The Saints have evened their season record to 1-1 on the heels of a 30-13 beat down they put on the Chicago Bears. The Bears all but gave up at the end of the game, letting guys go in completely unblocked at Jay Cutler. The game got ugly late and there’s clearly not love lost between these two teams. The Saints definitely owed the Bears a beat down based on how recent history has gone between these two teams. Below are my postgame bullets:
- It looked at the end like Jay Cutler’s line quit on him. The way he was acting on the sidelines was quite pouty and I can’t imagine things are amical in that locker room. Cutler is getting no help but he’s also not handling it like a leader. As good as they looked last week, they completely imploded this time. The Saints finished with 6 sacks.
- The 3rd and long 79 yard touchdown pass to Devery Henderson completely changed the complexion of the game. That was absolutely massive. What a terrific throw by Brees.
- The Saints’ running game was off and on. Sometimes physical, sometimes weak. Overall the offense alternated the good and the not so good.
- The defense was terrific. And no play was bigger than Turk McBride’s sack/strip on Cutler.
- Vilma and Cassilas both left the game with leg injury scares, but they both came back and finished well.
- Malcolm Jenkins was blowing people up left and right out there. Good lord. Lots of Bears besides Cutler in a world of pain right now.
- Lance Moore’s return was completely uneventful. Once again Devery Henderson was the Saints’ best receiver, but Jimmy Graham was a reliable target as well.
- Jay Cutler’s accuracy downfield was atrocious even before all the hits earlier in the game. The only play that really worked for the Bears’ offense was passes underneath to Forte, but they used it with success over and over and over again.
- The officiating was atrocious. Roman Harper was called for a roughing the passer penalty that essentially gave the Bears their only touchdown. He merely tackled Cutler cleanly after he released the ball. There was no “driving him to the ground”. Cutler fell because he was hit. Unacceptable. Later, Meachem get rocked out of bounds and no flag. Poor, poor officiating that was quite one sided for a while. Later, Darren Sproles clearly stepped out at the 1 on a “touchdown” play and it wasn’t reviewed. What happened to every scoring play getting reviewed? Again, horrible officiating.
- We had a little scare with Chicago safety Major Wright hurting his head/neck after bouncing off Jimmy Graham. Luckily he was ok.
- John Kasay hit a 53 yarder. Seriously. Wow.
- Devin Hester was completely neutralized. The Saints executed their plan of taking him out of the game to perfection.
- The Saints were outstanding in coverage overall (except on Forte), especially Jabari Greer who rebounded in a major way to have a monster performance.
Nice win for the Black and Gold! Looking forward to the player grades which will be up later.
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