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49ers-Bears recap: Defense comes up big against bad Chicago offense

The 49ers defense came up big against a bad Bears defense in a winning effort on Sunday.

NFL: San Francisco 49ers at Chicago Bears Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Everyone is talking about Jimmy Garoppolo — with a good reason — but don’t overlook the game the San Francisco 49ers had on defense against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. The Bears are not a strong offensive team by any stretch of the imagination, but they were nearly historically bad against the 49ers.

San Francisco held Chicago to just 147 net yards (62 rushing, 85 passing), which marks the fewest net yards allowed by the 49ers defense since Nov. 19, 2012 ... when the Bears had 143 yards against them.

On top of that, the 49ers defense allowed just eight first downs, the fewest first downs allowed by them in a game since Nov. 29, 2010 against the Arizona Cardinals. Mitchell Trubisky completed 12 of 15 passes for 102 yards and a touchdown, and was sacked two times for a loss of 17 yards.

Chicago ran just 36 plays on offense, the fewest against the 49ers since Oct. 20, 1991 against the Detroit Lions, who ran 35 offensive plays that day. 49ers defensive lineman Leger Douzable said that he’s never been part of a game with so few defensive snaps, according to David Lombardi. If you didn’t know, Douzable has played over a decade in the league.

One of the sacks on Trubisky came from defensive lineman Cassius Marsh, who registered a strip sack, marking his first forced fumble and sack as a member of the 49ers.

I’m disappointed that the 49ers weren’t able to secure a pick on Trubisky, and that he completed a high percentage of his passes, but the 49ers were more than dominant on defense on Sunday. It was a pretty ugly game, either way, but it was an ugly game that they controlled for most of the time.