Saints vs Bears: Eric Edholm’s Takeaways, Tyson Bagent’s Costly Turnovers, and Key Stops by the Saints Defense

2023-11-05 07:00:00

Eric Edholm’s takeaways:

Saints efficient offensively, end turnover streak at three games. With the Saints benefitting from five Chicago turnovers and some great field position, you’d expect them to score more than 24 points. But all in all, it was a solid day for New Orleans’ offense, starting with this: They didn’t turn the ball over for the first time since Week 5 and committed only one penalty. For a Saints team that had shot itself in the foot numerous times in the first half of the season, that constitutes a very clean game. Derek Carr was not sacked, another victory following all the pass-protection issues this season. The Taysom Hill package was cooking once more. Sure, the run game was tepid, and Alvin Kamara’s usage was a bit curious, but these are trivial matters right now. The overall result was a strong one.

Tyson Bagent’s four turnovers prove costly. In what might be Bagent’s final start before Justin Fields returns from injury, the undrafted rookie made some big throws and was in a position to lead the Bears to a road victory, with the ball in a tie game to start the fourth quarter. Through three quarters, Bagent had completed 15-of-19 passes for 201 yards, two TDs, one pick and 70 yards rushing. However, two of Bagent’s three picks came in the fourth quarter. Though the Saints cranked up the pressure, both picks were on the rookie, who made poor decisions and/or throws. After a missed Saints field goal, the Bears got the ball back with just over two minutes remaining, but Bagent was strip-sacked deep in his own end, and that was that. In five fourth-quarter possessions, all with the game tied or within one score, the Bears had three turnovers and two three-and-outs.

Saints’ D struggles early, but gets key stops late. New Orleans has one of the better defenses in the NFL, but the group seemed to carry over some of its Week 8 struggles vs. the Colts into Sunday’s game once morest Chicago. The Bears racked up 250 yards and 14 points in the first half, and it might have been more had they not turned the ball over twice and missed a field-goal try. But the Saints mostly shut them down following halftime, allowing one long field-goal drive. There were several stars for the Saints, but they had one clear standout on each level of the defense. Cameron Jordan (seven tackles, sack) and Demario Davis (10 tackles, sack, forced fumble) were great, and Paulson Adebo had a career day with seven tackles, two INTs, three passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

Next Gen stat of the game: In his Bears debut, Montez Sweat generated a team-high four pressures on 25 pass rushes, generating a 16.0% pressure rate and a 2.73-second average time to pressure.

NFL Research: Taysom Hill led the Saints with 52 rush yards and accounted for two TDs (one passing, one receiving) once morest Chicago. Hill is one of six players to lead their team in rush yards and have 1-plus pass TD and 1-plus receiving TD in the same game since 2000. The others to do it: Christian McCaffrey, Cam Newton, Josh Allen, LaDainian Tomlinson (twice) and Curtis Martin.

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