Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, once again had a winner to cheer for as the Bears held off the New Orleans Saints to secure a 26-14 victory. This was their first win over the Saints since December 11, 2008, ending an eight-game losing streak against their conference foe.
As is tradition for the Chicago Bears, great defense and a strong rushing attack led the way while the passing game struggled to get its footing. Despite missing defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and linebacker Noah Sewell, the defense with the most takeaways in the league added four more to their tally, picking off Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler three times and forcing him to fumble as well, bringing their season total to sixteen. Montez Sweat finally made his impact felt this season as he was the man with the strip-sack on Rattler and notched two tackles-for-loss.
On the ground, the Bears were spearheaded by the two-headed monster of D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai. In last week’s match against the Commanders, Chicago finally managed to get the running game going with 145 yards after averaging just 102 yards per game in the first four weeks. The upward trend continued as Swift and Monangai had 124 and 81 yards, respectively. The offensive line will need to keep their newfound form going if they wish to keep this winning streak alive.
Their passing game, however, was yet again out of sync. Quarterback Caleb Williams had easily his weakest performance of the season to date, as he only managed to complete 15 of his 26 passes for 172 yards and no touchdowns, while also throwing a poorly read interception in the first quarter. One bright spot from the contest was Williams’ magical ability to escape sacks and spread the ball around, completing passes to eight different receivers, including D.J. Moore, who hauled in 3 passes for 43 yards.
Monday Night hero Jake Moody picked up where he left off in Washington, as he once again kicked four field goals in relief of Cairo Santos, who is still dealing with a thigh injury.
The Bears continue to be one of the most penalized teams in the league, as they racked up 92 yards worth of them on 10 yellow flags thrown. Not all of these flags looked totally legitimate, but finding a football game that doesn’t have any poor officiating calls is about as hard as finding a hot dog with ketchup on it in the stadium.
However, despite the passing struggles, penalties, and Chris Olave catching two touchdowns, the Chicago Bears have still managed to win four games in a row to sit at 4-2 going into next week’s matchup with Baltimore, as their MVP quarterback, Lamar Jackson, returns from injury. Are the Bears finally good? We’ll find out soon enough.
