The 3-2 Chicago Bears will play the 1-5 New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field in a Week 7 matchup. Here’s what you need to know before kickoff (noon, Fox-Ch. 32).
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5 things to watch — plus our Week 7 predictions
The Bears enter their Week 7 matchup against the Saints riding a three-game winning streak. Despite the Saints’ 1-5 record, the Bears (3-2) aren’t underestimating them or worrying about a letdown.
“I don’t know what that word means,” coach Ben Johnson said this week. “We’re going to embrace what the mission is, and that’s to beat a really good football team coming to town. … They continue to ascend, so we won’t overlook this opponent.”
Both Bears coordinators, Dennis Allen (defense) and Declan Doyle (offense), overlapped on the Saints coaching staff from 2019 to 2022.
Allen downplayed his history with the Saints, but defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said: “It’s always personal. Whenever you play the game, it’s got to be personal. … Whenever it’s the opposite team that you used to go against or had something to do with, it might add a little extra juice to it. For him, it would definitely mean a lot to go out there and put up a good showing.” Read more here.
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- Bears DC Dennis Allen — ‘a godsend’ for Ben Johnson — prepares for his ex-team, the Saints
Scoring is up, ‘but we’ve got to get a lot better’
With the Bears scratching the surface of what they aspire to become offensively, there’s a mighty long way to go to build a juggernaut like the one Ben Johnson was an integral part of in Detroit.
Five games into the season, the Bears have done something the franchise has accomplished only three times since 1958 — score 21 points or more in each game. Entering Week 7, the Bears (3-2) are 10th in the NFL in scoring, averaging 25.2 points per game.
That’s significant growth when considering the franchise ranked 28th last season and has finished in the top 10 only four times in the previous 30 years — 2018 (ninth), 2013 (second), 2006 (second) and 1995 (eighth). Seven times in that span the Bears were bottom five in scoring. Read more here.
- Bears running game came alive in Week 6. Does it signal a breakthrough — or was it a 1-game blip?
- Caleb Williams says his response to Troy Aikman’s ‘MNF’ slights of the Bears was just ‘fun trolls’
- Bears Q&A: Trades, trades, trades. Will GM Ryan Poles play ‘let’s make a deal’ at the deadline?
‘Pretty cool series of events’
Jake Moody had a lot of time to think over the last month. In early September, Moody lost his job with the 49ers. A month later, he became a hero when he kicked a 38-yard field goal to give the Bears a 25-24 win over the Commanders at Northwest Stadium as time expired on “Monday Night Football.”
As they attempted to exorcise the demons that followed them ever since Jayden Daniels’ 52-yard Hail Mary a year ago, the Bears turned to someone who didn’t live through that experience and who barely had time to meet all his new teammates.
Moody made four field goals Monday, and his teammates mobbed him and carried him on their shoulders after his game-winning kick went through the uprights. Read more here.
- Bears win their 3rd straight — and 2nd straight in walk-off fashion: Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts on Week 6
- D’Andre Swift’s 55-yard TD catch and 4th-quarter runs key to Bears ‘putting it away’ in Week 6 win
Latest Bears stadium news
One of the Illinois legislature’s biggest opponents of the Bears’ plan to relocate outside the city introduced legislation on Tuesday that could stall or hinder the team’s efforts, but significant questions remain about whether the bill will garner enough support or when it might be voted on.
The legislation from state Rep. Kam Buckner of Chicago — a former University of Illinois football player who represents the district where Soldier Field is located — calls for greater transparency around stadium deals in Illinois and could require the team to dig deeper into its pockets. It remains silent, however, about major financial issues, including whether the franchise would have to pay off outstanding debt for the 2003 Soldier Field renovation, a point some opponents of the team’s move have said is a bare minimum for their support.
“I want to at least lay down the tracks for what the rules of engagement are for us,” Buckner told the Tribune. “We’ve asked the Bears to come forward with a plan and show their work and show how this is a net benefit to the people. I think they’ve fallen short of that. And so, I think now the ball is back in our court. It’s incumbent upon us to tell what we need to hear from them.” Read more here.