At halftime, it felt like everything was going the 49ers’ way.
But one major defensive breakdown flipped the momentum at soggy Soldier Field, and San Francisco’s season opened with a 19-10 loss to the Bears.
The 49ers led 10-0 after opening the second half with a field goal, but on Chicago’s next drive, the Bears faced third-and-10 from their own 49-yard line. Justin Fields escaped a would-be sack by Aric Armstead and scrambled away from the pressure before finding former Niner receiver Dante Pettis wide open, connecting on a 51-yard touchdown.
The Bears would add touchdowns on their next two drives in the fourth quarter — an 18-yard Fields pass to Equanimeous St. Brown and a 3-yard rush from running back Khalil Herbert — to score 19 unanswered points and pull away from the sputtering and sloppy 49ers, who committed 12 penalties for 99 yards on the day.
Now, San Francisco will return home to dry off from the Chicago downpour. But the spotlight is shining brighter and hotter than ever on new starting quarterback Trey Lance, who finished the day with as many rushes (13 for 54 yards) as completed passes. In the air, Lance was 13-for-28 passing for 164 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
Here’s what the 49ers had to say after the loss:
HEAD COACH KYLE SHANAHAN
On severity of Mitchell injury:
“Not sure. They thought he had a chance to come back, and they ruled him out.”
On penalties:
“It’s tough to win when you do that stuff. We always talk about doing right longer, and today was the exact opposite of that.”
On what happened on the Fields-to-Pettis TD:
“He broke a sack, I think Armstead had him right there. Fields did a hell of a job getting away from it, tough to get away from… I think it was Aric. And then he bought time and coverages don’t last that long.”
On any concern about the hits Lance took:
“I’ll watch the tape and ask him how he felt. But it was that type of game.”
On if he felt in control, up 10-0:
“We felt very in control. I think that one play was a huge change. I thought we had every chance to kind of run away with it, especially those first two drives. We had a fumble inside the 10, next drive getting down there and ended up with a sack on third down that knocked us out of field goal range, especially after Huf [Talanoa Hufanga]’s turnover. That third quarter, getting all the way down there, having that penalty and only coming up with a field goal. Thought we had every chance to run away with it. Thought we were going to get it back and go again, and that penalty on third and long gave them new life, they scored a touchdown and we never got the momentum back.”
On what did you see on Lance’s interception:
“He was looking to the left with Jauan [Jennings]. Jauan made a really good route breaking in and their safety from the other side of the field came and made a hell of a play coming across the middle. Safety made a hell of a play.”
On if there’s a little bit of shock in the locker room:
“Not when you look at what we just talked about. You look at those 12 penalties, you know when they happened. You look at our turnovers. You look at 1-of-3 in the red zone on those missed opportunities. I don’t care what happens. You see that in the statsheet and you know what happened out there, so there isn’t a shock. We expect to go into games and win, no matter what game it is. We usually always feel that way throughout the week preparing, but we’ve got to play a lot better and do things right a lot longer than we did today, no matter who we play.”
On penalties:
“It was a big emphasis all week. We felt pretty good with some of the matchups and stuff, especially with our D. We knew that was going to be a big deal, especially when you have a quarterback that’s hard to bring down and an element of how hard you have to run to get to him. We were very well aware that we’re going to have to avoid him when we slid and we didn’t do a good enough job of that. But i think the worst one was the unnecessary facemask, which I couldn’t see. I think we stopped the back in the backfield.”
On Trey running the ball:
“It’s kind of what we were given. Especially at the end when we were down two points and the rain started to come down. It was a little hard to just go two-minute in that situation, and we were, we had to, but mixing in some quarterback draws and stuff because it became really tough to throw there in the end.”
On no Jordan Mason carries:
“We just didn’t stay out there that long after Elijah went down. Jeff came in and did a couple of good things and Mason would’ve been the next guy up if Jeff ever got tired.”
On Hufanga’s performance:
“From what I saw out there, it looked like he played really well. I was seeing him a lot early, especially making that turnover. But you never know until you watch the tape. But to make it out, I was really impressed with him.”
On Fields’ performance against the 49ers:
“He made some plays. He made some off-schedule plays and got a couple of penalties that were the difference in the game.”
