The defense for San Francisco figured that the short week would be an advantage for them. In four days Jay Cutler wouldn’t be able to change too much, so the 49ers had a good idea of what they could expect from the Bears quarterback.

Mike Singletary, 49ers head coach, didn’t man handle his old team exactly. Cutler instead handed a desperate San Francisco team a win that was very much needed.

Frank Gore had 104 yards rushing and scored a touchdown. Meanwhile Cutler threw five interceptions, his career high. The last one came on the final play of the game into the end zone. With their 10-6 win on Thursday night the 49ers snapped their losing streak at four games.

Mark Roman, 49ers safety referring to Cutler said, I don’t think he was really trying to force it. He was just trying to make some plays when they needed them at the time. We knew that the football would be up in the air. If our coverages were sound we knew we would have a chance.

Alex Smith, 49ers quarterback, got his first win in eight starts. His last victory came versus St. Louis in Week 2 of the 2007 season. However, the game was interesting right until the very end.

With 2:53 remaining in the game, after Singletary made the decision to punt on fourth down and six from the 34 yard line of Chicago versus his former team, Cutler led the Bears down to the 12 yard line of the 49ers with only 13 seconds left to play. On first down Cutler threw an incomplete pass, and then on his next attempt Michael Lewis picked off the pass inside the end zone as time expired. It was the first win for the 49ers since October 4 when they routed the Rams 35-0.

For the post game news conference Cutler showed up still in his uniform except for his jersey and pads.

Cutler said, it was very tough out there. I apologize to our defense. Our whole offense I think needs to apologize. Our defense played great and kept us in the game even with all of our turnovers.

It was far from being pretty, with two struggling teams in the game who are still trying to make it into the playoffs.

Just four days after San Francisco (4-5) had four turnovers leading to 24 points in their loss to Tennessee 34-27, the 49ers had nine penalties and Smith was sacked two times and threw an interception.

All game long Cutler took opportunities away from Chicago (4-5). The Bears, who were penalized 10 times, lost their second game in a row and fourth in the last five games. Patrick Willis, with his 11 tackles, wreaked havoc on Chicago.

Smith said, it’s definitely nice being on the other side of that.

Cutler’s five pick offs tied him for the most interceptions thrown by a Bears quarterback since October 2, 1960 when Zeke Bratkowski had seven in a game Chicago lost to Baltimore 42-7.

It was the second time Cutler has thrown four interceptions or more this season. In total he has 17, the worst in the NFL. Cutler became the first Bears quarterback to throw four interceptions in two games during a season since Billy Wade did it in 1962.

Cutler said, I’ve played before in Thursday games and had success. That didn’t affect us for this game. We saw everything that was coming. They didn’t surprise us. The fact is we didn’t execute.

Robbie Gould had 38 and 50 yard field goals for the Bears. It quickly became a game of what team would make fewer mistakes and keep possession.

Singletary said, on offense we did barely enough to win this game.

The game was the first time as a head coach that Singletary faced off against his former team. The ex linebacker and Hall of Famer played his entire 12 year NFL career with Chicago. He played in 10 Pro Bowls, was awarded Defensive Player of the Year two times, and was on Chicago’s 1985 Super Bowl championship team.

Singletary wasn’t interested in any of the hype surrounding him facing his old team. He insisted that he didn’t have time to think about anything except coaching San Francisco to get a win and save their season.

After the game Singletary said, we were just playing another team on our schedule.

In was the seventh home win game in a row for San Francisco versus Chicago, including one playoff game. The last victory for Chicago in Candlestick Park was in 1985 during the Bears Super Bowl championship season. That year it was Singletary who led the Bears defense. The previous three games in the series had been won by Chicago.

Late second quarter Gore had a touchdown run of 14 yards following the second interception by Cutler. Going into halftime the 49ers led 7-3.

Alex Brown, Bears defensive end said referring to Cutler, everyone has bad days at work. We need to have his back. We do have his back.

Early fourth quarter Joe Nedney kicked a field goal of 21 yards. During the opening drive for the 49ers he had missed wide right on an attempt of 39 yards. It was the first time he had missed a field goal from less than 40 yards all season.

Neither one of the quarterbacks had impressive stats. Cutler went 29 for 52 for a a total of 307 yards passing and Smith went 16 for 23 for a total of 118 yards. The Bears out gained the 49ers 350 yards to 216 yards.

Vernon Davis, 49ers tight end, fired the Bears with his Tuesday trash talk. He said, I think we will be able to destroy their front. Adewale Ogunleye, Bears defensive lineman, and Davis mixed it up in a jawing session during the pregame. Prior to the coin toss some of the captions for Chicago avoided shaking the hand of Davis.

Davis doled out his own form of punishment. He bowled over Nick Roach, Bears linebacker, sending him briefly to the sideline during his only catch in the half. Davis also received two penalties for false starts.

Davis said, it’s a big relief. To get this win is a blessing. We need to keep on winning.

With 3:53 remaining the 49ers punting the ball, giving Chicago one last chance.