Week 8: Best and Worst Case Scenarios

The 49ers appear to be in near total meltdown mode after another primetime loss to the Colts following their bye week.

The 49ers face a must-win matchup against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. The 49ers appear to be in near total meltdown mode after another primetime loss to the Colts following their bye week. This will be a physical matchup pitting two teams who rely on a solid defense and running game. The question is who will execute the plan better?

Best Case Scenario: The 49ers offensive play caller (Kyle Shanahan) will actually self-evaluate and learn from his mistakes against the Colts. The 49ers did some things well but abandoned what was working, Shanahan will not make this mistake again.

The 49ers haven’t been running the outside zone effectively since George Kittle went on Injured Reserve. Kittle is a key piece of the run game but the 49ers proved they can be effective on the ground with inside counters and misdirection runs. This should bode well for them going forward. The 49ers will surprise the Bears by mixing in some outside zone runs utilizing Kyle Juszczyk by motioning him out of the backfield to create favorable blocking angles. Deebo Samuel has become a sure thing at this point and he will get a minimum of 12 touches in this game and will continue his effectiveness. Brandon Aiyuk was open on a few downfield opportunities against the Colts, the 49ers will dial this up again this week.

The Bears offense simply stinks. They run the ball efficiently but have basically no passing game. The only hope in this game is to follow the Colts' Week 7 strategy of simply throwing up prayers against the 49ers cornerbacks. The 49ers put an emphasis on limiting pass interference penalties and focusing on proper technique in practice this week, this should lead to somewhat of an improvement. The 49ers defense will focus on stopping the run and that will neutralize the lowly Bears offense.

Worst Case Scenario: The 49ers will complete their implosion and begin to fall apart after a season and a half of disappointment.

Jimmy Garoppolo will force Shanahan to bench him after a couple of first half turnovers. Trey Lance will come in but at this point is so unprepared that he will struggle mightily. The 49ers offense has been out of sync since the first half of Week 1 and it's simply who they are at this point: not a good football team. Aside from Samuel, nobody on offense has been consistently effective and the 49ers will struggle to score 17 points in this game. This could spell doom for “offensive genius” Shanahan, and he may not survive until the end of the season.

The 49ers defense has done an admirable job this season given the situations they’ve been put in. However, at some point they have to break and this team shows all the signs that their time has arrived. Justin Fields will be unhandicapped and will absolutely go off for more than 350 all purpose yards. The disaster scenario that every 49ers fan has been feeling deep down as a possibility for the past couple of weeks will unfold on Sunday and it will be a poetic meltdown of epic proportions. Heads will roll.

Chuy’s Prediction: Consider me the eternal optimist but the 49ers have never stopped fighting during the Shanahan Era. Sunday WILL NOT be the day that they finally break.

I expect the 49ers to have their best performance of the season. They will mix up the inside misdirection runs that were so effective last week and utilize Samuel to the fullest. I expect him to have a monster game with more than 200 all-purpose yards. The offense will explode and finally get in sync against a Bears defense missing its best player, Khalil Mack. Garoppolo will survive the game but won’t be asked to do much -- don’t expect the quarterback debate to be put to bed this week. Even with a win, Lance taking over next week will be a very real possibility.

The Bears offense will struggle as usual and, while I do expect them to play better without Nagy in attendance, it won’t be enough. The Bears simply have a bad scheme and haven’t figured out a way to utilize Fields' skillset effectively. This game will cement Nagy’s fate in Chicago and the Bears will be better off because of it.

49ers win and look dominant, 49ers 34 - Bears 23.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter: @Chuy_Alejandra and YouTube: Chuy and Alejandra. Tune in at Halftime of the game on Sunday on our YouTube channel, see you then.