=In the middle of a swirling rainstorm, the Chicago Bears (1-0) started their season on the right foot by defeating the visitingand heavily favoredSan Francisco 49ers (0-1) 19-10 on Sept. 11.
The Bears erased a 10-point third-quarter deficit by scoring 19 unanswered points to secure the win.
Coach Matt Eberflus earned his first win as an NFL head coach and expressed his excitement about starting 1-0.
"It's a happy feeling, it really is," Eberflus said in a press release. "When you see they're out of timeouts and the clock's going down and the rain is coming down. And it's a good feeling. It was exciting and for the first victory, and I'm excited for the guys too. I'm excited for everybody, offense, defense, kicking. I'm excited for the organization."
After a sluggish start, quarterback Justin Fields threw a pair of touchdown passes in the second half to Dante Pettis and Equanimeous St. Brown. Fields said, "I think we're just trying to get in a rhythm. We were backed up so when you're backed up like that, you just can't use the whole playbook. But the second half, we found a rhythm and we executed so I'm proud of the guys."
The Bears next visit longtime rival the Green Bay Packers (0-1) on Sunday, Sept. 18. The Packers lost to the host Minnesota Vikings (1-0) 23-7 on Sept. 11.
Chicago's MLB teamsthe Cubs and the White Soxboth lost their games on Sept. 11.
The Cubs (58-82) lost their series finale to the San Francisco Giants (67-73) 4-2 at Wrigley Field.
The North Siders have lost 15 of their last 21 games, The Chicago Tribune noted. They will next start a series with the New York Mets on Monday, Sept. 12.
As for the White Sox (72-69), they fell to the Oakland Athletics (51-90) 10-3 in California to spoil their chance of a series sweep.
Retired A's player Dave Stewart had his number retired in a ceremony. White Sox manager Tony La Russawho has been out of the dugout for nearly two weeks and is recovering from having a pacemaker inserted for his heartrejoined his Chicago club to be part of the ceremony for the former A's ace on La Russa's Oakland staff, ESPN noted.
The South Siders will next take on the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday, Sept. 13.