Bears beat 49ers, clinch the No. 3 seed

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- With a dominant defence behind him, Mitchell Trubisky knows the Chicago Bears' offence doesn't have to do too much to keep winning.

That formula has the Bears heading into the season finale with a chance to earn a firstround playoff bye.

Trubisky threw one TD pass and the Chicago defence used a couple of key late stops to keep San Francisco out of the end zone, leading the Bears to their eighth win in nine games, 14-9 over the 49ers on Sunday.

"For us as an offence, we have to do our part as well," Trubisky said. "Because we're a family and we want to take care of those guys and take a lot of pressure off them and score a lot of points so they don't have to play all-world every single week. That's the standard that they've come to hold themselves to."

Khalil Mack and Co. delivered again. Danny Trevathan made a key interception with San Francisco (4-11) driving in the fourth quarter, and then the defence made one more stop 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.

"We've been in this situation so many times and have come up big. It's almost expected of us," cornerback Prince Amukamara said. "Like when we had to go back on the field to help win it for our team. Everyone was poised and no one was shaking. We expected great things to come out of it and we're glad we stood up for our team."

The game turned feisty in the fourth quarter, when San Francisco safety Marcell Harris hit Trubisky after he started sliding on a scramble near the Bears' bench. Trubisky's teammates took exception to what they considered a "dirty" hit and a scuffle ensued with punches being thrown and San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman and Chicago receivers Joshua Bellamy and Anthony Miller all getting ejected.

"As a leader, you can't let them get your teammate like that, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what's going down," Sherman said. "I felt like they went over the top, and I responded over the top."

Shortly after the melee, the Bears converted a fourth-and-1 sneak by Trubisky from their own 35 with 4:19 to go. After the 2minute 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 to Marquise Goodwin on fourth-and-4 from the Chicago 45 instead of scrambling for the first down.

"I've just got to handle the situation better," Mullens said. "I should have ran. I didn't run. In the heat of battle, a lot of things are happening fast, split-second decisions. Saw 'Quise down the field. Tried to give him a chance, instead of making the simple play. I didn't make the simple play."

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.