Chicago spoils Levi’s debut

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Jay Cutler passed for three fourth-quarter touchdowns after much of Chicago’s starting defense went down, and the Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers 28-20 Sunday night to spoil their regular-season Levi’s Stadium debut.

Cutler threw three TD passes to Brandon Marshall, two in the wild fourth quarter, as Chicago erased a 13-point deficit and quieted the sellout crowd. Cutler threw for two scores in a 27-second span early in the final period, aided by the gutsy play of a backup cornerback.

Kyle Fuller made two late interceptions for the depleted Chicago secondary, and the first set up the go-ahead score.

San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for “inappropriate language” following Fuller’s first big play. That gave the Bears first-and-goal on the 3, and Cutler threw a 3-yard TD pass to Martellus Bennett as the Bears went ahead 21-20.

Kaepernick threw three interceptions in all, lost a fumble and his cool, a far cry from his breakout start on the Monday night stage nearly two years ago in a rout of the Bears.

A sloppy game filled with 26 penalties – 16 by the Niners – and a crazy collapse overshadowed the fanfare of the regular-season debut for the sparkling $1.2 billion stadium under the lights of prime time.

Michael Crabtree caught a touchdown pass on his 27th birthday and Frank Gore ran for a score but also had his 54-yard TD burst negated by Anquan Boldin’s holding penalty.

Chicago	0	7	0	21	—	28
San Francisco	10	7	3	0	—	20

 SF—Crabtree 3 pass from Kaepernick (Dawson kick)

SF—FG Dawson 27

SF—Gore 8 run (Dawson kick)

Chi—Marshall 17 pass from Cutler (Gould kick)

SF—FG Dawson 24

Chi—Marshall 5 pass from Cutler (Gould kick)

Chi—Bennett 3 pass from Cutler (Gould kick)

Chi—Marshall 3 pass from Cutler (Gould kick)

A—70,799.

	Chi	SF
First downs	19	19
Total Net Yards	216	361
Rushes-yards	17-46	27-129
Passing	170	232
Punt Returns	1-1	4-24
Kickoff Returns	1-21	3-57
Interceptions Ret.	3-39	0-0
Comp-Att-Int	23-34-0	21-34-3
Sacked-Yards Lst	1-6	4-16
Punts	6-39.7	1-54.0
Fumbles-Lost	1-0	2-1
Penalties-Yards	10-58	16-118
Time of Poss.	26:09	33:51

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Chicago, Cutler 5-25, Forte 12-21. San Francisco, Kaepernick 9-66, Gore 13-63, Hyde 4-0, Miller 1-0.

PASSING—Chicago, Cutler 23-34-0-176. San Francisco, Kaepernick 21-34-3-248.

RECEIVING—Chicago, Bennett 7-37, Marshall 5-48, Forte 5-15, Jeffery 3-47, Holmes 2-20, Rosario 1-9. San Francisco, Crabtree 7-82, Carrier 3-41, V.Davis 3-39, Boldin 2-34, S.Johnson 2-26, Gore 2-12, V.McDonald 1-9, Hyde 1-5.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.