BOX SCORE

CHICAGO – The Bears were favored to win Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints. It was the first such occurrence since last year’s home game against the New England Patriots.

The Bears were awful that day — so bad, in fact, that offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired afterward. They needed to be better in this instance, in search of a fourth consecutive win.

The Ben Johnson effect surely would help, as the Bears head coach’s relentlessness and attention to detail on all things would help avoid a letdown against a team they should beat.

While it wasn’t always pretty, the Bears found a way to get the job done. It probably was closer that it should’ve been, but the Bears earned a 26-14 victory over the Saints at Soldier Field.

Let’s examine what we learned from this NFL Week 7 home win that improved the Bears to 4-2:

Run game keeps rolling

Johnson put tons of effort over the bye week working to improve the Bears’ running game. That meant run-specific meetings and a tough look at the plays being called. If the blocking up front and the running backs were out of sync, that changed coming out of the bye.

D’Andre Swift got rolling in a Week 6 win over the Washington Commanders and kept it going against the Saints (1-6), with 124 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries, including a few explosive runs. Rookie Kyle Monangai had a TD of his own — the first of his NFL career — and 81 yards on 13 carries.

Overall, the Bears had 222 yards on 40 carries (5.6-yard average) — a massive sum by any measure. It was an important development in a game in which quarterback Caleb Williams and the passing game looked lost.

The run game was Chicago’s closer, eating up massive amounts of clock, especially in the fourth quarter.

Defense stacking takeaways

The Bears had 11 takeaways — don’t let coordinator Dennis Allen hear you calling them turnovers — in their previous three games and ranked No. 1 in the NFL in takeaways per game.

That trend continued against the Saints, with four takeaways, and they now have 15 in their last four games. That’s, you know, a lot.

Two of those takeaways are described in the next section. The third came on a Kevin Byard III interception late in the third quarter.

That was the veteran safety’s fourth interception, and he’s proving he’s still got it in his 10th NFL season. Byard should’ve had another one, but a midair collision with Nahashon Wright that hurt the cornerback (he was able to return).

Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds had the fourth Bears takeaway, with a fourth-quarter interception that essentially sealed victory.

The Bears’ defense was in complete control for most of the first half before allowing two touchdowns that kept this game close. But Allen brought blitzes all day long, and defensive backs creating disruption off the edge kept Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler on the run.

Conditions clearly impact outcome

Johnson said the Bears would be ready for inclement weather, with rain and wind in the forecast. Mother Nature delivered on that promise, creating a slick playing surface and saturated footballs that made it tough for both teams to maintain possession.

Williams dropped the ball once but managed to recover it, and a botched snap left center Drew Dalman with the ball after his QB slipped and fell back while under center.

Another botched exchange late in the third quarter killed a third-and-goal opportunity — Dalman was flagged for a double-clutch false start — that led to a field goal and helped keep the game relatively close.

The Bears’ defense took advantage of the same conditions, though. On the Saints’ first possession of the game, Bears defensive end Montez Sweat punched the ball free — the fumble he created was forced and would’ve happened in any weather — that Gervon Dexter Sr. recovered at the New Orleans 24.

Chicago turned that into a 27-yard Jake Moody field goal for a 3-0 lead.

The Bears also had a Nahshon Wright second-quarter interception that he returned 38 yards to the Saints’ 30.

The Bears turned that excellent field position into Swift’s 11-yard TD run and a 13-0 lead that they never relinquished.

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