Bears 26, 49ers 6

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: December 10, 2016

Grading Primer (I wrote this about Michigan, but the grading procedures are still relevant.)

The game was a mess early on. The snow was making things difficult and neither team scored or even completed a pass in the first. The 49ers scored the game’s first 6 points. The Bears found the end zone before halftime. The second half was all Bears. As stated last week, this space’s focus for the rest of the season is evaluating players with next year in mind, so without further ado, let’s take a look at the

Player Grades

Takeaways

Matt Barkley might actually be good. He’s played Tennessee and San Francisco thus far and neither of those teams have a particularly good pass defense, so take those performances with a grain of salt. But, like a grain. Those guys are still pros and +21.5 is a heckuva score for any QB against anybody and +13 in the snow is nothing to sneeze at, especially considering who he has to throw to. Only 2.5 in the minus column is particularly impressive. Barkley deserves a chance to show what he can do. Am I expecting an elite QB? No. Is it possible the Bears have found a legit NFL starter? Sure is. Remember, Barkley was looked at as a potential #1 overall pick for a while at USC. He fell down draft boards because he appeared to be a project. Philadelphia took him and he stunk there and he never got another real shot until this year in Chicago. So let’s see what he’s got. I hope he plays great and at that point, I don’t care about the draft pick, especially since I don’t see a sure-fire star QB in this class. I’ll take a look at some of those guys after the season.

Jordan Howard was excellent again. That’s business as usual for him at this point.

Deonte Thompson played well. Josh Bellamy came out positive on the day, though a +6-3.5=+2.5 line for a receiver is just okay in my system. Guy needs more work on the JUGS machine. Cameron Meredith played well after a rough day against the Titans. Hopefully, the Bears are able to bring back Alshon Jeffery, but if they’re not, they should be at least okay at receiver, so long as Kevin White can stay healthy. I’d really like to see more of Ben Braunecker so we can determine how big of a need tight end is in the off-season.

Every one of the starting linemen graded out positively except, to the surprise of nobody, Bobby Massie. Tackle is a definite need this off-season. Pass pro was mostly good.

Akiem Hicks and Eddie Goldman was disruptive up front. Cornelius Washington had a fine game and Mitch Unrein made it into the positives. Jonathan Bullard was inactive in favor of Unrein. Bullard has been okay at his best and mediocre at his worst this season, but Unrein hasn’t been particularly good, so I would rather see the rookie get some experience. I still like Bullard’s potential.

Leonard Floyd played very well and dropped Blaine Gabbert in the end zone for a safety. As he continues to add weight and get stronger, he’s going to be a real problem for opposing linemen. Willie Young had a solid day. He didn’t make many big plays, but didn’t make mistakes, either. Nick Kwiatkowski and John Timu both had great games. The former was particularly impressive. The caveat here is that San Francisco couldn’t really pass the ball, so they weren’t needed so much in coverage. When they were, things went less great. Timu got beat pretty badly on one play and was fortunate that Colin Kaepernick left the pass short.

No, that wasn’t a typo – Tracy Porter graded out positively. In fact, nobody in the secondary graded out negatively. However, the same caveat applied to the ILBs applies here and applies in a much bigger way. Harold Jones-Quartey racked up some points in run support.

#FireJohnFox Status: Depends

“On what?”

A few things. First, what Vic Fangio would do. For now, I’m not buying into the Trib story. For those not familiar with the story, lucky you, because this has become rather ridiculous. Mike Mulligan reported that Fangio was ready to leave the team after the season due to a rift with John Fox. Fangio and Fox emphatically denied the rumor the next day. Fangio in particular took the paper to task. Brad Biggs, who was one of only a couple guys at that paper I didn’t think was a boob, emphasis on “was,” said not to dismiss the rumors so quickly. (For the record, I am only linking to the Trib stories to cite my sources. Do not click those links. They are bad for your brain.) Mark Potash said in the Times (that link you can click, and are, in fact, encouraged to do so) that the whole thing sounds like a bunch of bunk, but “stranger things have happened.” Let’s look at the sources here. On one side, we’ve got Mike Mulligan, who hosts a morning show on 670 The Score, a station that routinely limbos under the low bar set by ESPN 1000 for sports radio in Chicago, and who writes for the Chicago Tribune, a paper that despite being a Chicago paper, seems to actively dislike Chicago and that mentality has carried over into the sports section. You also have Brad Biggs, who I think would be a better writer anywhere else, but writes for that same rag, and thus possesses a duty to not call his co-worker a dope. On the other had, we’ve got Vic Fangio and John Fox, who, yeah, could be lying, but if Fangio was lying, he’d look like a colossal jabroni with the way he denied the report, and Mark Potash, arguably the best sportswriter in Chicago. I’m with Potash here. This sounds like bunk. Stranger things, though.

Anyway, if Fangio’s looking to become a head coach, let Fox go to hold onto him. If he’s happy as a defensive coordinator, then the decision depends on what you think of Dowell Loggains and Matt Barkley. Do you think Matt Barkley can be a legit NFL starting QB? If you do, hold on to Loggains for the sake of familiarity. If you don’t, do you think Dowell Loggains can put together a top offense and develop a QB? If you do, I think you can justify another year of Fox. If you don’t, then replacing Fox with an offensive-minded coach becomes a real consideration if you see the right guy out there.

#FireDowellLoggains Status: Ask again after the season, for Barkley reasons stated above.

Fire anyone else status: Jeff Rodgers, your flight is waiting.

Yet To Be Named Gimmicky Award Meant To Show Who The Best Overall Performers Were

If you have an idea of what I should call this, let me know. Twitter handle and e-mail address are at the end of the blog.

Anyway, up to 3 may be awarded per player. Not necessarily the highest-graded players since different grades mean different things to different players (refer to the primer).

Offense

3: Jordan Howard, Matt Barkley, Cameron Meredith

2: Cody Whitehair

1: Ted Larsen, Charles Leno, Jr., Deonte Thompson

Defense

3: Akiem Hicks, Nick Kwiatkowski, Harold Jones-Quartey

2: Leonard Floyd, Eddie Goldman, John Timu

1: Willie Young

Yet To Be Named Gimmicky Award Meant To Show Who The Best Overall Performers Were Count