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" I&amp;#039;m just a watcher, a viewer, a sit-at-home observer of Monday Night Football. I do not take in one second of ESPN pregame chatter, and rarely watch one second past the final tick of the clock. No one pays me to fly in and sit through pregame pressers. No one offers me a spot in the press corps \u2014 not that I think that would lend me any real perspective. I know the storylines coming in. We all do. I just watch, from my couch, playing Scrabble on my iPhone, taking the occasional note on dumb things said by Jon Gruden, on the anachronistic appearance of Mick Jagger and the boys in the limp pregame music, on things that occur to me as the facts of a season pile up, and I have to admit that most of the time, I go hunting for surprise. In the game, in a portion of a season, or just a given moment. I rarely find it. Every fan thinks they&amp;#039;ve seen it all. Maybe this leads me to sound weary, a little too scaly, a bit of a know-it-all. Maybe I&amp;#039;ve watched too much football in my life. Maybe we all have. ESPN has made Monday Night Football a blizzard of informed anticipation and predictable set-up. Pregame, every storyline is series of phrasings and packages. Like everybody else, I long for games like last night \u2014 the Bears versus the Niners, two top-notch NFC bangers, each without their starting quarterback in a kind of Concussion Bowl. Like nearly everyone else, I assumed that it could go either way. The outcome seemed debatable. In the outcome \u2014 in the game&amp;#039;s final minutes, I assumed \u2014 lay the possibility of surprise. What was beautiful about last night&amp;#039;s beat-down in the Bay, in which San Francisco disassembled the Bears 32-7 \u2014 starting with the Bears&amp;#039; offensive line and ending, basically, with the Bears&amp;#039; offensive line \u2014 was that even as the score started to seem unstartling, the entire night had a legitimate air of surprise. The quality of the unexpected had nothing to do with the final score, which could not surprise you if you watched the game even casually. The 49ers are the better team. Better defensive line, led by Aldon Smith, who seemed to influence every pass play the Bears mustered. Younger, stronger quicker linebackers. A secondary of gnat-y little guys who seemed to get a hand, or a body, in front of everything the beflummoxed Jason Campbell could fling towards oblivion before getting cracked over and over again. Offensively, the Niners offensive line provided Colin Kaepernick, a young, second-string quarterback with the chance to reveal himself as an accurate, quick-thinking, calm presence just a week after looking jittery and weak in relief of the concussed Alex Smith in a tie with the Rams. Kaepernick, of course, was the major surprise. It is still a wonder to watch a guy who just looks happy playing the game, who runs off the field with his arms open for the head coach, who maneuvers through a complicated offensive as if he were born in the middle of it. Likeable, savvy, quick, unwaveringly accurate. And set against the torpid, befuddled performance of Jason Campbell, stepping in for Jay Cutler, behind an offensive line that looked beaten and exhausted at the get-go, humiliated and distraught by the final snap, Kaepernick quickly earned his storyline, the one to be played out in the weeks and seasons to come. The kid is good. Everyone saw him mince the Bears. He need never play another down, and people will still whisper his name, even if Alex Smith returns to lead the Niners into the playoffs. No matter how deep he goes, the secret is out. The rout remained a giddy surprise until the very end, with Aldon Smith bullrushing a comic safety as a final nail in the Bear&amp;#039;s coffin. Just the steepness of the tilt. Just the sheer weight of the Niners&amp;#039; display. Still, in the NFL, one week is never the same as the last. The Bears are not done. The Niners are not a dynasty. Yet. It really may be that game sets up a potential playoff rematch, with Jay Cutler given the chance to prove himself the gritty difference-maker. All we can do is watch. All they can do now is surprise us once more. We will. They will. MORE NFL WEEK 11 ON ESQUIRE.COM: Monday Morning Cheerleader with Lindsey of the Washington Redskins  COME BACK EVERY WEEK FOR THE MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL RECAP WITH TOM CHIARELLA Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/a16889/san-francisco-49ers-chicago-bears-monday-night-football-2012-14762133/>