Bears Miss Chance at Another Upset

 November 2, 2020

Last year the New Orleans Saints came to Soldier Field. The Bears were coming off a bye week. The Saints were playing without Hall-of Fame quarterback Drew Brees and elite running back Alvin Kamara. For all intents and purposes the game was over by halftime. The Saints crushed the Bears in what may have been the most devastating loss in the 2019 season. Therefore, when the Saints returned with Brees and Kamara, I thought there was no way the Bears would make it a competitive game. However, the Bears got off to a quick start. But they blew a ten point lead. The Bears made a valiant comeback from ten points down in the fourth quarter. A Cairo Santos 51 yard field goal sent the game into overtime. The Saints finally prevailed 26-23.

I’m not going to come down too hard on the offense. After all, the Bears scored more than 20 points and gained more than 300 yards, which they don’t often do. What makes this somewhat more impressive is that they did this with a decimated offensive line. The Bears had six scoring drives not aided with an assist from the defense.  With the score tied at three, Nick Foles directed the first Bears touchdown drive. This included a 50 yard bomb to Darnell Mooney, who has become Foles' favorite receiver behind Allen Robinson. He then connected with the aforementioned Robinson for a 24 yard touchdown. A Santos field goal upped the lead to10. With three seconds left, the Saints scored a touchdown, making it 13-10. I believe coach Matt Nagy called a timeout, thinking the Bears could get the ball back and try to add to their lead. What it did lead to was giving Brees more time to work with.

The Bears continued their trend of not scoring in the third period.  This quarter included one of the dumbest pays in Bear history, and I have seen a multitude of them. After a completed pass to Robinson, back-up receiver Javon Wims threw punches at the Saints' C.J. Gardner. Instead of second down and five for a first down it became second and twenty. Also in the quarter, Mitch Trubisky’s name was being floated around. Foles then went 12- 15 on a long drive ending with a pass interference in the end zone. This put the Bears in a precarious situation, first and goal from the one yard line. After much mind numbing play calling all game, Nagy calls Montgomery up the middle and he loses 2 yards. Foles follows with a nifty 3 yard touchdown pass to Mooney. Montgomery had a 39 yard run and ended with 89 yards .This caused Nagy to call more plays than usual for Montgomery. To put things in perspective, if you take away that 39 yard run, he gained only 50 yards on twenty carries. That’s just pathetic.

The defense was pretty good. They held the Saints out of the end zone on four of six drives in the red zone. The biggest mistake was at the end of the first half, when Jarod Cook was wide open on a 16 yard touchdown to make the score 13-10. They also came up with numerous stops. However, you’re not going to constrain Kamara for a whole game. He got yards in chunks and made key plays when the Saints needed them. His long run set up a short field goal that won the game.