49ers-Bears: Jay Cutler Saves the San Francisco 49ers' Season, for a Week

The 49ers won 10-6 over the Bears last night in a game so ugly it should've been played in Afghanistan.

No matter how many times coach Mike Singletary, offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye and fullback Moran Norris (otherwise known as the Axis of Ugh) conspired to hand the game to a Chicago outfit that sure could've used the win, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, generous to a fault, said, "No really, you've been such gracious hosts, I insist you take the W."

How many times could the 49ers have lost this game? Let us count the ways.

They got their only touchdown of the game when Bears receiver Devin Hester slipped while making a cut, and corner Tarell Brown took the gift interception back 51 yards to set up Frank Gore's 11-yard draw to paydirt.

In the third quarter, the team went for it on fourth down at midfield when they could've pinned the Bears deep and they didn't pick up an inch on an Alex Smith sneak that was anything but sneaky.

Early in the fourth quarter, safety Mark Roman clearly bumped Bears tight end Kellen Davis before snaring Cutler's fourth interception of the evening. A pass interference call there would've set the Bears up inside the San Francisco 30.

In San Francisco's subsequent possession, Gore fumbled at the end of a long run and was fortunate that receiver Josh Morgan was in the right place at the right time so the team could milk a field goal out of the drive.

Finally, the team chose to punt from Chicago's 34 rather than to kick a field goal that would've pushed their lead to seven. Andy Lee—surely not used to kicking from that far in—booted the ball too deep for a touchback, and a net gain of only 14 yards in field position.

Again, as we've seen multiple times this season pretty much whenever the team has a second half lead, Singletary and Raye put their quarterback in a straight jacket. Smith certainly wasn't very good in the first half, but he was moving the ball at times and he deserved a chance to play the full 60 minutes.

At least he was checking down or eating the ball when he had to, instead of throwing it up for grabs like Cutler did.

We saw plenty of the two back offense with lead blocker Moran Norris in the second half, and by now the entire football watching nation knows that whenever Norris is in the game, a three-and-out is a mortal lock.

The Bears rightly put everyone and their mothers at the line of scrimmage and again Gore got stuffed, over and over and over again. Smith only got to pass on 3rd-and-long and even then the calls were safe, and not really designed to do anything but take another forty seconds off the clock and hand Chicago the football.

If any Niners fan out there is wondering what the coaches really think of their team, a telling sequence late in the second quarter should provide all the answers. 

Up 7-0, Roman tackled Bears running back Matt Forte on a draw for a measly two yard gain, setting up a 3rd-and-8 at Chicago's own 19-yard line.

There was 1:47 left on the clock when the whistle blew, meaning that if San Francisco called time out there and stopped the Bears on third down, they'd have plenty of time, and likely decent field position, to use their two-minute offense to set up another score.

The 49ers have been excellent in the two minute drill with Smith the past two weeks, scoring touchdowns both times.

Thirty-one other coaches in the NFL call a time out in that situation.

The 49ers let the clock keep running. The Bears went on to convert the third down and would eventually get a field goal to go into half down 7-3.

One could argue that Singletary didn't call the time out not because he didn't believe in the offense, but rather because he wasn't confident that his defense could stop a 3rd-and-8.

In either case it means that he doesn't his team, and if a coach doesn't believe in his guys, it means that sooner rather than later they won't believe in themselves either.

It's just the latest in a running list of Singletary saying one thing and doing another.

Don't tell me Mike, show me.

Ultimately San Francisco got the win, barely, because Cutler threw a pass behind tight end Greg Olson, to his right, when Olsen was heading left.

Usually a team with a 5-1 advantage in the turnover column doesn't have to eek out a win, but as long as their coaches are this meek and afraid, every fourth quarter the rest of the way is destined to be a nail biter. 

In the end the 49ers won and the Bears lost but what does it really matter? Both teams are 4-5 and they might as well be 4-50.