SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 15, 2014
Bears 28, 49ers 20: Jay Cutler threw four touchdown passes - three to Brandon Marshall - and Chicago erased a 17-point deficit to spoil the opening of Levi's Stadium with its first win at San Francisco since 1985.
Cutler rebounded from a rocky first half by completing 23-of-34 for 176 yards and tossed three fourth-quarter scoring passes, including a pair to Marshall and Marcellus Bennett 21 seconds apart, as the Bears (1-1) ended a seven-game losing streak in San Francisco. Marshall, who did not practice all week due to an ankle injury, had five catches for 48 yards and rookie Kyle Fuller had two second-half interceptions for Chicago.
Colin Kaepernick was picked off three times and lost a fumble to offset 248 yards passing and an early touchdown strike to Michael Crabtree for the 49ers (1-1), who also committed 16 penalties for 118 yards. Crabtree had seven catches for 82 yards while Frank Gore rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown.
San Francisco led 20-7 on Phil Dawson's 24-yard field goal with 5:56 left in the third, but the Bears answered by going 80 yards capped by Cutler's 5-yard dart to Marshall with 13:35 to play before Fuller picked off Kaepernick to set up Cutler's 3-yard pass to Bennett for the go-ahead TD with 13:14 left. Fuller's second pick set up Chicago at the Niners 42 and Cutler needed four plays to find Marshall from 3 yards out for a 28-20 edge with 6:55 to go.
The 49ers blocked a punt on the fourth play of scrimmage and turned it into a 3-yard scoring pass from Kaepernick to Crabtree before Dawson's 27-yard field goal and Gore's 8-yard burst up the middle made it 17-0 with 2:22 left in the first half. Chicago, which had 33 total yards to that point, responded by moving 80 yards in seven plays before Marshall made a spectacular, one-handed leaping catch in the end zone to give the Bears a pulse.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The teams combined for 17 of their 26 penalties in a flag-filled first 30 minutes, the most in an opening half of a game since Christmas Eve in 2011. ... Crabtree's seven catches are his most in a regular-season game since Week 17 of the 2012 campaign. ... Bears CB Charles Tillman (right triceps), S Chris Conte (shoulder), DT Jeremiah Ratliff (concussion) DE Trevor Scott (foot) and DB Sherrick McManis (quadriceps) were all injured and did not return while 49ers TE Vernon Davis exited in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury. Tillman tore the same right triceps in November 2013 that ended his season.