It didn’t take long for Drew Brees to conclude Sunday’s game was going to be his to win or lose. He saw that the Bears’ defense would overplay the run, so the New Orleans Saints came out throwing.
The Saints called four pass plays among their first five. Brees was sacked once, and the Saints punted.
“They had an extra guy down there for the run the majority of the time,” Brees said. “That’s one of the reasons we threw it so much.”
Deuce McAllister, who carried only six times for 18 yards, said, “It was disappointing not to be more involved.”
So the Saints relied on the reconstructed right shoulder of Brees, who responded by completing 27 of 49 for 354 yards and two touchdowns. His only interception came with the Saints behind 32-14.
Brees got the Saints back into the game with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Marques Colston, cutting the Bears’ lead to 16-7. Breese completed 5 of 8 for 78 yards in the drive. Then on the Saints’ first possession of the second half, he hit Reggie Bush for an 88-yard touchdown to trim it to 16-14.
Later in the third quarter, Brad Maynard buried the Saints with a 51-yard punt that went out of bounds at their 5-yard line. On second-and-10, Brees was pressured and threw the ball away in the end zone. Officials ruled intentional grounding and a safety. It gave the Bears an 18-14 lead and killed the Saints’ momentum.
“We had a communication problem up front,” McAllister said. “The guy blitzed late, and I ended up picking him up. Drew was [trying to get] the ball to me, and I had to block. But they did a good job of looking at our tendencies and taking advantage of what we’ve done in the past.”
Brees felt he was out of options.
“We had a little bit of pressure, we were running down-the-field routes on both sides, my outlets were blocking,” Brees said. “So that was kind of where I was throwing it, the direction of where they would have been. Since they weren’t out of the backfield yet, I wasn’t able to get away with it.”
It was the second Soldier Field loss for Brees.
In 2003 he was playing for San Diego when the Chargers came in with a 1-6 record. Brees had completed 7 of 15 passes with an interception when coach Marty Schottenheimer benched him in the fourth quarter of a 20-7 loss in favor of Doug Flutie.
Brees was benched for the next five games before regaining his starting job for the last three games, but the Chargers finished 4-12.
Brees has called that game the low point of his career.
“That was the first time I ever got benched, and I was trying to use that as a little bit of fuel to come here–a little bit of redemption,” he said. “But this was a good team we played. Obviously it was a big stage, the NFC championship game.”
Brees will get more chances to beat the Bears because the Saints will make regular-season visits to Soldier Field the next two seasons.
“Maybe this will be a little rivalry as we get going here,” Brees said.
“I hope it does because that means we’re both playing good football if it does.”
———-
tabannon@tribune.com
