JORDAN TURNING HEADS
Despite lost season, Howard continues to impress in sloppy game
On a snowy field in an ugly game, Jordan Howard churning his legs constituted for a nice highlight. On his third touchdown in a 26- 6 win Sunday against the one- win 49ers, the Bears’ rookie running back pushed five 49er defenders five yards into the end zone. “He’s fun,” guard Eric Kush said. Howard had never played in the snow before. He declared it “kinda annoying, just like rain, basically,” after running a career- high 32 times for 117 yards.
Everyone inside Soldier Field — and the 13,160 fanswho bought tickets but didn’t show up — knew the Bears would run the ball.
“I’m definitely ready to be the workhorse,” Howard said. “Even though they might know it’s coming, they still have to stop it.” The 49ers didn’t. In a lost season, Howard’s performance in conditions foreign to him can’t be overstated.
“Even if he’s met at the line, he falls forward,” defensive end Akiem Hicks said. “You never see him get stuck and driven back. That’s an intangible for a running back that you can’t really quantify.”
The forward pass wasn’t part of the game until halfway through the second quarter, when 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had the first completion by either team. On the next play, Phil Dawson made a 31- yard field goal as the 49ers went up 3- 0.
That field goal was set up by a strange sequence. After the Bears were whistled for a delay- of- game penalty on a punt because tight end Ben Braunecker was late to line up, the Harvard rookie was able to partially block a punt. The ball was caught in the air by cornerback Dontae Johnson, who returned it down the left sideline for a presumed touchdown. Johnson, however, was ruled out at the 4, and a celebration penalty moved the ball back to the 19.
The Bears’ Deonte Thompson fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the kicker made a 28- yarder to put the 49ers up 6- 0 just after the twominute warning.
The Bears seemed to be content to run out the clock — the 49ers took timeouts after their first two plays — before Barkley completed four passes and drew a pass- interference call in the end zone to set up Howard’s one- yard plunge with 31 seconds left. Howard’s next two touchdowns capped the Bears’ first two drives of the second half.
The Bears’ third victory felt good, even if the game resembled a rugby scrum. They missed tackles, slipped and dropped passes.
“But at the end of the day, it’s all about how you respond, and the way they responded, they could have easily shut it down,” outside linebackerWillie Young said. “They could have gotten to the point they were so frustrated they coulda just hung their cleats up. But that wasn’t the case. That wasn’t what it was about. The way guys responded was a winning mentality.”