SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 Brock Purdy threw\u00a0a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jauan Jennings\u00a0with 2:15 left, and the San Francisco 49ers forced\u00a0an incomplete pass on the final play\u00a0from the 2 to beat the Chicago Bears 42-38 on Sunday night and set up a Week 18 showdown for the top seed in the NFC.<\/p>\n
Caleb Williams drove the Bears (11-5) down the field in the closing seconds and had one last shot for the win. But Bryce Huff forced him out of the pocket and his throw short-hopped Jahdae Walker in the end zone to seal a sixth straight victory for the 49ers (12-4).<\/p>\n
That gave the 49ers a chance to win the NFC West and get a bye by beating Seattle (13-3) in the season finale on Saturday night. A win would give San Francisco home-field advantage and a chance to stay home all post-season, with the Super Bowl set to be played at Levi\u2019s Stadium on Feb. 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve earned this,\u201d coach Kyle Shanahan said. “This is the game we want. We love that it\u2019s here. We have an opportunity to never leave here again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss ends the Bears\u2019 hopes of earning the top seed. Chicago has already clinched the NFC North and can earn the No. 2 seed by beating Detroit next Sunday.<\/p>\n
Purdy followed his career-high five TD-pass performance last week against Indianapolis by throwing for three scores and running for two to become the sixth player since the AFL-NFL merger with back-to-back games with at least five touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made some huge plays in this game,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cHe kept some drives alive with his legs, made some off-schedule plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purdy finished 24 for 33 for 303 yards, while Christian McCaffrey ran for 140 yards and a score and added 41 more receiving.<\/p>\n
Williams went 25 for 42 for 330 yards and two TDs but couldn\u2019t deliver at the end after already leading the Bears to an NFL-record six comeback wins after trailing in the final two minutes of regulation.<\/p>\n
Neither defence could slow down the opposing offence for most of the night after a pick-6 by Chicago\u2019s T.J. Edwards on the first play. The Niners led 28-21 at halftime.<\/p>\n
The teams then traded touchdowns on the first three drives of the second half, with D\u2019Andre Swift scoring on two runs for Chicago and Purdy delivering a highlight-reel play for San Francisco. He rolled to his right on a play from the 6, eluded two pass rushers and then\u00a0flipped an easy TD pass to Kyle Juszczyk\u00a0on a play that lasted longer than 8 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping he’d throw it away and we’d have a couple more downs,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cThen I started watching him like every fan does. He made me extremely nervous and then he made my extremely happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bears finally forced a punt and went ahead 38-35 on a short field goal by Cairo Santos with 5:22 to play when they couldn\u2019t convert on third down in the red zone.<\/p>\n
The Bears\u2019 opportunistic defence struck on the first play when Edwards caught a deflected pass and returned it 34 yards for Chicago\u2019s first defensive score on the opening play in at least 45 years, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.<\/p>\n
Purdy answered his big mistake to start the game with a 65-yard touchdown drive capped by a 1-yard pass to Jake Tonges, and San Francisco moved the ball with ease all half.<\/p>\n
Purdy added two touchdown runs and McCaffrey also scored on the ground to give the 49ers a 28-21 lead at the break despite allowing two deep TD passes by Williams.<\/p>\n
Bears: LB Noah Sewell left in the third quarter with an ankle injury. … DE Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (concussion) left the game. … WR Olamide Zaccheaus was a late scratch with an illness.<\/p>\n
49ers: LT Trent Williams (hamstring) left after\u00a0getting hurt on the opening play\u00a0and never returned. … CB Upton Stout (concussion) left in the second half. … TE George Kittle (ankle) was inactive.<\/p>\n
Bears: Host Detroit on Sunday.<\/p>\n
49ers: Host Seattle on Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 Brock Purdy threw\u00a0a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jauan Jennings\u00a0with 2:15 left, and the San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-374702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}