A last-second Jimmy Graham touchdown helped close the gap, but not by much. The Chicago Bears lost to the New Orleans Saints 21-9, sending the Saints to the Divisional Round for a pivotal rematch with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But we’ll get into that in a bit.
The Saints powered to the win off of a great day by their defense. They didn’t allow a Bears third-down conversion until after the two-minute warning, going 58 minutes without yielding a fresh set of downs. That’s as impressive as it gets, even before you consider their performance against the run (Chicago only gained 48 rushing yards) and the pass (the Bears picked up just 199 yards through the air).