Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers look to continue their push for the No. 1 seed in the NFC on Sunday night with their most unique challenge of the season against the Chicago Bears.
The 49ers are coming off a rousing 48-27 Monday night victory against the Indianapolis Colts and look to continue that momentum into their Sunday night tilt against Chicago. While last week they faced the league’s oldest quarterback, this week they face one of the better up-and-coming quarterbacks, Caleb Williams.
While the 49ers dominated the Bears last season with a Week 14 38-13 victory, the 2025 Bears are significantly different behind first-year head coach Ben Johnson.
This week’s numbers to know center around the turnover battle, and whoever wins it on Sunday could come out the winner of this highly contested NFC matchup:
31
The Bears’ defense has forced 31 turnovers this season, the most in the league.
Chicago’s defense is rather pedestrian in specific stat categories, like ranking 18th in passing yards allowed, 25th in rushing yards allowed, and 24th in scoring percentage allowed. But the turnover has been the great equalizer for the Monsters of the Midway.
The Chicago defense has forced a turnover in 13 of its 15 games this season, and at least two in nine of those 13. The last time Chicago’s defense went an entire game without a turnover was back in October during their Week 8 loss to the Ravens. Since then, they’ve forced a turnover in each of their last eight games, going 7-1 in that stretch, with the long loss coming a few weeks ago in Green Bay.
The driving force behind the Bears’ turnovers has been interceptions. Twenty-one of the teams’ 31 turnovers have come by way of the interception. Chicago’s defense features three players in the top three of interceptions in the league, with each player at a different position. Safety Kevin Byard leads the league with his six interceptions, with his most interceptions coming on Black Friday against the Eagles. Behind him is cornerback Nashon Wright, tied with three other players with five interceptions, and linebacker Tremaine Edwards, tied with ten different players with four interceptions.
The 49ers have had a slight turnover problem this season, with their 13.2 turnover percentage fifth-highest entering Week 16. While Brock Purdy does have three multi-interception games in his seven starts this season, he’s settled down in recent weeks, throwing just one pick over his last three games since throwing three interceptions against Carolina.
San Francisco’s offense has plenty of firepower to handle the Bears’ defense. But if the turnovers rear their ugly head once again, that’s only going to cause issues for the 49ers.
10
The Bears’ offense has turned the ball over 10 times, the fewest in the league.
While the Bears’ defense has been forcing turnovers, the offense has been making few mistakes, and that combination has been the most significant factor in Chicago’s 11-4 record.
Early in the season, the Bears had some issues with turnovers, committing...
