Bears play smashmouth to beat Saints for fourth straight win

Dennis Allen's Bears defense made all the difference Sunday early in establishing a big lead against his old team.

The Bears had four more takeaways and enough offense with a strong running game to hang on for a 26-14 victory despite another stack of penalty flags.

D'Andre Swift ran for 124 yards and Kyle Monangai for 81 and each had a TD in the win.

It wasn't the convincing blowout anyone would have wanted after such a big lead in the first quarter but no one was about complain about a four-game winning streak and a 4-2 record. New Orleans pulled back within 20-14 in the third quarter before the Bears ground game took hold

Caleb Williams had a spotty day but made the big throws in the third quarter to start a drive to a 24-yard Jake Moody field goal and a few more in the fourth quarter during a 51-yard drive to put the Bears up 26-14 with 6:22 remaining.

Montez Sweat started the defensive dominance in the first quarter with a strip-sack of Spencer Rattler recovered by Gervon Dexter on New Orleans' second play, leading to a 27-yard Moody field goal, the first of four he made on the day.

Nahshon Wright, Kevin Byard and Tremaine Edmunds had the other takeaways with interceptions, Wright's coming in the first half to set up a TD drive ending with D'Andre Swift's 11-yard run. The Bears also had Kyle Monangai's first career touchdown on a second-quarter 1-yard run for their 20-0 lead in the first half while their defense swarmed the Saints offense.

Edmunds' pick of Rattler sealed the win in the closing moments.

The Bears defense had complete control of the game early and had held the Saints to 27 yards of offense until their final drive of the first half.

New Orleans used a 57-yard Rattler pass to Chris Olave and then a 21 pass to Olave for its first points in a 91-yard drive. Olave had the other TD on a 14-yard third-quarter pass before the Bears defense shut things down.

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