Saints Beatdown Bears; Pummel Cutler

All of those plans of possible February vacations in Indianapolis can be put all on hold. The Bears got a big reality check in their 30-13 loss to New Orleans Saints on the road.

Bears fans watched the game as their beloved team got an old-fashioned, beat down from an opponent that possesses the exact formula required to beat Chicago on both sides of the ball.

Chicago didn’t go into its Week 2 matchup against the Saints under the best of circumstances. Days before, star linebacker Brian Urlacher attended the funeral for his mother, Lavoyda. Offensive lineman Lance Louis was out with an injury and wide receiver Roy Williams missed Sunday’s game with a strained groin muscle.

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Those two injuries proved critical as the Bears were unable to do much offensively against New Orleans in the Superdome.

All during the game. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was pressured from the Saints’ blitz-happy defense. His offensive line gave up six sacks and 10 quarterback hits on the day--the Bears had similar problems last year.

The lack of adequate protection Sunday was a big reason why Cutler was a less-than-pedestrian 19-45 passing for 244 yards, resulting in one touchdown. Many of those passes were thrown away when Cutler came under pressure from multiple Saints defenders.

As noted last week, the Bears have always been a team that thrives off its defense and the havoc it creates. The pass rush that created five sacks against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 only had one sack and two quarterback hits against Drew Brees, one of the few quarterbacks who can easily pick apart Chicago’s Cover-Two defense.

Brees went 26-37 passing for 270 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions for the Saints. He took what the defense gave him in the underneath routes and did not force things down field.

When Brees did take shots down the field, it was often to tight-end Jimmy Graham, 6 catches for 79 yards, who provided a huge advantage against Bears linebackers. The tight-end matchup is something to watch in Week 3 against the Green Bay Packers as Jermichael Finley is the NFC equivalent of Antonio Gates of the AFC's San Diego Chargers.

But while the defense provided little resistance against a New Orleans offensive attack that was effectively patient, the Bears offense mustered little against the Saints’ pressure defense. Of Cutler’s 19 completions, 10 were to running back Matt Forte, mostly on screens and check-downs. Forte had 117 receiving yards to combine with his 10 carries for 49 yards rushing.

Wide receiver Devin Hester didn’t have his first catch until early in the fourth quarter as the Saints’ defensive backs were all over Chicago’s receivers. It also was his only reception of the day, for 17 yards.

Balance is always going to be one of the keys to the Bears offense, but Chicago abandoned the running game early on. The Bears only had 12 rushing attempts compared to 45 pass attempts on the afternoon, as they could only muster 3 points on a field goal during the entire second half.

Bears fans certainly can’t be disappointed coming out of the first two weeks at 1-1, but all of the optimism that came out of Week 1 has to be tempered at least a little bit. Their total net yards for the game was 246 compared with 382 for the Saints, who were nearly three times more effective in third-down conversions, 47 percent vs. 16 percent. 

Fans may not want to finalize their travel plans to Indianapolis for the Superbowl just yet, but their hopes certainly could be aided next week with a win against the division rival Packers, who must be surprised that they are tied at 2-0 with the Detroit Lions for first place in the NFC North.

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