Final Score: Bears 26 Saints 14
The Bears extended their winning streak to 4 games this week with a dominant win over the New Orleans Saints! Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen got revenge on his former team as Chicago improved to 4-2 on the season, tying the Detroit Lions prior to their Monday Night Football matchup against the Buccaneers. Several positive improvements that we saw last week after the bye have now turned into trends. The resurgence of the run game on both sides of the ball was extremely encouraging to see. The Bears defense was dominant, forcing 4 turnovers. This was a fun week of football in Chicago! The Bears will look to extend their streak next week in Baltimore against a struggling Ravens squad.
Bright Spots
Run Game is Real Deal
Ben Johnson clearly wasn’t satisfied with the way his team was running the ball heading into the bye week, and he responded by improving it drastically. For the second week in a row, the run game looked fantastic. The Bears put up a season high 222 rushing yards this week, adding in 2 touchdowns on the ground. Running backs D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai averaged a whopping 6.5 and 6.2 yards per carry, respectively. After sitting at the bottom of the NFL in rushing yards just a couple of weeks ago, Chicago has catapulted to 13th in rushing yards on the year. This is a drastic improvement that bodes well for the rest of the season.
Pass Rush Improvement
The pass rush is another facet of the team that struggled early but has seen positive trends recently. Dennis Allen’s defense has done a much better job of getting to opposing quarterbacks in the past two weeks. While Allen seemed opposed to blitzing to kick off the season-with the Bears ranking dead last in blitz percentage a few weeks in-he has begun to utilize it significantly more (Chicago now ranks 23nd in blitz percentage). This tweak has done a great job of jump starting the pass rush. The Bears racked up 4 sacks against New Orleans, including two from blitzing defensive backs. Those drive-altering sacks wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Allen kicked up his blitz percentage.
Defense Dominated the Saints
Dennis Allen has the defense looking like a classic Chicago, monsters of the midway unit. Everytime they took the field this week, you felt like you were waiting for someone to make a big play. Ever since CB Kyler Gordon and LB T.J. Edwards returned last week, the run defense has gone from terrible to fantastic. Edge rusher Montez Sweat built upon his great Week 6 performance with another big effort, forcing a big strip sack and 2 pass breakups on the day. As a whole, the defense made 4 sacks and created an 4 turnovers. It now leads the NFL in takeaways (16). Even without its best player in Jaylon Johnson, this defense is the real deal.
Glaring Issues
Penalties Remain Persistent
One thing that still remains an issue is Chicago’s proneness to penalties. The Bears added ten penalties to their count this week, surrendering 92 yards in the process. They doubled the amount of penalties New Orleans committed. Somehow, they’ve been able to overcome this weakness for the past 4 weeks, but Chicago will need to clean this up before it starts facing off against tougher competition.
Slow 2nd Half
I wasn’t thrilled with the second half this week. The first half was dominant, but the Bears only put up 6 points in the second. The pass game especially has me a touch concerned. Caleb Williams wasn’t able to get it going through the air this week. It’s great that the Bears didn’t need him to put up gaudy numbers, thanks to the fantastic efforts of the run game, but the next step is for Williams to put together consistent passing performances week in and week out.
Standout Performers
T.J. Edwards
While I thought that Noah Sewell did a fine job filling in for him, linebacker T.J. Edwards has come back from injury with a vengeance. The Bears have defended the run exponentially better since his return. He has topped PFF charts in both weeks as well. This week, he ranked 2nd in the NFL in PFF coverage grade-first among linebackers. He had two pass breakups, including one that directly led to an interception for Tremaine Edmunds. Edwards is certainly proving his importance.
Nahshon Wright
Cornerback Nahshon Wright has had a roller coaster of a season. After a horrendous Week 2 in Detroit and poor performances in Weeks 4 and 6, Wright played like a top-tier NFL cornerback this week against the Saints. He finished 6th in the NFL in PFF coverage grade. He also extinguished his penalty issue, while simultaneously allowing only 2 catches for 18 yards on 6 targets. Wright also was responsible for one of the most impressive interceptions of the week, a diving grab out of the hands of Spencer Rattler.
Kyle Monangai & D’Andre Swift
The running backs both deserve a ton of love this week. The offensive line is doing a phenomenal job of opening up holes for them, but they still have to execute and hit them. Swift put up 124 rushing yards, while the 7th-round rookie Monangai racked up a career-high 81. This marks the first time since early 2023 that Swift has put up back-to-back 100 yard rushing performances. Both backs also added a touchdown, the first of which in the young career Monangai’s.
Key Drive of the Game
To me, the most pivotal drive of the game was New Orleans’ first possession after going down 6-0. The Bears defense made a statement here, setting the tone for the rest of the afternoon. Both Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker were responsible for sacks on this defensive stand. What would have been a dominant 3-and-out forced by the Chicago defense was elongated by a Brisker roughing-the-passer penalty on 3rd and 28. The defense kept a similar energy in the next three plays. T.J. Edwards nearly sprawled out for a wild diving interception, but was one-upped by Nahshon Wright’s successful pick on the very next play. The offense took the momentum (and positive field position) from this drive and immediately scored its first touchdown of the game on the ensuing possession, extending the lead to 13-0. The Bears never looked back.
THE BEARS ARE THE BEST