On his message to the team:
“Basically what I just told you guys. First thing it starts out with is intent and how hard everybody goes. I never felt anything wrong with that throughout the game. But you’re not going to win a lot of games when you miss those opportunities when you have a chance to run away with it. And then when you end up looking at 12 penalties to three, especially the timing of those, that’s what should happen. You have to get lucky to win when you do some of those types of things.”
On if he has to lean on veterans after a game like this:
“Same as every week. I’m not gonna make anything different of this than it was the first game, we really wanted to win this. Not to take anything away from them, but I’m disappointed in some of the silly mistakes we did to ourselves. That’s not just young guys, that’s veterans out there that have done a lot of good things for us. So it’s out whole team that needs to clean that stuff up to have a chance to do what we want to do.”
On sense of how three inside offensive linemen did:
“Not totally. There was a couple of misses and stuff, but I felt pretty in control, where I thought it should have been a lot bigger of a gap than it was. By no means were they perfect, but they weren’t the difference in the scheme or anything like that.”
DEFENSIVE END NICK BOSA
On weather’s impact:
“When it’s raining that hard, you can’t really do much, pass-rush wise. But it was better grass, too.”
On Fields’ ability to escape:
“He’s good, yeah. He’s good at that. We definitely rushed him well in the first half, just bullrushing and not hitting any moves anywhere, because then he’s just gonna run. So it’s not the most fun, but it’s the way to beat them and we didn’t do it in the second half, so that’s what happens.”
On if he felt there were any big changes in the second half:
“Not really, no. It’s not like they ran too much or anything new in the second half. We just had penalties. We knew he was going to slide at the last second. We hit him twice on third downs that are opportunities to get off the field. And 15 yards for a team that can’t move the ball is huge. So yeah, we gotta be smarter.”
On if these losses are easier to flush:
“I think it’s more frustrating, honestly, when this type of thing happens.”
On the environment is in the locker room:
“We’re going to be alright. We’ve been through worse. We’d obviously like to get a win, but it’s just annoying to give a game away like that. Just happy to get back to California.”
WIDE RECEIVER DEEBO SAMUEL
On playing in the rain:
“I actually didn’t play in the Washington game my rookie year. It was coming down a good bit when we first started warming up and it kind of went away. But once we got the ball back after the turnover we had, it just started. The ball was heavy. It was hard for Trey to throw it. It was hard to catch it. We just tried to make the best out of every opportunity we got.”
On if they felt they should have been up more when leading 10-0:
“Yeah, of course. Something Kyle talked about after the game, we left a couple opportunities out there to really put the game away. But I mean, mistakes happen in the game, it’s just how you capitalize off of them.”
On if this game does for team mentally:
“It’s just motivation for the next week. We put this all behind us. We watch the film tomorrow and then it is what it is.”
On Lance’s performance:
“Something I’ve seen from Trey since he started. A good leader, trying to get the team going in bad conditions. We tried to make the best out of every opportunity he gave us out there.”
On if weather makes it hard to figure out problems:
“No. We know what happened, we know what we need to fix. We’re really good in the locker room as far as people knowing what we need to do to win the game. We’re just going to put this behind us and get ready for next week.”
On how he feels about his carries as a running back:
“It just feels the same. Been doing it for a long time, so I don’t see it different. Once I see a hole, I’m going to hit it and whatever happens, happens.”
On his fumble:
“Guy punched the ball out.”
On his touchdown:
“That’s something we practice a lot. It was blocked perfect and everything else is left in my hands with it being blocked perfect. I just went out and made a play.”
QUARTERBACK TREY LANCE
“I made too many mistakes. Our defense kept us in the game. Had a big miss to Tyler Kroft in the end zone, trying to throw a perfect ball and should have just put it right on him. He was wide open. I turned the ball over, took a sack that knocked us out of field-goal range, missed Deebo on third down, and Jauan. Just too many mistakes. There’s a lot to clean up, for sure, for me. But I’m excited. I’ve still got my head up and am excited to go into next week.
“I’ve got some time to think about the game. Just too many mistakes. It’s much easier to turn the page. I’m frustrated with myself a little bit and know I’m better than that.
On interception:
“Robber (coverage by the safety) all the way. I tried to hold him, I thought I held him long enough with my eyes. I didn’t. He made a great play. I didn’t throw a great ball.”
On conditions:
“The field wasn’t that bad. Both teams dealt with it.”
