The San Francisco 49ers have played no shortage of classic games over 80 years in the NFL.
There are, of course, The Catch and The Drive. There were four other Super Bowl wins plus the seven other games that clinched each of the Niners’ eight NFC championships.
Yet, according to longtime 49ers writer David Lombardi, Sunday night’s four-point win over Caleb Williams the Chicago Bears deserves to be high on the list, especially among regular-season games.
The Niners held off Chicago 42-38 to keep alive their hopes of winning the NFC West and earning the No. 1 seed. Brock Purdy, of course, put up five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing — and Christian McCaffrey amassed 181 yards and one touchdown while helping San Francisco improve to 12-4.
The Niners will host the Seattle Seahawks (13-3) on Saturday night to decide the division title.
The 49ers’ Win Sunday Night Made NFL History
The Bears and 49ers have been playing head-to-head games since San Francisco joined the league in 1946. Yet, neither they — nor any team in the 100-plus years of NFL regular season games — did what the Niners and Bears did Sunday night.
The Sunday night game was the first in NFL regular-season history to be tied at 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35. The game resembled a tennis match where neither side broke serve, though the teams did combine for five punts and of course Purdy threw the game’s first TD to the wrong team, when T.J. Edwards took the interception 34 yards on the game’s first play from scrimmage.
But even that brief hiccup was no deterrent to the hottest streak of Purdy’s career. He hit 24 of 32 passes after his first-throw INT (75%) and made play after play in the passing game, mainly to McCaffrey, Ricky Pearsall and fill-in tight end Jake Tonges.
Purdy also used his legs on a pair of designed runs then to elude Bears defenders on Kyle Juszczyk’s six-yard TD. Then, after the Niners finally forced a field goal, Purdy hit Jauan Jennings on a 38-yard TD that put them ahead for good.
Purdy and the 49ers offense were so hot they managed to overcome a historic night from the Bears offense. Williams finished with 330 yards passing and two scores, though his impact was felt more in moving the Bears down the field while countering 49ers scores.
According to OptaStats, the Bears were the first team in NFL history to score 35+ points, have no turnovers, score a defensive TD, allow no sacks and lose.
The 49ers Offense Keeps Rolling
The 49ers’ offensive injuries are astounding. Sunday night they played without All-Pro tight end George Kittle and left tackler Trent Williams — though the latter did get one snap before leaving the game. They are devoid of a game-breaking wideout, and McCaffrey is human, as he proved in the fourth quarter where he nearly ran out of gas after touching the ball on 27 of his 61 offensive snaps.
Yet, it hasn’t mattered, since San Francisco is averaging 42.3 points per game in its past three post-bye games. Despite the loss of Kittle and Williams, the 49ers put up a season-high 496 yards and scored at least four touchdowns for the fourth time in their past six games.
With Purdy dominating, and the 49ers playing in the friendly confines of Levi’s Stadium, confidence has to be high for Niners fans to clinch the division and potentially an all-home road that includes Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara.
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