Bears vs. 49ers – What to watch 4

Key compatibility

Second-year broad player Darnell Mooney is key in the demolition game for rookie quarterback Justin Fields, which Bears fans look forward to. Mooney has supplanted Allen Robinson as the Bears number one goal – he leads the team with 27 receptions, 345 yards and 12.8 yards per catch. The 64 and 32 yards against Lions he received are the bears ’only 30 or more yard feed games. (Every other NFL team has four or more.)

The 49ers are fifth in the NFL in the number of input yards allowed (seventh in yards per game), but they are not invulnerable. If you include the league’s leading 250-yard 11 missile penalty, they will drop to 12th in the defense. They had three DPIs for 97 yards last week with a 30-18 loss to the Colts.

Veteran Josh Norman could be present. The former Pro Bowl corner defender has finished 68th among NFL corner defenders by Pro Football Focus (along with Bears ’Jaylon Johnson). He has five penalties this season – four for passes and one for arrest.

The Bears attack the 49ers ’23rd-place running defense with a sixth-ranked rush attack. But Fields has a chance to bet it on input game success if the Bears are aggressive enough to test a 49ers secondary game.

Trendy

Bears ranks in the top three in nine of the 11 attack categories in the NFL Weekly Stats – 32nd and final in six of them (yards, yards per game, passes, passes per game, kicks allowed and third downs), 31st one (abductions) and 30. in two (points and first calculations).

They are also last in touchdown entries (three) and 31st in overtime rankings (68.1).

The Bears ranked sixth in rush (131 yards per game) and 11th in running yards per attempt (4.5).

Player to watch

Fields is coming from a lousy game where he threw three cuts, fumbled three times (losing two) and got fired four times. His passer value of 44.3 was the second lowest of his five NFL starts – only 41.2 against Browns when he was kicked nine times and threw just 20 assists.

His teammates didn’t help him. Ignored Blits picking by novice runner Khalil Herbert and tight end Cole Kmet’s poor drop in the Bears ’first two sets set a bad tone. In any case, Fields support staff will have to give him a better chance of success against the 49ers ’defense, which can run hot or cold – sixth in yards, but 21st in points.

The X factor

Bears ’weekly routine was changed this week, and coach Matt Nagy was quarantined after a coronavirus test. It will be interesting to see how they react if Nagy can’t coach on Sunday, with special teams coordinator Chris Tabor acting as head coach.