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| BUF at PHI | CAR at TB | CIN at MIA | DAL at WAS | DET at GB | JAX at HOU | KC at NYJ | MIN at DEN |
| NE at NYG | NO at CHI | PIT at BAL | SD at OAK | SEA at ATL | SF at CLE | STL at ARI | TEN at IND |
Week 17 Game Recap: New Orleans Saints 25, Chicago Bears 33
What you need to know
| New Orleans Saints |
The Saints went down trying in their effort to make the playoffs, though came up short on the road against the Chicago Bears. Drew Brees completed 35 of 60 passes for 320 yards with three touchdown passes and two interceptions. Brees utilized running back Pierre Thomas out of the backfield extensively, with Thomas catching twelve passes for 121 yards and a touchdown. From the wide receiving corps, Marques Colston scored two early touchdowns, and finished the day with eight catches for 94 yards. Opposite of Colston, David Patten caught four balls for 39 yards, with Torrance Cooper pulling in two receptions for nine yards and Lance Moore catching a single one yard pass. Brees got his tight ends involved, with Eric Johnson catching four balls for twenty five yards, while Billy Miller finished with three receptions for 26 yards. Fullback Matt Karney added a five yard catch.
With Reggie Bush and Aaron Stecker out, Pierre Thomas had an opportunity to showcase his skills, breaking the century mark with 105 yards on twenty carries.
| Chicago Bears |
The Bears concluded an up and down season with a home win behind the legs of Devin Hester, who returned a punt 64 yards for a touchdown as well as catching a 55 yard touchdown pass. Hester finished with two catches for 65 yards as he got more involved in the offense. Hester had Kyle Orton throwing him the ball, who completed 12 of 27 passes for 190 yards, including two touchdowns and one interception. On a rollout, running back Adrian Peterson threw a nine yard touchdown to Bernard Berrian.
Berrian finished the afternoon with three catches and 28 yards in addition to the touchdown, while fellow starter Muhsin Muhammad caught three balls for 29 yards. Wide receiver Mark Bradley added a nineteen yard touchdown catch, while tight end Greg Olsen caught two passes for seventeen yards. Out of the backfield, Adrian Peterson caught a nine yard pass, while Garrett Wolfe added a 32 yard reception.
With the Bears ahead for most of the game, they tried to establish a running game, giving Adrian Peterson twenty one carries for 91 yards, with Garrett Wolfe getting four carries for seven yards.
What you ought to know
| QB Drew Brees, Pass: 35 - 60 - 320 - 3 TD / 2 INT |
Brees completed 58 percent of his passes for an average gain of 5.3 yards per attempt en route to a passer rating of 75.7. Brees was helped out by a three touchdown performance, but hurt by early interceptions as well as the departure of Marques Colston in the second half of this game. In a season which he lost Deuce McAllister for most of the season, and had Reggie Bush at partial strength for much of the season, Brees threw the ball with regularity, and as a result, completed more passes in a season than any other quarterback in history.
| RB Pierre Thomas, Rush: 20 - 105 - 0, Rec: 12 - 121 - 1 (16 targets) |
Thomas was extremely active in both the running and passing game, with 32 official touches, including an average of over five yards per carry and ten yards per reception while filling in for Aaron Stecker. Most of Thomas' targets came in the second half after the departure of Marques Colston, where Brees was dumping the ball off to keep drives alive, something Thomas had done well at in the first half, though had seen his quarterback turn it over too many times to end the drive.
| WR Marques Colston, Rec: 8 - 94 - 2 (16 targets) |
Colston was extremely busy in the first half of this game, catching two touchdowns and being targeted a team leading sixteen times (tied with Pierre Thomas) before departing with a rib injury. On many drives in the first half, quarterback Drew Brees looked to no other receiver other than Colston, who sat down in the middle of the Bears defense, though he converted on only half of his receiving opportunities.
| WR David Patten, Rec: 4 - 39 - 0 (8 targets) |
Patten surprising did not become significantly more involved in this game after the departure of Marques Colston, as quarterback Drew Brees looked primarily underneath on high percentage passes to his running backs and tight ends.
