SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers still have plenty of talent. They still have plenty of good coaches.
The missing element in their disappointing season so far, the team decided in the run-up to Sunday’s 38-13 win over the Chicago Bears, has been desperation.
That point was hammered home during the week of practice when normally reserved defensive lineman Leonard Floyd told teammates that even though it was early December, everyone had to snap into playoff mode.
“Yeah, definitely,” Floyd said when asked if he’d been more vocal than normal. “Because I’ve got a lot of experience and I’ve been through situations where we had to win the rest of our games. It can be done. It just takes a certain mindset to get it done. So that’s what I was preaching.”
GO DEEPER 49ers end 3-game slide by dominating Bears 38-13: Takeaways
Floyd’s sermon was reinforced Saturday at the meeting at the team hotel. Kyle Shanahan tapped two players who don’t usually speak in front of the team, Brock Purdy and Deommodore Lenoir. And he also had tight end George Kittle, perhaps the best — and certainly the most lively — public speaker on the team, share a few words.
“I think the message was we need to play with more of a sense of urgency and play desperate,” Kittle said afterward. “Because we haven’t really sensed that.”
Kittle noted that previous 49ers squads got off to tepid starts but got desperate — and got on a roll — late in the season.
“It literally felt like every single play people were scratching and clawing and fighting for everything,” he said. “I’m not going to call anyone out — it’s just felt like we haven’t fought hard enough. And that was the message: Put it all out there.”
Floyd, Lenoir and the defense had their best game of the season, smothering the Bears to the tune of 4 yards at halftime and sacking rookie quarterback Caleb Williams seven times. Two sacks came from Floyd, who said he’s only recently started to hit his stride in the 49ers defense. Fellow defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos, meanwhile, finished with three sacks.
Back 2 Back sacks for @__lobo99!
📺 #CHIvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4oaLh pic.twitter.com/y2UJ04Dx7S— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 9, 2024
“Yeah, we were smoking hot,” said Floyd, adding that it seemed like every lineman had his best game of the season.
On offense, Purdy and the passing attack got off to a quick start. He completed his first six passes, including an easy, 7-yard touchdown to Jauan Jennings.
Purdy, who finished with 325 yards and a season-best 145.4 passer rating, briefly left the contest when he was pulled down by the neck by Bears defensive lineman Darrell Taylor. He returned one play later to chants of “Pur-dy! Pur-dy!” from the Levi’s Stadium crowd.
“It was just a weird hit,” he said. “My body was in an awkward position. I’ve never been in a situation like that, so I was sort of in shock. I felt some stuff within my body, I let myself cool down. That’s why I went out for a play, and I was making sure I was being good about it. My body was good.”
What did he think of the crowd?
“Hearing them sort of have my back — that was pretty cool, man,” he said, a smile spreading across his face.
Sunday’s win was tempered by the fact the Bears are a four-win team that fired head coach Matt Eberflus last week and seemed uninterested when the game began. Still, the 49ers handled them like a playoff-caliber team should. And it was the first time this season the 49ers looked like their 2023 selves for a full game.
They accomplished that without a lot of their 2023 stars.
With Nick Bosa missing his third straight game with a hip/oblique injury, Floyd became more vocal off the field and was a bigger menace on it. His two sacks give him the team lead in that category — 8 1/2 versus seven sacks for Bosa.
Jennings, meanwhile, continues to excel in the X-receiver position he took over when Brandon Aiyuk was lost for the season in October. He caught seven of eight targets Sunday with two touchdowns. He’s now caught six of the eight touchdown passes by 49ers wide receivers this season with Deebo Samuel Sr. and Ricky Pearsall catching one each.
JJ out here going CRAZY!
📺 #CHIvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4oaLh pic.twitter.com/YZtfj6BsPw— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 8, 2024
At running back, rookie Isaac Guerendo made his first NFL start following multi-week injuries to Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason. He finished with two touchdowns, 78 rushing yards and 50 receiving yards but also a foot injury that sent him to the locker room in the fourth quarter.
Shanahan said the initial diagnosis was a sprained foot but that Guerendo would get more tests on Monday. Patrick Taylor Jr. took over late in the game and would be the starter Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams if Guerendo is unable to play.
The question now is whether the 49ers’ awakening has come too late. Though their win moved them to 6-7, the division-leading Seattle Seahawks (8-5) also won on Sunday and have a better division record, the first relevant tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same record (they split their head-to-head matchups).
The 49ers, however, said they’re not paying close attention to their opponents’ record. In their minds, they’re already in the playoffs: They have to win each outing to advance.
“We still have everything in front of us,” Kittle said. “I know that certain things might need to happen. But if we win every single game, I think we put ourselves in a very good position to either win the division or somehow sneak our way into playoff contention.”
