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Imrem: Just like that, all is well for Bears

Crisis?

What crisis?

All crises in the world should be as short-lived as the Bears' was.

Never mind the criticism heaped on the Bears last week. Everything is forgiven. The upsetting upset loss in Week 1 to Buffalo is forgotten.

The Bears recovered Sunday night to beat the 49ers 28-20 in the first regular-season game in the new Levi's Stadium at Santa Clara, Calif.

“I'm very proud of the football team, the way they overcame the adversity of last week,” said Bears head coach Marc Trestman.

Adding to the Bears' adversity was that they lost defensive backs Peanut Tillman and Chris Conte, along with defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff, to injury during the 49ers game.

That was after offensive linemen Roberto Garza and Matt Slauson were out with injuries and wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery were playing hurt.

Oh, did we mention that quarterback Jay Cutler took a vicious hit to the chest near the end of the first half?

Cutler proceeded to rally the Bears after intermission. Marshall finished with 3 touchdown receptions. The offensive line's replacements held up just fine.

This was one gutsy performance when it was least expected. Not expected either, probably, were 2 pivotal interceptions by rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller.

“The young guy made a couple great plays,” San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh conceded.

Maybe the Bears received the message that was sent from the afternoon games.

The message? That it's OK to score a great win after a sorry loss.

The Chargers evened their record by beating the defending champion Seahawks. The Cowboys were embarrassed last week but rebounded to win at Tennessee. The Patriots, Packers and a few others came back to be 1-1 for the first two weeks.

That looked all the more possible for the Bears after the Bills won again and appear to be better than expected.

Fortunately for the Bears, the 49ers were waiting to be had. Even while taking a 17-0 lead, they were even sloppier than the Bears were.

That's saying something because the Bears began the game by giving up a touchdown after a blocked punt. Later a premature snap bounced off Cutler, put them in a deep hole and led to another 49ers TD.

The 49ers made just enough mistakes to let the Bears hang around in what for too long was an excruciating game to watch.

Then, unexpectedly, the Bears caught their balance while the 49ers started making worse mistakes.

NFL Network analyst Marshall Faulk predicted, “They (49ers) are going to make the Bears wonder if they kept the wrong quarterback and overpaid Jay Cutler.”

Instead, Cutler completed 13 of 14 passes in the second half to look like the quarterback he is paid a lot of money to be.

“He led the way this whole week,” Trestman said of Cutler. “We all looked to him to see how he handled adversity, and he stood tall.”

Cutler stood small until the second half. Meanwhile, the Bears' defense that was ravaged last season and again in this season's opener held its own against the 49ers.

“We're trying to find our identity, and this was a step toward that,” defensive end Jared Allen said. “We need to play with this edge all season.”

So now the edgy Bears are 1-1 and tied for first place with the other three teams in the NFC North. At least now the Bears aren't in danger of squandering the entire season before the schedule eases in November.

“We gotta go back to work,” Trestman said. “The reason we got to this point is we went back to work last week.”

Thanks to crisis control in the form of a victory, the Bears are back to being playoff contenders again.

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