| TE Eric Johnson, Rec: 4 - 25 - 0 (7 targets) |
Johnson shared tight end stats in this game with Billy Miller, who also saw five targets. Seven passes and fifty one yards were gained between the two tight ends, who were frequently on the field at the same time with fullback Matt Karney on the sidelines and Pierre Thomas lined up in one back sets.
| PK Martin Gramatica 1 - 1 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 5 points |
Gramatica successfully converted on his only field goal attempt from 48 yards out, and made both extra point attempts. Late in the game, the Saints went for two to bring the score to 33-25, so he did not attempt an extra point on the Saints third touchdown.
| NO Rush Defense |
The Saints rush defense was able to hold the combination of Adrian Peterson and Garrett Wolfe under 100 yards on a combined 25 carries, and kept either of them from breaking any long runs, however were beat on a Adrian Peterson passing touchdown from nine yards out which caught them off guard.
| NO Pass Defense |
With the exception of a 55 yard touchdown where Devin Hester got wide open over the middle of the field, the Saints pass defense played pretty well, though had failed to get enough of a pass rush on Kyle Orton, with only one sack. Absent of that passing touchdown, the Saints had only allowed 11 completions for 135 yards from Orton.
| QB Kyle Orton, Pass: 12 - 27 - 190 - 2 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 2 - -2 - 0 |
Orton completed just 43 percent of his passes for an average of 6.8 yards per attempt on his way to a passer rating of 77.7 and a second straight win as starting quarterback for the Bears. Though his stats were not extremely impressive, he only turned the ball over once, and certainly asserted himself back into discussions for starting quarterback of the Bears franchise based upon his closing efforts in the 2007 season as well as a ten win season in his rookie year of 2005.
| RB Adrian Peterson, Pass: 1 - 1 - 9 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 21 - 91 - 0, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (1 targets) |
Peterson received only one target, as he remained in the backfield as an extra blocker to protect Kyle Orton on many downfield passing plays. Rookie running back Garrett Wolfe was brought in on many third and other passing downs, limited Peterson's action out of the backfield. On the ground game, Peterson averaged over four yards per carry, but saw his biggest play of the game come from nine yards out, when he pulled up from his run to find a wide open Bernard Berrian in the back of the end zone.
| WR Bernard Berrian, Rec: 3 - 28 - 1 (5 targets) |
Berrian had a relatively quiet afternoon, with his biggest play coming on a nine yard touchdown reception from running back Adrian Peterson. Many of the deep routes that Berrian traditionally ran with Rex Grossman were being run by speedster Devin Hester in this game as the Bears continued to try to get Hester more involved.
| WR Muhsin Muhammad, Rec: 3 - 29 - 0 (3 targets) |
Muhammad converted on all three passes thrown his way, averaging under ten yards per reception.
| WR Devin Hester, Rec: 2 - 65 - 1 (3 targets) |
Hester made the most of his opportunities, including a fifty five yard touchdown reception where he cut across the middle of the defense and found himself wide open for an easy catch and run from quarterback Kyle Orton. In his addition to his heroics from the receiving game, Hester also showed his explosive return abilities with a sixty four yard punt return touchdown. Hester continued to look more confident in the passing game and an integral part of both special teams and offense as the coaches look for ways to get him involved.
| TE Greg Olsen, Rec: 2 - 17 - 0 (7 targets) |
Kyle Orton looked to get Olsen involved early, but had trouble connecting as the two did so on less than thirty percent of his targets, though Olsen had seven targets to teammate Desmond Clark's one target against the Saints.
| PK Robbie Gould 1 - 1 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 7 points |
Gould successfully converted on all four extra point attempts in addition to kicking a 39 yard field goal in the 33-25 win.
| CHI Rush Defense |
The Bears rush defense was worn down over the course of the afternoon as they spent a significant amount of time on the field, giving up over one hundred yards to Pierre Thomas.
| CHI Pass Defense |
Though they gave up 320 yards through the air and three touchdowns, the Bears prevailed by coming up with two interceptions and three sacks by keeping most everything underneath and preventing Drew Brees from catching up in this game.
