Brees helps Saints pull away late, advance
Veteran QB gets divisional matchup with Brady, Bucs
NEWORLEANS — Drew Brees will get to celebrate his 42nd birthday by preparing for a playoff game that will also feature the oneactiveNFLquarterback older than him.
Brees completed 28 of 39 passes for 265 yards, connecting with Michael Thomas and LataviusMurray for touchdowns, and theSaints defeated the Bears 21- 9inanNFC wild- card game Sunday.
Alvin Kamara rushed for 99 yards and addeda 3- yardtouchdownrun in the fourth quarter after sitting out the regular- season finale and not practicing last week because ofCOVID- 19 protocols.
The victory for the Saints ( 13- 4) and Brees, who turns 42 on Friday, sets up a divisional- round meeting next weekend in the Superdome with the Buccaneers and 43- year- oldQBTomBrady.
TheBears ( 8- 9) put forth a scrappyperformancedefensively that prevented theSaints from building more than a one- touchdown lead untilMurray’s 6- yard catch- and- run score made it 14- 3 late in the third quarter.
That score resulted from a big Bears mistake: Safety Eddie Jackson, lined up for anapparent blitz, jumpedoffsideonfourthand- 3 fromthe Bears 13- yard line.
Two plays later, Brees was scrambling to his rightwhenhespottedMurraywaving for the ball. Brees got it there with a short touch passover onrushing linebacker KhalilMack, andMurray sprinted straight to the goal line, diving throughconverging tacklers to reach the end zone.
Brees’ first touchdown pass came in the openingquarteronan11- yardthrowover the middle to Thomas, back froma three- game absence to help heal a nagging ankle injury.
Thomas, the 2019 offensive player of the year, missed nine games this season and hadn’t caught a touchdown pass since Dec. 22, 2019.
The Bears’ Tashaun Gipson set up the Bears’ first pointsandmighthaveprevented a Saints score on the same play. He got his handonthe ball asTaysomHill attempted to throwdeepwith a receiver breaking into the clear. The ball fluttered forward just a few yards and defensive lineman John Jenkins caught it, setting up Cairo Santos’ 36- yard field goal tomake it 7- 3.
But the the Bears offense struggled most of the game against a defense that ranked fourth in the NFL. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky completed 19 of 29 passes for 199 yards and one inconsequential TD pass to tight end Jimmy Graham as time expired. The Bearswere held to 48 yards rushing.