Quick Takes: Saints win ugly over Bears to sustain win streak

NEW ORLEANS – The mission was clear.

Make the Bears throw the football and take care of the football.

Amazingly, the New Orleans Saints did not do either particularly well. They still won.

Perhaps that is a harbinger of things to come. The 2017 Saints are a different breed from what we have seen over the previous three years.

Drew Brees was sharp, completing 23-of-28 passes for 299 yards and the Saints still scored just 20 points. Jordan Howard rushed for 102 yards and Chicago ran for 157 yards. The Saints had a pair of costly turnovers and forced just one, though that one would be at the perfect time.

The end result was a slug-it-out 20-12 victory over the Bears in a bit of an old fashioned game in which both teams ran the football and played defense. That the Saints can now win with that formula is a testament to finally evaluating and procuring the talent to do so in both aspects.

Here are my Quick Takes from the important victory:

**The Saints wore “Fats” on the back of their helmets in honor of the late legend Fats Domino, who passed away earlier in the week. Sean Payton wore “Fats” on his shirt.

**The Bears won the toss and deferred, giving the Saints the ball first.

**Brees connected with Brandon Coleman, who was wide open, on the third play of the game. Coleman defeated the first tackle and had a clear path down the sideline for a touchdown but stumbled and he gained 54 yards to the Chicago 19-yard line.

**Wil Lutz booted a 32-yard field goal but Kyle Fuller jumped into the neutral zone, giving the Saints a first-and-goal.

**On the next play, Alvin Kamara raced nine yards for a score to give the Saints a 7-0 lead with 11:08 to play in the first quarter, capping a seven play, 81-yard drive, taking 3:52 off the clock. On the touchdown run, Josh Hill had an excellent block.

**The touchdown was the first offensive touchdown by a Bears opponent in nine quarters.

**The Saints were in eight and nine-man boxes defensively to start the game.

**Former Saint Akiem Hicks sacked Brees to end the next Saints possession.

**Justin Hardee made an outstanding play on a 51-yard punt by Thomas Morstead, hitting Tarik Cohen for a loss of a yard. It was a classic gunner play by Hardee, who outran the blocker to hit Cohen just after he caught it.

**Mitchel Trubisky connected with Tre McBride, III on a 45-yard pass to the New Orleans 17-yard line. Marcus Williams was in the chase position but was well behind McBride.

**Chicago reached the six-yard line but the Saints came up with a pair of one-yard losses on running plays before Trubisky threw incomplete, forcing a 27-yard field goal by Connor Barth to make it 7-3 Saints with 14:52 to play in the half.

**New Orleans responded with an 80 yard drive in eight plays, taking 4:30 off the clock with Mark Ingram scoring on a one-yard line.

**As he is apt to do, Payton called timeout on defense with the Bears facing a third-and-six from their own 42-yard line with just over two minutes remaining. Dennis Allen dialed up an all-out blitz and Trubisky found McBride wide open for a 25-yard gain to the New Orleans 33-yard line.

**New Orleans held and Barth hooked a 48-yard field goal attempt wide left, giving the Saints the ball at their own 38-yard line with 22 seconds left in the half.

**In the “who would have thunk it” category—the Bears and Trubisky threw 12 passes in the first half while Brees threw just 11, completing 10 for 128 yards.

**Brees became just the third quarterback in NFL history to complete 6,000 passes in his career, joining Brett Favre and Peyton Manning at that illustrious total. He accomplished it with a 23-yard completion to Michael Thomas in the third quarter, doing so in his 240th game. That made Brees the fastest to reach the mark in NFL history.

**Thomas Morstead continued his brilliant season, hitting one punt for 66 yards and then knocking a punting to the Chicago 3-yard line with a 56-yard effort midway through the third quarter.

**Undaunted, the Bears drove 97 yards in seven plays and scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Trubisky to Zach Miller, a perfect throw, to make it 14-10 with 5:47 to play in the third quarter. On the first play of the drive, New Orleans allowed Jordan Howard to run 50 yards straight up the middle. Trubisky also hit McBride on a 22-yard completion as he was wide open against Ken Crawley.

**Then again, think again. Upon review, Miller was deemed to have not controlled the ball to the ground as it moved when making contact with the ground. To make matters worse for the Bears, Miller was injured on the play.

**Barth booted a 44-yard field goal to make it 14-6 with 5:42 to play in the third quarter.

**New Orleans got the three points back early in the fourth quarter on a 45-yard field goal by Lutz to make it 17-6 with 12:54 to play in the game. The score was set up by a 22-yard completion from Brees to Michael Thomas.

**Willie Snead played sparingly, perhaps an indication that his hamstring is still an issue.

**With the Saints seemingly driving to put the game away, Ingram fumbled when stripped by Jonathan Bullard and Christian Jones recovered for the Bears at the Chicago 28-yard line with 7:32 to play in the game.

**The Bears took advantage, driving 72 yards in 10 plays with Tarik Cohen scoring on a on a one-yard run. The pass attempt for two points failed and it was 17-12 with 3:58 to play in the game. On the drive, the Saints blitzed on a third-and-10 and Trubisky simply ran past the blitzers and raced 46 yards to the New Orleans 26-yard line as the Saints were in man coverage.

**Under pressure, Brees then threw into double coverage and Ted Ginn, Jr. made a great catch for 53 yards to the Chicago 26-yard line.

**Unfortunately, the Saints could not stand prosperity. Ingram fumbled again, stripped by Adrian Amos, who recovered at the Chicago 30-yard line.

**Chicago had a third-and-one on its final possession. Rather than running it twice, they elected to throw and did so twice. On both occasions, the Saints defended the passes with A.J. Klein getting a hand on the first while Kenny Vaccaro defended perfectly on the second, both of which fell incomplete.

**The Saints could not finish Chicago, unable to make a first down. Lutz came on and delivered again, this time with a 49-yard field goal to make it 20-12 with 1:35 to play in the game.

**The Saints special teams then failed them , allowing Cohen to return the kickoff 46 yards to the 42-yard line. A horse-collar tackle by Lutz gave them 15 more yards to the Saints 43-yard line with 1:28 to play in the game.

**Marshon Lattimore, who is already a star, then sealed the deal with an interception of Trubisky.

It was refreshing to see the Saints defense win one for New Orleans. Despite giving up some big plays, the defense came up big, allowing just 12 points and getting the big stops when needed.

This is no longer a one-dimensional team. It is truly a team, a team that has won five straight games and will be favored to win a sixth straight next Sunday at home against Tampa Bay.

The Saints won despite Brees not throwing a touchdown pass, the first time in 10 games that he had not done so. The last time was on Dec. 11, 2016 in a 16-11 loss at Tampa Bay.

New Orleans lost despite losing the turnover battle (2-1) on critical fumbles by Ingram. Kamara was on the field for the final possession, running the football and securing it.

Saints fans can finally smile again. They have waited quite some time. Saints players and coaches can smile as well, despite having to breathe a sigh of relief. New Orleans has won five straight games for the first time since opening 2013 with a 5-0 start, the last season the Saints posted a winning record.

Barring serious injuries, it appears that the 2017 Saints will end the skid of three straight losing seasons this year.