 Da Boot Sports 10/19/2025 Article Courtesy of Crescent City Sports By: Ken Trahan It was a rainy, windy day in the Windy City. Fortunately, the field was covered up until two hours before kickoff and the rain stopped before game time. The Bears came in leading the NFL with a plus eight in turnover margin. They left the game with a plus 11 margin, courtesy of Spencer Rattler. Caleb Williams and Rattler were once college teammates at Oklahoma with Williams winning out in the battle for the starting job. While Williams was nothing special Sunday, it is clear he is the better prospect, based on what we saw today. The eight-game win streak for the Saints over the Bears is over. Of course, that was expected. Rattler had not been the reason the Saints were not winning prior to this afternoon. He was a prime reason the Saints lost today. Good teams seem to get the benefit of most calls. Ask the Kansas City Chiefs. The Saints did not get a key call but did not do enough to help themselves to have any shot at winning. Here are my Quick Takes on the 26-14 Chicago win over New Orleans: **Inactives for the Saints included Ugo Amadi, Torricelli Simpkins, Xavier Truss, Jonah Williams, Rezjohn Wright and Isaac Yiadom. **Blake Grupe continued to struggle on kickoffs, knocking the opening kickoff out of the end zone to give Chicago the ball at its 35-yard-line. **Chase Young anticipated a quick flat pass and nearly intercepted it on the second play of the game. **The Saints forced a 3-and-out, getting a stop for the first time in five weeks on the opening possession for an opponent. **Alvin Kamara gained six yards on a toss-sweep left on the first offensive play for New Orleans. That would prove to be his highlight of the day. **The good start turned bad quickly. **Rattler held the ball too long on a pass play, decided to step up and try to run, carried the ball in one hand and was stripped by Motez Sweat. Gervon Dexter Sr. recovered the fumble at the New Orleans 24-yard-line. Rattler did everything wrong, holding the ball too long and holding the ball with one hand, enabling Sweat to strip him. **Williams fumbled two snaps on the possession, Quincy Riley made a nice tackle in space and Jake Moody had to come on and kicked a 27-yard field goal to give Chicago a 3-0 lead with 9:34 to play in the first quarter. **The Saints went 3-and-out again on their second possession. **Young knocked down a second pass attempt from Williams on the next Chicago possession. **Riley made a huge play, reading Williams, stepping in front of Rome Odunze and intercepting a pass at the Chicago 48-yard-line. **It did not matter. A poor offense failed to capitalize in any fashion. **Rashid Shaheed hurt the Saints with a false start, Rattler elected to throw a 1-yard pass to Chris Olave, rather than running for what would have been more yardage, before Blake Grupe missed another field goal, this time from 53 yards. **As Nick Underhill noted, the Saints were now 1 of 26 on third-and-eight yards to go or longer this season following that possession. **The New Orleans offense gained 27 yards on 11 snaps in the opening quarter. **The defense had to defend a short field and held Chicago to a 39-yard field goal by Moody to give the Bears a 6-0 lead with 14:06 to play in the half. **The Saints killed themselves on the next drive with an illegal formation penalty negating a Rattler run for a first down. Rattler got sacked twice. On both occasions, Kamara was beaten badly in pass protection. **The Saints were bailed out by a roughing the passer penalty on Jaquan Brisker on a third-and-28, giving New Orleans a first down. **Rattler then paid the price with another bad throw, behind Mason Tipton and it was intercepted by Nahshon Wright, who returned it to the New Orleans 30-yard-line. Rattler was way late with the throw and way behind Tipton, who was actually open on the play. **That led to a D’Andre Swift 11-yard touchdown run as Swift scored easily through a gaping hole to give the Bears a 13-0 lead with 9:05 to play in the half, completing a 30-yard, four play drive. **Oft-injured Kendre Miller left the game early with a knee injury. What else is new? **Taysom Hill lost nine yards on a quarterback keeper and the Saints went 3-and-out as Rattler went deep for Olave, who returned to the game, but Rattler threw the ball out of bounds, not giving Olave a chance. **Kai Kroger’s struggles continued as he hit a lousy 31-yard punt. **Alontae Taylor went out of the game, came back in, and went out again. **Kyle Monangai scored his first NFL touchdown with a 1-yard run to make it 20-0 with 2:51 to play in the half, finishing a 55-yard drive in eight plays. **The Saints failed on