After a close loss to the 49ers, @ryandroste hands out his Chicago Bears game balls.
You can’t win them all, but the Chicago Bears certainly gave the San Francisco 49ers a scare on Sunday night in Santa Clara, California.
In one of the toughest games on their 2025 schedule, the Bears came out with tons of firepower but ultimately fell just two yards (and a few seconds) short in a Sunday Night Football classic. Unfortunately for the Bears, their defense wasn’t up to snuff or it might have been a different outcome.
But one can’t fault Caleb Williams and the offense, who put together one of their best outings of the season and scored 38 points on the road against a perennial NFC contender. While the game resulted in a loss, it certainly succeeded in giving Bears fans hope that this is just the start of a years long run under new head coach Ben Johnson.
Let’s get to the game balls.
Offense Game Ball: WR Luther Burden III
Caleb Williams had a terrific outing on Sunday night, but we’re looking this week at first year phenom Luther Burden III. The Bears WR room was shorthanded vs. the 49ers: Rome Odunze was still inactive recovering from injury, DJ Moore played through illness, and Olamide Zaccheaus was inactive due to illness.
Leave it to Burden to show up in big-time fashion. He ended the game with eight catches, 132 yards receiving, and one touchdown.
Burden did have one uncharacteristic drop on the final drive, but the boost he gave the offense all night was impossible to ignore. His route running and body control was also spectacular.
Burden suffered an injury on the last play of regulation that appeared catastrophic in the moment. However, it’s now looking like the injury is “not thought to be serious,” so hopefully the team will have him back for the playoffs.
Defense Game Ball: DE Austin Booker
Sunday night’s game against the 49ers seemed to be a lesson in how to not play defense.
Dennis Allen’s group couldn’t do much of anything right. The linebackers were atrocious, and the coverage from the secondary was even worse. QB Brock Purdy did pretty much anything he wanted all night long, throwing to wide open receivers continuously. Nahshon Wright, who we’ve been extremely complimentary of this season (with good reason), was absolutely abused by the Niners wideouts from start to finish.
T.J. Edwards, Tremaine Edmonds, Grady Jarrett, and Montez Sweat were the four lowest graded Bears defenders by PFF. Sweat and Edmunds are the highest paid Bears defenders in terms of cap hit in 2025, and Jaylon Johnson and Kevin Byard are the only defensive players with higher cap hits than Jarrett and Edwards.
It’s simply unacceptable to have four of the six highest paid members of your defense grade out as the worst performing players on the field. It’s pretty hard to win that way! Former Bears LB Lance Briggs was absolutely beside himself with how poorly the Bears linebackers played. D’Marco Jackson, anyone?
With all of that said, there was a glimmer of hope on the defensive line. Second year DE Austin Booker once again had himself a game and takes home the game ball this week — his first of the season.
Booker had a huge sack on Purdy in the second quarter.
He also forced a rare 49ers punt by getting to Purdy late in the game.
Booker ended the night with three tackles (one solo), one sack, one tackle for loss, two passes defended, and one QB hit. The Bears had 10 pressures on Sunday, and Booker was responsible for five of them.
We are foregoing a special teams game ball this week, though it may have been awarded to Tory Taylor. Taylor averaged just shy of 60 yards per punt (3) on Sunday night. He placed one inside the 20 and had a long of 64 yards. Unfortunately, none of that mattered much when the 49ers were able to move the ball as they did.
Bryan Orenchuk and myself will have plenty to say about this game this week on a new episode of Bears Over Beers. It will be available on the 2nd City GridironYouTube channel or via your favorite podcasting platform. Our 2nd City Gridiron Podcast Channel is available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Audacy, and other popular podcast platforms.
Who would have received your game balls? Let us know in the comments section below.
Category: General Sports
