49ers safety tries to fight entire Bears team in melee
49ers vs. Bears ended as you might have thought. So did Marcell Harris vs. Bears.
In Santa Clara, Calif., Mitchell Trubisky threw one touchdown pass, Jordan Howard ran for another score and the Bears survived a fight and a late fumble to earn their eighth win in nine games, 14-9 over the 49ers on Sunday.
The game turned feisty in the fourth quarter, when Harris, the San Francisco safety, hit Trubisky after he started sliding on a scramble near the Bears bench. Trubisky’s teammates took exception to the hit and Harris was completely surrounded by Bears. Harris stood strong and kept shoving as teammates eventually ran to his rescue. A scuffle ensued with punches being thrown, and San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman and Chicago receivers Joshua Bellamy and Anthony Miller got ejected.
The Bears converted a fourth-and-1 sneak by Trubisky from their own 35 with 4:19 to go shortly after that. After the two-minute warning, Chicago appeared ready to ice the game on a third-down completion to Allen Robinson. But instead of going down to allow the Bears to run out the clock, Robinson kept running and had the ball knocked out of his hands by Tarvarius Moore.
Greg Mabin recovered at the San Francisco 24 with 1:52 to play, but the Niners were unable to convert when Nick Mullens threw a deep incompletion on fourth-and-4 from the Chicago 45 instead of scrambling for the first down.
Danny Trevathan made a key interception in the fourth quarter and Chicago’s stout defense kept the 49ers out of the end zone to clinch at least the third seed in the NFC playoffs. The Bears (11-4) can earn a first-round bye with a win in the season finale and a loss by the Rams.
Robbie Gould kicked three field goals for the 49ers (4-11), who had their two-game winning streak snapped.
The Bears struggled to do much offensively all game but managed a TD drive on their final possession of the second quarter and first of the third quarter.
Trubisky capped the first with a 4-yard pass to Miller and then completed all seven passes on a 90-yard drive that took 7:43 and ended when Howard scored on a 2-yard run that made it 14-9.
The Niners got in position for a possible go-ahead score in the fourth quarter before Mullens’ pass deflected off Marquise Goodwin’s hands for an interception by Trevathan with 7:37 to play.
