No Drew Brees? No problem.
That would have sounded crazy to say about the Saints when Brees suffered the thumb injury that knocked him out for much of this season, but the Saints dominated the Bears 36-25 today and improved to 5-0 in games Teddy Bridgewater has started this season.
Bridgewater completed 23 of 38 passes for 281 yards, with two touchdowns and no turnovers. He played very well against a good Bears defense, and showed that the Saints are just fine with Brees sidelined.
That’s not to say the Saints don’t want Brees back -- he’s expected back soon, and he’ll start over Bridgewater -- but the Saints are showing that they’re a complete team, and not just a team that wins because of their Hall of Fame quarterback.
The Bears, on the other hand, have a very serious problem with their young quarterback, Mitchell Trubisky. He looked promising last year in his first season playing in coach Matt Nagy’s offense, but he was a major disappointment today. The Bears’ offense couldn’t get anything going, with Chicago’s only touchdown before garbage time coming on a Cordarrelle Patterson kickoff return.
Much of the game was garbage time. That time helped Trubisky pad his stats and gave the Bears the opportunity to recover an onside kick after zero onside kicks had previously been recovered all season. But garbage time also saw Saints cornerback Eli Apple suffer an injury.
The Saints are now 6-1, and the only game they lost was the one when Brees got hurt. New Orleans appears poised to run away with the NFC South.
Chicago, on the other hand, fell to 3-3 and is two games back in the NFC North. They need that Trubisky-led offense to get better in a hurry.