Bears lose heartbreaker in OT to 49ers

Sunday was a beautiful day for football on the lakefront — just not good football.

The Chicago Bears squandered multiple opportunities to defeat a bad San Francisco 49ers team. They missed a chance to get to .500 for the first time under coach John Fox and to insert themselves into the playoff conversation.

Instead, the Bears failed miserably when it mattered most in a 26-20 overtime loss. They allowed the 49ers (4-8) to win on the road for the first time all season as they plummeted to 1-5 at Soldier Field.

The loss left the Bears at 5-7 and, like it or not, that's the kind of team they are — better than last year's 5-11 train wreck but by no means a playoff team.

Veteran kicker Robbie Gould took the blame for latest heartbreaking loss, the Bears' fourth straight by 6 points or fewer. Four of their 5 wins have been by 4 points or fewer.

On the final play of regulation, Gould missed wide left on a 36-yarder from the middle of the field that was little more than a chip shot or an extra point. Midway through the third quarter he also was wide left on a 40-yard attempt.

“This one falls on me, on my shoulders,” said Gould, who was working in a game for the first time with new long-snapper Pat Scales. “I feel bad for my teammates because I didn't do the job I was supposed to do. I feel terrible.

“I had a lot of confidence going into the last two kicks. I just got quick on both of them. I rushed them. Both are the worst kicks I've had all year.”

The Bears signed Scales on Nov. 28 and cut Thomas Gafford because they were unhappy with the accuracy of Gafford's snaps on place-kicks. Gould said Scales' performance was not a factor in his misses, and earlier in the game he converted from 40 and 51 yards.

“Those guys (Scales and holder Pat O'Donnell) came in and worked really hard,” Gould said. “Pat did a great job. He's done it before in playoff games, in other games.”

Gould was hardly the only goat.

A Bears defense that played very well for 58 minutes in regulation but horribly after that was responsible for breakdowns at the end of regulation and in overtime. With 2:00 left in regulation, the 49ers had accumulated a measly 169 yards of total offense and trailed 20-13.

But after that the offensively challenged 49ers picked up 122 yards in less than four minutes, mostly on two huge plays.

With 1:52 left, quarterback Blaine Gabbert ran untouched, 44 yards down the middle of the field to tie the game at 20-20.

Outside linebacker Willie Young, who had 1½ sacks, came close to tripping up Gabbert behind the line of scrimmage.

“That's tough knowing you were just a shoestring away and it ended up in a touchdown,” Young said. “Any closer, I'd have had him. Great play by the quarterback.”

Downfield, rookie safety Adrian Amos had a shot at Gabbert but hesitated and then got deked by the QB.

“I actually thought he was going to slide,” Amos said. “I was in the post, so I'm the last one back there. I got there, (but) I just have to make a better play.”

Asked if he was overly cautious about possibly drawing a penalty for hitting a quarterback, Amos said: “I won't be any more.”

It got worse for the defense.

The kill shot was quick but not painless. The 49ers' first play on their second overtime possession was a 71-yard Gabbert bomb to a wide-open Torrey Smith.

Amos, who bit on the run fake, appeared to be the responsible party, and there was definitely miscommunication in the secondary. Amos said he thought the Bears were in a Cover-3, but in reality he was the last line of defense.

“I'd say it wasn't well-executed,” was all Fox said.

“We just had a miscommunication on the play, and we let one go,” Amos said. “It's a game we shouldn't have lost. We have to finish.”

That's what a better team would have done, but the Bears aren't there yet.

Their latest loss extinguishes the exhilaration that came with the Thanksgiving victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

“It really isn't what you've done last week,” Fox said. “It's what have you done for me lately in this league. You've got to be ready every week and you've got to perform at a high level. We came up a little short.”