Save for one extremely shaky Brock Purdy performance in a game in which they still prevailed, the 49ers have excelled on the primetime stage. Sunday’s meeting with the Chicago Bears is a different animal, however, as it holds the highest stakes of any game they have played so far this campaign.
If the 49ers prevail against the Bears, they will face the Seahawks in Week 18 in a straight shootout for the number one seed in the NFC.
That theoretically places a tremendous amount of pressure on the 49ers, and the Niners will place a lot of pressure on themselves to get the job done.
Yet the 49ers can approach this massive game, and a potential winner-take-all clash with the Seahawks, with a sense of freedom from pressure.
The reality is that, while the 49ers will have a lot of belief in their own abilities, nobody outside of their building believes in the Niners.
It is remarkable the 49ers are in this position given the injuries they have suffered throughout the season and, with an inexperienced defense and a defensive line struggling markedly to generate a consistent pass rush, few will expect them to overcome both the Bears and Seahawks and clinch the top seed and a first-round bye.
As such, the 49ers should be looking to harness that “nobody believes in us” energy to play with the confidence of a team with nothing to lose.
That does not mean playing with reckless abandon. Brock Purdy will still have to be very careful against an opportunistic defense that leads the league in turnovers (21). What Purdy can do, though, is attack with confidence knowing that, outside of those turnovers, Chicago’s defense has been very accommodating to opposing attacks. The Bears rank 22nd in dropback success rate allowed (48.1%), while the 49ers are second in dropback success rate on offense.
It would be unrealistic to expect a performance akin to Purdy’s masterclass against the Indianapolis Colts in primetime in Week 16, when he threw for five touchdowns. On the other side of the ball, the 49er defense can expect a difficult assignment against a quarterback and offense that have made huge strides under Ben Johnson.
But in this most bizarre of winning seasons for the 49ers, they have displayed a brilliant habit of finding different ways to win games. Outside of their organization, practically nobody expects them to reel off two more wins and claim the one seed, and nobody believes this 49ers roster in its current makeup is worthy of the one seed. As they try to find ways to seal it, the lack of external belief in the 49ers may be their biggest weapon.