Bears face a familiar outside challenge in Week 17 that will test their attention to detail — and it has nothing to do with the 49ers
Can the Bears clean up some of the mistakes from Week 16?
The Chicago Bears have another pivotal game coming up this weekend under the bright lights on “Sunday Night Football” against the San Francisco 49ers with a lot of playoff implications on the line.
Both teams are looking to stay in contention for the No. 1 seed in the NFC and will need some help in order to make it happen, but first both teams are looking to handle their own business in this game.
The Bears do have one advantage based on how the schedule worked out. Chicago last played at home on Saturday night against the Green Bay Packers and earned a off-day on Sunday. Meanwhile, the 49ers played on the road on Monday night against the Indianapolis Colts, giving Chicago ample more time to prep for this upcoming game.
However, the Bears do have one disadvantage that has nothing to do with the 49ers that will test the team’s attention to detail on Sunday night.
Bears penalty issues could be magnified in Week 17 based on the officiating crew
According to Brad Biggs of The Chicago Tribune, referee Alex Moore and his crew will work Bears and 49ers game on Sunday night. Why is that important? Moore’s crew has called the most penalties out of any officiating crew in the NFL this season.
The Bears have routinely struggled with penalties all season long and Week 16 was one of the more egregious outings in that area considering the Bears finished the game with 10 penalties for 105 yards.
“You get in these big games, and you can get a little bit emotional because it’s a division rival and you want to make an impact,” Bears head coach Ben Johnson explained. “We don’t want to shy away from that. We want to play aggressive, and we want to be a very physical team, but at the same time, we can’t hurt the team, and that happened a number of times. It’s not OK. Those 15-yard penalties, they really add up.”
In total, the Bears had three pre-snap penalties on offense and four total penalties of 15-yards. It’s unacceptable stuff and clearly something Johnson was frustrated with, even if the final result worked out for the Bears in the end.
“We had a couple of those 15-yard variety that I thought we could have done a better job just making sure we didn’t commit those,” Johnson added. “That would have helped us a long way. Every yard mattered in a game like this.”
The same goes for Sunday’s game against the 49ers. This is a team that can really make you hurt on all three phases if you give them any free handouts and this crew isn’t afraid to keep a hand on the yellow laundry all night.
It’s a similar situation the Bears were in back in Week 6 against the Washington Commanders. During the Week 5 bye week, Johnson called out the penalty issues ahead of the Commanders game, a game in which Moore and his crew were scheduled to work.
Chicago ended up getting called for nine penalties for 84-yards in that game, the majority of which came on defense. Going up against a team that hasn’t punted since November and scored 48 points Monday night, the Bears need to be locked in on the details even more in this game.
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