Bowman sees plan coming together, 49ers beat Bears in OT

The San Francisco 49ers seek their first road win of the season when they visit the home-challenged Chicago Bears on Sunday.

But on Sunday, in a 26-20 overtime victory over the Bears in Chicago, it was Gabbert making two huge plays, one at the end of regulation and the other to win it in OT, that gave the Niners an upset. Blaine Gabbert’s 44-yard scramble aside, they had entirely checked the 49ers’ running attack. The offensive line was uplifted by the return of Daniel Kilgore, who has missed the entire season due to a broken leg last season. It was Gould’s second miss of the game.

“There’s no excuse for it”, Gould said.

“I feel awful”, Gould said. “They were both probably the worst kicks I’ve had all year”.

On San Francisco’s second possession of overtime, Gabbert and Torrey Smith ended the game on one play. The 49ers also gave up a 74-yard kickoff return that almost cost them the game.

“Without going too much into our scheme, there were man (coverage) elements to it”, Bears coach John Fox said. Coming into this season I had no clue how he would fit into this new Bears 3-4 defense.

Tomsula’s pep talk came right after Chicago’s Ka’Deem Carey ran for a touchdown in the closing minutes of regulation.

After winning the coin toss, the Bears defense forced the 49ers’ seventh three-and-out of the game, before the 49ers stood stout to return the favor.

The golden rules for a backup quarterback, a title Gabbert appears to appreciate, are to play conservative, not lose the game with turnovers and capitalize on one or two throws to make a difference. “We have a lot of improving to do”.

The San Francisco special teams did not produce up to expectations against the Chicago Bears. The 49ers, of course, went through perhaps the most drastic off-season player and coach purge ever in the 2015 preseason, Kaepernick was grossly ineffective before he was benched and then placed on injured reserve in November, and now, the team is investigating the possibility of trading him. 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.

The 49ers’ season looked dead in the water when a Week 8 road loss at the Edward Jones Dome dropped their record to 2-6.

Is Gabbert a better quarterback than Kaepernick? Gabbert had completed only one pass longer than 12 yards – a 26-yard check down to Draughn – before that final heave. Teams are supposed to do well at home, they are supposed to be able to perform better there but the Bears have been unable to do that. We stopped him all game. “I tried to (throw) it early with as much as air as possible, and let him find it when the ball is in the air. It worked out beautifully”.

NOTES: RB Carlos Hyde’s status remains unclear after he missed his fifth straight game with a stress fracture in his left foot. A 44-yard scamper late in the fourth quarter highlighted Gabbert’s rushing day to send the game to overtime.

Injury update: Linebacker Aaron Lynch left the game with a concussion in the third quarter.

Notable: Gabbert finished 18-of-32 for 196 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 75 yards and the score. The exclamation mark was Jay Cutler’s pick six, when Jimmie Ward read a screen play and returned the pass for a touchdown. The quarterback has a salary of $13.9 million for next season, but it does not become guaranteed until April 1 meaning the 49ers could quickly move on from the starter with very little repercussions as a result.