On fourth-quarter rain’s impact:
“The fourth quarter for sure was the toughest. We had so many opportunities, I had so many opportunities to make plays to run away with it far before that, where that two-minute drill wouldn’t have been a factor.”
On sideline message:
“We’ve got to keep our head up, keep grinding. It’s a long season. Sixteen more of these in the regular season. Those guys did a great job up front, receivers and running backs made a bunch of plays. I’ve just got to be better.”
On health:
“Just a couple of scratches. I didn’t feel I took any big hits.”
On how read defense:
“I’ve got to watch the tape. Seeing pictures on the sideline… I left a couple plays on third down out there.”
LEFT TACKLE TRENT WILLIAMS
On Lance taking the blame for the loss himself:
“This is why they handed him the keys to the organization. He’s a mature dude, he’s a great teammate. Yeah, that doesn’t surprise us.”
On Lance’s emotions in the huddle:
“He was good. He was laid back, even when it was pouring down rain and it was a two-score game and we had to make something happen really quick. He didn’t waver at all. He stayed calm, cool and collected.”
On taking a loss with that many mistakes:
“It’s hard enough to play against the opposing team. It’s even harder to play against yourself. I’ve been playing football a long time. Any game that I can remember where we had close to 100 yards of penalties and we had two turnovers, especially one in scoring range in the red zone, it generally never turns out that well.”
On how he was feeling in the locker room:
“It’s because of the loss. Anytime you lose, you’re never happy. Just had to take a minute to collect my thoughts. But yeah. It sucks when you know you had the game in hand and you know that a lot of unforced mistakes is what really caused it. We’ve got a young team, we’ll bounce back and we’ll be better next week. But anytime you let a team hang around, it’s never gonna be that good. It just so happens that when we really had to move the ball through the air, the weather was at its worst. That’s what happens in football.”
On the diversity of run plays they can use:
“Obviously, y’all seen it all training camp, we’ve got a lot of different ball carriers, we’re getting the ball out of a lot of different looks. That’s always been our mantra. We want to run the ball first and control the game, control the clock and possess the ball. That’s the type of team we are and we didn’t do that good enough today, which is why we’re on the losing end.”
RIGHT TACKLE MIKE McGLINCHEY
“We made too many mistakes. That’s starts with me. In the first half, I gave up a stupid sack that knocked us out of field goal. That’s points right there. We fumbled inside the 10, that’s tough. Fumbled snap inside the 10. Penalties everywhere. You can’t do that stuff.”
LINEBACKER DRE GREENLAW
On Justin Fields:
“We talked about it beforehand: he’s a slider and we’ve got to be smart. I tried to hold off as much as I can. You win some, you lose some.”
On his facemask penalty:
“I touched it. As soon as I felt his facemask, I let it go. I was hoping (the ref) would see that. I didn’t grab it. I touched it as I locked him up and he was already going down.”
On field conditions:
“The new grass probably helped. I was able to keep my cleats in the ground, for the most part. As wet as it was, maybe the new turf helped. But it was hard regardless. The way it was raining, it was hard to put your feet in the ground and make a clean tackle.”
DEFENSIVE TACKLE ARIK ARMSTEAD
On not sacking Fields on 51-yard touchdown pass:
“He’s tough in the open field. Got to find a way to get him down. That’s on me.”
On defense’s responsibility to help Trey:
“We always put responsibility on ourselves. We want to put it on our shoulders to get wins and our shoulders are big enough for it. We have to turn the page. We have a great team. We got a lot of penalty yards and have to clean it up.”
On penalties:
“You can talk to your teammate, try to bring him in. Stuff happens out there. Going into the game, you have to be better and cognizant of what’s going on.”
On team:
“Not the result we wanted but we have a great team. We’ll clean stuff up and get back. You saw last year – with just keep fighting, keep getting better – can lead you.”
SAFETY TALANOA HUFANGA
On weather like Indy game last year?
“The rainstorm was crazy, honestly. Today was probably worse than last year. But conditions don’t matter. It makes it fun. It’s not an advantage for the defense or the offense. Everybody is feeling the same thing on the field.”
GUARD AARON BANKS
“I have to hone in on my technique and get better.”
On he and fellow starting guard Spencer Burford:
“I know what they expect out of me and Spencer. Our goal is to be the best guards that we can be for this offense and do whatever they ask. We know we have the spotlight on us.”
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism