Blaine Gabbert’s late game effort helps

Jay Cutler threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown, and the defense faltered at the worst time.

“I feel awful. I have a job to do, and I didn’t do that today”, Gould said. This is a team that might have gotten a false impression of itself with the Thanksgiving victory at Green Bay.

The San Francisco 49ers quarterback finished the game with 196 passing yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Any talk of the Bears reaching. Certainly, the 49ers are far from a flawless team – and far from a good team, for that matter – but if ownership and management want to see continued, steady improvement, they can make the case that it happened Sunday in the form of their first road victory of the season.

Cutler misfired on a couple of throws with Alshon Jeffery and Joshua Bellamy open in the San Francisco secondary in the fourth quarter. “You got to see that (Sunday), but we see it in practice”.

Said Long: “We put a big emphasis on being road warriors”. “It’s a shame because we had a good shot today”.

Now, Chicago will try to keep the good feelings going against a team with little to celebrate.

Even with those miscues, Chicago still had a chance to escape with the win.

The second half was scoreless for more than 26 minutes until backup running back Ka’Deem Carey’s 4-yard touchdown run with 3:32 remaining capped an 83-yard drive and gave the Bears a 20-13 lead. Kaepernick, however, has regressed significantly over the past few years, and this season, was demoted below Blaine Gabbert to second string.

Blaine Gabbert runs 44 yards for the tying touchdown in Chicago on Sunday. I don’t know why it is but John Fox needs to do something. Gabbert’s leadership played a key role in the result. “We didn’t execute as well as we needed to”.

While rehashing their loss to the 49ers won’t be a very pleasant experience, the Bears will make sure it’s at least productive as they begin to prepare for their next game Sunday against the Redskins. The veteran kicker was 8 for 9 on field goals from 30-39 yards and 5 for 6 from 40-49 yards coming into the day.

Said Bowman: “I told them the expectations that everyone has on us and that it was our job to get it right”.

The San Francisco offense has not produced outlandish statistics this season, but they were able to do just enough to produce a win. Six of their first 10 possessions were three-and-outs, and there was only one scoring drive among them.

Smith was mobbed by a group of teammates in the end zone while the Bears trudged to midfield for postgame handshakes. We stopped him all game.

Still, the 49ers held the Bears offense to 364 yards, certainly not fantastic but the lowest on the road this season.

Jim Tomsula took notice during Blaine Gabbert’s days as a backup quarterback for San Francisco how he arrived to work each morning at 6 a.m., cup of coffee in hand, ready to study film. They also fell to 1-5 at home.

“This is the kind of year we’re having right now”, Smith said. Awesome individuals. You get in a moment like that.

The effort appeared to have been wasted seconds later, when Chicago return man Deonte Thompson found a crease in the San Francisco coverage and snuck up the left side to the San Francisco 28. The 49ers lost TE Vance McDonald (concussion), LB Michael Wilhoite (ankle) and LB Aaron Lynch (concussion) to injuries.