Saints 21, Bears 9: Drew Brees, New Orleans take control late for victory over Chicago.
NEWORLEANS — Drew Brees will get to celebrate his 42nd birthday by preparing for a playoff game that will feature the one active NFL quarterback older than he is.
Brees completed 28 of 39 passes for 265 yards, hitting Michael Thomas and Latavius Murray for touchdowns, and the New Orleans Saints defeated the Chicago Bears 219 in an NFC wildcard game Sunday.
The victory for the Saints and Brees, who turns 42 on Friday, sets up a divisionalround meeting next Sunday in the Superdome with Tampa Bay and 43yearold QB Tom Brady. The Saints won each regular season matchup with the NFC South rival by double digits.
“The minute that he signed with the Bucs and came to the division, you felt like that was going to be a team to contend with, that was going to be a team
that would have playoff aspirations and beyond, just like us,” Brees said of meeting Brady in the playoffs for the first time. “So, I guess it was inevitable.”
Alvin Kamara rushed for 99
yards and added a 3yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter after sitting out the regularseason finale and not practicing this past week because of contracting the coronavirus.
“I got a bye week,” Kamara said of his absence. “It’s like, you have no choice but to sit and recover and get your body back right. I felt good.”
The Bears prevented the Saints from building more than a onetouchdown lead until Murray’s 6yard TD reception made it 143 late in the third quarter.
That resulted from a big Chicago mistake: Safety Eddie Jackson, lined up for an apparent blitz, jumped offside on 4thand3 from the Bears’ 13yard line.
Two plays later, Brees scrambled right and spotted Murray waving. Brees sent a short touch pass over onrushing linebacker Khalil Mack, and Murray sprinted straight to the goal line.
Brees’ first touchdown pass in the opening quarter was 11 yards over the middle to Thomas, back from a threegame absence to help heal a nagging ankle injury. The 2019 Offensive Player of the Year missed nine games this season and had not caught a touchdown pass since December 2019.
Thomas had five catches for 73 yards and Deonte Harris, back from a neck injury, caught seven passes for 83 yards.
The Chicago offense struggled against a defense ranked fourth in the NFL. Mitch Trubisky was 19for29 for 199 yards and one inconsequential TD pass to Jimmy Graham as time expired. The Bears were held to 48 yards rushing.