So, too, were McCaskey’s comments Friday in a wide-ranging interview that included team President Ted Phillips that Tribune beat writer Colleen Kane was part of. Maybe it was to take in the scene of a jubilant locker room. Maybe it was to congratulate the general manager, Ryan Poles, and coach he hired in January. So that was really good.”Ĭhairman George McCaskey entered the locker room shortly after the game, which I can’t recall seeing him do in the past.

“And it’s because of the way we practice and the way we play, and we’re able to stay focused when it is the second half, in those critical moments, and they can play and be focused in those moments. “We always tell the guys, ‘Hey, we have mental and physical stamina for what reason?’” Eberflus said. The points coach Matt Eberflus has been driving home from day one in his comments to the media and to his players were measures that his team played with. They committed 12 penalties for 99 yards - many of them costly mistakes in a close game - and the Bears finished plus-1 in turnover margin with free safety Eddie Jackson making his first interception since 2019 and cornerback Jaylon Johnson punching the ball out of Deebo Samuel’s clutch at the Bears 12-yard line before rookie strong safety Jaquan Brisker fell on it. That’s 18 of the 47 players in uniform, a huge number of young players.īut it was the 49ers who made the kind of mistakes you see young teams make. They had 11 rookies on the active game-day roster, one first-year player (reserve center Dieter Eiselen, who was flexed up from the practice squad) and six second-year players. The Bears played with an uncommon level of poise for such a young roster. The 49ers did a good job of winning the field-position battle through two quarters, but despite controlling the action, they couldn’t get a big cushion on the scoreboard. Everyone has seen more than their share of 30-minute starts in which the Bears offense was unable to reach the end zone. It wasn’t pretty, and the first half, at least offensively, was downright ugly.

Can you imagine what a previous surface would have looked like after a game with that much rain? That’s fitting after the Bears grinded out a victory in less-than-ideal conditions and on better-than-usual turf. The new men in charge of the football side for the Bears earned game balls.

10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears rallied in the second half to open the season with a 19-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in sloppy conditions at Soldier Field.

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