
The 49ers had held on.
Purdy put together his second game in a row with five touchdowns, this time passing for three and rushing for two. He finished 24-of-33 for 303 yards along with six rushes for 28 yards.
Christian McCaffrey continued to carry the load offensively, taking 23 carries for 140 yards with a touchdown, along with catching four passes for 41 yards.
On the other side, Williams finished 25-of-42 for 330 yards with two touchdowns. D’Andre Swift had nine carries for 54 yards with two touchdowns. Luther Burden — who was injured on the last play of the game — caught eight passes for 138 yards with a TD. Loveland had six receptions for 94 yards with one touchdown.
Both offenses had their way, as Chicago finished with 440 total yards, 26 first downs, and 6-of-12 on third down. San Francisco had 496 yards, 32 first downs, and was 7-of-10 on third down.
With the win, San Francisco moves to 12-4 and will square off with Seattle for the NFC West and the conference’s No. 1 overall seed. That game will take place at 8:00 p.m. on ABC and ESPN next Saturday night.
The Bears fall to 11-5. As NFC North champions, they will be the conference’s No. 2 seed if they defeat the Lions at home next weekend.
