Long after most of his team had cleared out of the Bears locker room Sunday night, safety Jaquan Brisker stood at his locker, spoke quietly and shook his head.
“I’m going to say it — we let the offense down,” he said. “Period.”
That’s jarring for any Bears fan to consider. The franchise is built on dominant defense. Now, despite leading the NFL in takeaways, the defense could be considered a weakness heading into the playoffs, where it is bound to see quarterbacks as good, or better, than the 49ers’ Brock Purdy. To win, the Bears might need to — let this swirl around your mind for a minute — rely on their offense to light up the scoreboard.
The history of the NFL — starting when George Halas and others sat on the running boards of a Hupmobile — features 11 games in which a defense has given up at least 295 passing yards, 200 rushing yards, six touchdowns and 32 first downs while recording one sack or fewer. That’s exactly what the Bears did in Sunday night’s 42-38 loss to the 49ers.
Before Sunday night, every team to do so had lost by double digits. Four of the 10 lost by at least 40 points. It was a credit to quarterback Caleb Williams that the game even came down to the final play, an incompletion on fourth-and-goal at the 2 as time expired.
“Really, the last team who had the ball was probably going to win the game,“ Brisker said, though he was proven wrong.
Ben Johnson has said since the day he was hired that he didn’t care if the Bears needed to score 70 points or just seven to win a game. The Bears can’t do the latter in the playoffs without a more dangerous defense.
Because running back Christian McCaffrey was able to average 6.1 yards per carry, the 49ers were often in third-and-short — if they got there at all. They finished the game 7-for-10 on third downs and 1-for-1 on fourth downs. Four of the 49ers’ third down conversions, and their lone fourth-down conversion, came when they needed four yards or fewer.
Brisker credited 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, the play-caller who managed to make what he called “simple plays” confusing for the defense. They’re not alone — the 49ers are averaging 35.7 points during their six-game win streak.
“We were playing a really good offense right now, OK?” Johnson said.
The Bears have split their last two games against playoff teams, beating the Packers in overtime and losing Sunday night. The difference: the Packers didn’t score a touchdown in five red zone trips, while the 49ers scored in all five.
The 114.7 passer rating the Bears allowed in the two games is their worst such stretch since the first two contests of the season. The 392 rushing yards they allowed was the worst two-game stretch of the year — and of the past three seasons.
Sunday night, they were left looking for answers. How was Purdy able to scramble for two touchdowns?
“I don’t have an answer for you,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said.
How can the pass rush be better?
“That’s a layered question,” he said.
What happened in general?
“I would be misspeaking if I had an exact answer for you …” Jarrett said. “I’m glad it happened now so we could be ready going into the postseason.”
That’s presuming the Bears can get their defense on track. Playing at home in the playoffs will help. It will be difficult to stage a track meet in the cold.
“A lot harder,” Brisker said.
The Bears need help from more than just Mother Nature, though.
“It’s tough right now,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said. “It’s one that I think all of us on the defense thought we didn’t play how we needed to. And that’s disappointing. But we’ve got some important ball ahead of us. We’ve got to get back to work.”
