Garoppolo leads 49ers to last-second win

The Bears grabbed a 7-3 lead in the closing seconds of the first quarter when Trubisky hit Dontrelle Inman in the back of the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown.

When he nailed the final kick of the day, a 24-yard field goal with four seconds remaining, Gould celebrated by screaming in the general direction of the Bears bench.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine any scenario in which Fox coaches the team next week in Cincinnati – except one: it’s the Bears.

“I mean, just look at him – look at him!”

“I thought it was a good first start”, Shanahan said.

The dream became reality on Sunday as Garoppolo, in his 49ers starting debut, marched the offense 86 yards on 14 plays in the final six minutes for his first San Francisco victory, 15-14 over a Bears club he grew up cheering for.

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Garoppolo was 9-of-12 for 115 yards against the blitz, a ideal 9-of-9 for 109 yards using play-action and 18-of-22 for 233 yards when throwing between the painted numbers. Instead the Bears punted to the 49ers for their game-winning drive but, regardless of that stroke of fortune, there will be some questions asked of the punt coverage in the special teams meeting room come Monday. They started the game without three of their top four safeties, two of their cornerbacks, and played with only two outside linebackers after Pernell McPhee was sidelined with a shoulder injury.

“Our guys hung in there”.

Perhaps the most important was a completion to Trent Taylor on third-and-9 as he slanted through the middle of Chicago’s defense for 33 yards. But it’d be just about the only way I feel like we’d see anything different from this team for the rest of the season. They allowed over 90 yards receiving to both Marquise Goodwin and Trent Taylor, for goodness’ sake. Seven plays later, Gould kicked his fifth field goal of the day to give the 49ers their first lead of the day with only 4 seconds left on the clock.

But after the Arlington Heights native and former star at Rolling Meadows High and Eastern Illinois sailed his first throw on the 49ers’ first offensive play, one could hardly tell.

Special teams: Kicker Robbie Gould made all five of his field-goal attempts in his return to Chicago but a 61-yard punt return by the Bears’ Tarik Cohen – in which he initially retreated 15 yards – sinks the group’s grade.

“Just couldn’t get in rhythm”.

“When I left here, I took a lot of time to reinvent myself, meaning, ‘Why do I play football?’ My technique, going back to what I saw on film, what I did and how sloppy my footwork was”, Gould said. “We’re just not getting the results we want”. “In games we haven’t, we’ve not”. The loss secured the Bears’ fourth consecutive losing season, including its third sub-.500 season in a row under head coach John Fox. Only Bill Belichick knows if Garoppolo could have been a Bear, but one would think the haul Pace gave up for Mitch Trubisky (the No. 3 overall pick, two third-round picks and a fourth-rounder) could have been enough last spring. If that isn’t justice, I don’t know what is. I think the guys’ mindsets are good and they are working at it. It was a handsome day yesterday. “I get butterflies before every game”, admitted Garoppolo.