Saints take back NFC South lead with 31-15 road win over Bears

As bad as the Bears have been lately I had a feeling the game could play out this way, but a fumble inside the Bears’ five by Nick Toon on the opening drive had me fearing the worst. That was followed by a missed 51 yard field goal and terror set in. Despite a disastrous start the Saints steadied their way to a 31-15 win. It wasn’t pretty, it was always perfect, but they got the job done and if the season ended today they’d be in the playoffs. Unfortunately it doesn’t and so the Saints will host the Falcons in a must win game Sunday. The big question is how much of this was the Saints improving their play and how much of this was the Bears packing it in? I think it’s more of the latter, unfortunately, but nonetheless it will give the team some much needed confidence going into a game they’ll need little pep talk to get motivated for. The effort and defensive intensity was night and day, so give the coaching staff credit for that. Below are my bullets on the game:

• Brees was surgical. Imagine how dominant he could have been with a dry ball and better field conditions. That is a scary stat line and I don’t think any team in the NFC wants to face that in the playoffs. If Brees plays like this it will be a serious cause for concern for anyone.
• The defensive shuffle worked big time. Interestingly the Saints ran a 3-4 for most of the game and kept Junior Galette out unless there was obvious passing plays. The alignment change was a nice sight and it gave the Bears blitz packages they haven’t seen on tape. That resulted in a lot more pressure and 7 sacks.
• The Saints ran the ball poorly with 83 yards on 26 carries (3.2 per carry). Give credit to Sean Payton for calling the run plays enough to keep the defense honest.
• Terron Armstead left again with a neck problem. Not sure what’s going on with him but it’s concerning. Bryce Harris played ok at times but struggled against Jared Allen.
• Marques Colston had a vintage performance like he dipped into the fountain of youth. Brees to Colston just like old times.
• Pierre Thomas needs more touches. 5 catches for 83 yards, two huge gains on screens, never going down to the first tackler… I just don’t understand why the Saints don’t lean on him more.
• David Hawthorne had 3 sacks and Pierre Warren had 2 interceptions. I’m sure we all saw that coming.
• Jamarca Sanford had a quiet but decent day at safety. Terrence Frederick at corner was excellent. But, we’ll see how they do next week against what figures to be a much scarier offense which will return Julio Jones.
• Josh Hill, who leads the Saints in special teams tackles, added two more tackles to go with two touchdowns. Yes, really. This guy continues to do all the little things for this team and he’s a major asset.
• Jay Cutler padded his stats late with a couple scoring drives but he looked AWFUL. I almost feel bad for the Bears. Clearly a team in total disarray.
• The Saints gave up 125 yards rushing at 6.3 yards per carry but that looks a lot worse than they did. The Bears got 20 on a Cutler scramble and 21 on an end around. Scratch those two and they did a solid job on Matt Forte. The tackling was infinitely better.
• John Jenkins and Akiem Hicks had tremendous effort and push up the middle. Which we saw that more often. Sunday would be a good time to do it again.
• The Bears were 2 for 12 on 3rd down. Stat of the day right there.

That’ll do it. At 6-8 the Saints are in first and will face the 5-9 Falcons in New Orleans next week. Somehow the Saints are enjoying a 3 game win streak on the road combined with a 4 game losing skid at home. Time to end that run.