a fourth-and-one at the Chicago 43-yard-line with 1:38 to play, giving the Bears the ball back. **Rattler had Juwan Johnson open, threw it behind him but Johnson dropped yet another pass. **Olave went in motion, Tyrique Stevenson had him in man coverage and Rattler hit Olave in stride for a 57-yard gain. It was just the ninth play of 20 or more yards for the Saints this season. **The 10th play of 20 or more yards came next as Rattler connected with Olave on a 21-yard touchdown pass on a well-timed, perfect throw to cut the Chicago lead to 20-7 with 22 seconds left in the half. **The drive covered 91 yards in five plays and took just 46 seconds for New Orleans to score. **The Saints finished the first half with 104 yards, 91 of which came on the final drive of the half. **New Orleans continued the momentum to start the second half. The Saints took the kickoff and drove 80 yards in 10 plays with Rattler hitting Olave with a 14-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 20-14 with 9:40 to play in the third quarter. Rattler had completions of 10 and 29 yards to Johnson to set up the score. **Chicago drove to the New Orleans 2-yard-line and on fourth-and-goal, the Bears decided to go for it. Williams fumbled yet another snap and the Saints apparently had a big stop but a false start was called, giving the Bears a second chance and Moody kicked a 24-yard field goal to make it 23-14 with 4:07 to play in the third quarter. **The drive covered 66 yards in eight plays. **Rattler then made another big mistake. While extending a play, he decided to throw deep for Rashid Shaheed but overthrew him badly and Kevin Byard III intercepted it at the Chicago 12-yard-line, the third turnover by the Saints. **Bryan Bresee and Young combined for the first sack of Williams early in the fourth quarter. **Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier dialed up a trick play to convert a third-and-20 on a completion to Hill, who then lateraled to Kamara and the play covered 31 yards. Unfortunately, the play was overruled on a successful challenge by Chicago to negate the play. It was extremely close and it was surprising that replay overruled it. **The Bears increased the lead to 26-14 with a 33-yard field goal by Moody with 6:22 to play in the game to finish off an eight play, 51-yard drive. **Erik McCoy left the game and Luke Fortner took over at center. **Rattler threw his third interception of the afternoon and committed his fourth turnover of the game as Tremaine Edmunds picked off an ill-advised throw across his body into three navy blue jerseys, intended for Jack Stoll. **Chicago got the ball back and the Bears were able to run the clock out. The thought here was that Tyler Shough would get his shot after the bye week following week 10. Will his shot come earlier now? The Saints are going nowhere fast at 1-6. Have they seen enough of Rattler? At some point, you have to see what you have in Shough. After today’s game, that may become more of a focus for Kellen Moore. Defensively, the Saints started well but were awful in the second half against the run, a reminder of who they were a year ago. Chicago gashed New Orleans for 220 yards rushing, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Chicago rushed for 13 first downs. When you run it that well and get turnovers, you dominate time of possession. Chicago had the ball for 36:19 to just 23:41 for the Saints. That contributed to the New Orleans defense wearing down against the run. Conversely, the Saints cannot run the ball. New Orleans rushed for just 44 yards on 17 carries, an average of 2.6 yards per carry. Kamara is not the same player he once was, Miller is hurt again, Hill is still coming back from a serious injury and Devin Neal is a rookie. Still, the offensive line play is a clear part of that failure, just as it was part of Rattler being sacked four times. The kicking game remains poor. Grupe kicked off in the end zone again and missed a field goal while Kroger hit a 31-yard punt and the return game was nominal. We learned nothing new today. The Saints are a bad team and remain that way. The Saints cannot score. The Saints are still below average against the run. The Saints kicking game is below average. That defines bad. The Saints return home to play their first division game against the top dog in Tampa Bay next Sunday. The only question now is when Shough will get his shot. Though it may not move the needle, it is certainly worth a look in this otherwise predictably forgettable season. John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) *John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
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