The San Francisco 49ers survived their Sunday night tilt against the Chicago Bears by a score of 42-38 in an offensive slugfest that came down to the Bears’ offense simply running out of time.
The game started with Brock Purdy and the 49ers’ offense spotting Chicago the first seven points, and from there it came down to who could make the big defensive stop at the right time. That turned out to be San Francisco, holding Chicago to a fourth-quarter field goal.
But, like last Monday night against the Colts, the 49ers’ defense looked very beatable, and it took a superhuman performance by the offense to keep San Francisco’s hopes for the No. 1 seed alive. And because of that performance, all three stars from Sunday night again belong to the offense:
Third star: TE Jake Tonges
In a development that basically anybody could have predicted at the start of the season, you can’t tell the story of the 2025 49ers without mentioning Jake Tonges.
It came out early on Sunday morning that the 49ers would be without George Kittle, putting Tonges in the starting lineup, and he did not miss his opportunity. He wasted little time making an impact, being Purdy’s first completion to a player in red, an 18-yard catch on third-and-7 to extend the 49ers’ second drive.
His second catch would go for eight yards, but two plays later, he’d end that second drive with his first touchdown since Week 8, to tie the game early on at seven.
When it was all said and done, Tonges led the 49ers in targets with nine and receptions with seven, totalling 60 yards and setting a new career-high. While he did haul in the touchdown, his biggest catch of the game went for only seven yards, but the timing was crucial.
With the 49ers trailing by three points and nearing the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter, the offense faced a third-and-6 at their own 29-yard line. Tonges was able to get open in the flat but caught the ball short of the first down marker. A shifty move got him just enough space from Bears’ linebacker T.J. Edwards to barely get the ball over the line to extend what would be the 49ers’ final drive.
Five plays later, the 49ers scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.
It’s been 16 weeks since Tonges has been seen on this list, but his performance in relief of Kittle, who frequents here, marks his triumphant return to our three stars.
Second star: RB Christian McCaffrey
After 14 weeks of high volume, low output rushing attempts, it’s finally felt like Christian McCaffrey has returned to form on the ground in the last two games.
After averaging 3.6 yards per attempt over his first 14 games of the season, McCaffrey’s production has spiked to 5.84 over his last two games. Sunday night felt like a promising continuation to his big Monday night game, torching the Bears’ defense to the tune of 140 yards on 23 attempts with a rushing touchdown.
And it finally feels the big run has re-entered the already deep repertoire that McCaffrey has. The running back entered last Monday night with six rushes of 15 or more yards. In his previous two games, McCaffrey has five such runs, nearly doubling his total with three more tonight.
No run was more impactful than the season-long 41-yard burst he ripped in the first quarter. Right after the NBC broadcast showed a graphic of McCaffrey cleaning a bathroom window in his pursuit of a second 1,000/1,000 season (for whatever reason), McCaffrey took a handoff and made a quick cut to get past defensive lineman Gervon Dexter to create some space. He then made a cut to get towards the sideline, blowing past the outstretched arms of cornerback Nahshon Wright. From there, it came down to whether any Chicago defender had the angle to stop McCaffrey from getting to the endzone. Unfortunately for McCaffrey, Jaylon Johnson had that angle, forcing McCaffrey off the sideline where multiple Bears defenders would make the stop after a 41–yard gain.
Two plays later, the 49ers would score to take a 14-7 lead.
It seems McCaffrey is finding that 2023 running game form he’s been missing this season, and it shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that the 49ers have had their two highest scoring outputs of the season in the last two weeks when he’s consistently getting chunk gains on the ground.
First star: QB Brock Purdy
A pick-six on the first play of the game for the 49ers offense created an ominous start for Brock Purdy, but that was more of a blip on the radar for the game the quarterback put together on Sunday night.
Purdy settled down quickly after the opening play miscue, completing five of seven passes, including the 18-yard pass to Tonges and the 25-yard pass to Kendrick Bourne on the next drive, ending with a touchdown to wipe the mistake off the board rapidly.
It should have been tough for Purdy to follow up on his five-touchdown game against Indianapolis, but another five-touchdown game just so happens to do the trick. But instead of five passing scores, Purdy had a decent mix of scores, becoming the first 49ers quarterback since Colin Kaepernick in 2012 to have two passing and two rushing touchdowns in the same game.
He opened the game with a touchdown to Tonges, but his legs accounted for three of his five touchdowns. After a Brian Robinson 15-yard run followed by the McCaffrey 41-yard run, Purdy decided it was his turn to use his legs, scrambling for a 10-yard score to end the three-play drive, giving the 49ers a seven-point lead. A couple of drives later, Purdy would finish a 15-play drive with an option keeper, giving him his second rushing touchdown of the game, this time from three yards out.
But Purdy’s legs are what made his second passing touchdown possible, and it might have been the play of Purdy’s season. Facing a third-and-goal in a tie game late in the third quarter, a play-action pass to Robinson found Purdy scrambling to his left. With Austin Booker in his face, Purdy attempted a pump fake to no avail. Andrew Billings joined Booker in pursuit of the quarterback, but Purdy somehow slipped his way past both defensive linemen, giving him enough time to look up and find Kyle Juszczyk wide open in the front corner of the endzone, giving the 49ers a 35-28 lead.
If that’s not enough, Purdy was nails when the 49ers needed him most. Trailing 42-38 with five minutes remaining, Purdy went four-for-five with an 18-yard pass to McCaffrey and hit Jauan Jennings in stride and in space, giving the 49ers the game-winning 38-yard score, driving the final bullet into the Bears in Sunday’s shootout.
Purdy is playing the best ball of his career, and even more impressively, it’s coming after he missed eight games with his toe injury. And the timing couldn’t be any more perfect, with a date with the Seahawks coming up to decide the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Throughout the season, I will track the three stars of the season, tallying points for each star award using a complex scoring system: three points for being the first star, two for the second, and one for the third. Through Week 17, the standings are:
- RB Christian McCaffrey – 17 points
- LB Fred Warner – 11 points
- TE George Kittle – 11 points
- QB Brock Purdy – 11 points
