The 49ers’ win in Chicago was unique in the Kyle Shanahan era and helped the club exorcise a demon that was quietly hanging over them since 2017.
By coming back from a 16-9 second-half deficit, the victory was San Francisco’s first under Shanahan when trailing by seven or more points at any time in the second half.
San Francisco hadn’t had a comeback like the one they had in Chicago since Week 16 of the 2016 season when they trailed the Rams 21-7 in the fourth quarter and came back to win 22-21 in Colin Kaepernick’s final victory with the club, per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
That is correct. The #49ers rallied from 7+ down in 2nd half to win for first time since 12/24/16 when they rallied from 21-7 down in 4th quarter to beat Rams 22-21 under Chip Kelly https://t.co/jxkuDSHBO9
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) October 31, 2021
It was an impressive road win for the 49ers, who got out to a sluggish start against a struggling Chicago team. The Bears went ahead 13-6 late in the first half, but a Joey Slye field goal made it 13-9 at the half. Chicago extended their lead to seven with a field goal on their first series of the third quarter.
There were times it looked like the 49ers might not complete the long-awaited second-half comeback. They looked like they’d tied the game with a Jimmy Garoppolo touchdown run to make it 16-15, but Slye missed the extra point.
The 49ers took a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Bears drove down on the ensuing drive and looked to tie it with a 22-yard Justin Fields run. However, their kicker Cairo Santos missed the extra point to keep the 49ers up 23-22.
San Francisco scored the final 10 points of Sunday’s game to secure the first seven-point second-half comeback of Shanahan’s tenure has head coach.
