Bears defense lets Dennis Allen enjoy the last laugh against Saints

"He didn't make it about himself the entire week," safety Kevin Byard said. "He didn't mention anything about it. But me being a veteran, I know this meant a lot for him.

"He obviously got a game ball at the end of the game. Excited for him, happy for him to be able to get that win."

During the postgame celebration, Allen did let on what it meant to him. The Bears put out the postgamer locker room celebration on social media and what happened after Ben Johnson announced the game ball.

"I got a speech," Allen told them. "Hey listen,  sometimes the Good Lord just has some freakin' plans for you that you don't know about. Sometime you ain't good enough for somewhere else, that's perfectly fine.

"I love being here, I love being with this group of  guys. You guys work you damn (deleted) off but four ain't enough, four ain't enough."

The Saints had 13 yards and four first downs until they drove 91 yards before halftime. They had almost 3 1/2 times as many yards gained through penalties on the Bears as they did gaining it themselves. By then, they were down 20-0. 

"I thought we limited their explosives throughout that day except for the one before halftime that resulted in points for them," Johnson said. "Then out of halftime I thought we had some chances and we just couldn't stop them.

"But beyond those two drives, I thought the defense played some of the best ball we've played all year.”

The Saints drove to score on the second of two Chris Olave TD catches in  the third quarter but this wasn't about to become a repeat of the season opener when they blew an 11-point lead.

The Bears were simply pulled away by taking the ball away. Second-half interceptions by Tremaine Edmunds and Kevin Byard followed a first-half pick by Nahshon Wright and a strip-sack by Montez Sweat that Gervon Dexter recovered.

They produced only 10 points off those four takeaways and none on the two in the second half, but they did shut off any thought of comebacks. That's 15 takeaways in four games.

"We're just playing with a lot of confidence," Byard said. "I've said it before, the ball has been our mind."

So was shutting off the run.

The worst run defense in the league a few weeks ago, the Bears first held Washington to 124 yards on the ground and then the Saints to 44 yards. Spencer Rattler isn't the kind of QB to carry a team with his arm.

“They were junking up the front," Rattler said of the Bears defense. "We knew that would be a heavy part of their plan. Took us a little to settle in. I think we played behind the sticks a little too much early to where they could get in that package and kind of get after us a little bit."

The Bears started bringing the house, sending both Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon  at times on blitzes. Both Brisker and Gordon got sacks on blitzes.

"Both of those guys are excellent blitzers," Byard said. "DA (Dennis Allen), like I've said, he's putting guys in position to make plays."

Edmunds had a sack on a blitz, as well. Sweat's strip-sack that led to the game's first score on a field goal was the only sack by a defensive lineman.

The four sacks was a season high for a team with only seven to start the game.

The turnovers were the key number, though, especially interceptions.

"We all are out there trying to get one," Byard said.

He almost had another but crashed into Wright and dropped it.

"I look at it as a drop for me because I feel like I had it in my hands and I wasn't able to bring it in," he said. "Like I said, guys are seeing the ball, going out there trying to make plays.

"The ball's in the air, we feel like we're going to get it."

Giving up only 253 yards of offense for the game wasn't a bad number, either. They're doing this with their best defensive player, Jaylon Johnson, out until late in the year and Sunday had to play a short time without Wright, who left after the collision with Byard on an incompletion but returned.

"It's just special right now," Byard said of the 15 takeaways in  four games. "I'm not going to make it seem like it's happened before.  I've never been a part of that.

"We've just got to keep it rolling. If that's what we've got to do to win games, then that's what we've got to do."