|
<>
|
 
Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Suburban
Journals of Chicago
|
Bears boot the Saints into hibernation
again, Beat New Orleans in Overtime 27-24
by Dan
Peters
Robbie Gould
and the Chicago Bears dealt the New Orleans Saints yet another
devastating loss at Soldier Field…. And
into hibernation for yet another season.
Who Dat? Robbie
Gould is that man…
Robbie Gould kicked
the tying field goal at the end of regulation and booted a 35-yarder in
overtime to give the Bears a 27-24 victory on Thursday night, giving
their playoff hopes a well needed boost.
After winning the
coin toss, the Bears went 52 yards to set up Gould’s 35-yard
game-winner with 12:14 remaining in overtime. The kick came after Devin
Hester drew a 38-yard pass interference penalty on safety Roman Harper
that resulted in a first down at the Saints’ 15.
This was
definitely a Bears break as the official’s call was “questionable” at
least and in such a close game, they should let the players “play” and
not have had a hand in the outcome.
“As a receiver,
[Hester’s] gotten better and better,” Smith said. “He’s still hard to
cover when he’s in a one-on-one situation. We’ve had him open a few
times and haven’t been able to get him the ball. But in the end he came
through as an offensive weapon and put us in position to win.”
Playoffs?...Playoffs?....
The Bears
still need plenty of help to reach the postseason.
“Bottom line for us,
we’re still in the hunt,” Chicago’s Lance Briggs said.
The Bears are
now 8-6, a half-game behind Minnesota, but the Vikings hold any
tiebreakers. The Bears can’t rely on a wild card spot either; they are
a half-game out of a wild-card spot.
So the Bears will
have to “Win” to get in the playoffs. A feat that they can easily do if
they turn up their game play a notch as they did tonight.
Welcome back
to Chicago, New Orleans Saints…..
Danieal
Manning returned the opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown and set
up another one with a 52-yarder early in the second as the Bears
grabbed a 14-7 lead. Kyle Orton’s 6-yard scramble in the closing minute
of the half made it a 14-point game.
The Bears
special teams supplied much of the offense tonight, and had it not been
for Manning’s stellar play, it may well have been “Hibernation” for the
Bears.
“He’s been
showing signs of being able to break one all the way for a while,”
Smith said. “We want him to celebrate when he gets in the end zone, but
we’ll work with that.”
Not “Their kind of
Town”.
It was
another rough night in Chicago for New Orleans (7-7), which lost the
NFC championship game here two years ago and saw its slim postseason
hopes vanish with a loss on the final day last season at Soldier Field.
The last-place Saints
still have a shot at the wild card but can forget about catching NFC
South leader Carolina.
The Bears
tried to give this game away….
All three
Saints touchdowns came off turnovers by a Bears offense that was
limited to just 152 total yards until late in the fourth quarter by the
NFL’s 21st-ranked defense.
“Offensively,
we stalled there for a while,” said Coach Lovie Smith. “But at the end
we needed to put together a couple drives, and our offense answered the
call.”
Brees was off
his mark as well tonight. He was hoping to reverse his trend here the
past two games and get off the schnide and win at Soldier Field Brees, attempting to eclipse Dan Marino’s
single-season yards passing record, was 24-of-43 for 232 yards, two
touchdowns and two interceptions. He looked more like himself late in
the game after a miserable first half.
Hassled by
the defense, Brees was just 10-of-24 with 93 yards and a 49.5 rating in
the first two quarters as Chicago grabbed a 21-7 lead.
Chicago
native and Illinois standout Pierre Thomas started the Saints’ comeback
with a 42-yard touchdown run that made it 21-14 with 3:44 left in the
third. Josh Bullucks set up the score, intercepting an Orton pass when
it deflected off wide receiver Rashied Davis.
With their
second straight win and third in four games, the Bears finally appear
to be getting their “Mojo” after a convincing 23-10 win over
Jacksonville on Sunday.
Oh where oh where
has the offense gone?
Matt Forte
was held to a season-low 34 yards on 11 carries
and caught five passes for 29 yards. Orton completed 24 of 40 passes
for 172 yards with no TDs, two interceptions and a
49.2 passer rating.
The Defense
rises to the occasion, again….
The Bears
defense delivered a great performance against the NFL’s top-ranked
offense, intercepting two passes and making a key fourth-down stop late
in the game.
“I’m really
happy with the way we showed up on defense,” Ogunleye said. “Things
looked bleak at times, but we showed up and we played magnificent. We
got some turnovers when we needed. We were getting pressure. We were
stopping the run. Guys were running to the ball and I’m excited the way
we came out and played.”
The
performance was even more impressive given that Saints led the NFL in
total yards (405.9 per game) and passing yards (310.2) and ranked
second in points per game (28.2).
“It was a game where
everybody knew what we had coming in,” Ogunleye said. “They knew the
caliber of the quarterback we had coming in and I think people were
looking to see if we were for real or we were not, and I think we were
looking for the same thing because we haven’t had this consistency
where we were able to show up two weeks in a row.”
“This is the
best game they played all year,” Orton said.
“They really just played outstanding. [They] put pressure on the
quarterback and got some turnovers for us.”
They’ll go
for three in a row—something they haven’t accomplished since the 2006
Super Bowl season—against Green Bay a week from Monday.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Past Sports News
Local
Sports and
Teams
|
o0
|
