This is new territory for the Bears.
When they take the field Sunday, they will be favored for the first time in 344 days. That was, amazingly, the last time the Bears played a team with a worse record than their own.
The Saints are 1-5 and have a -49 point differential — both are the worst marks in the NFC.
As for the Bears, every team in the NFL has lost since they last did.
New territory indeed. Dangerous territory.
The last time the Bears were favored, according to point spreads kept by Stathead.com, they lost 19-3 to the Patriots on Nov. 10. They fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron two days later and went on to lose eight more games in a row.
“We understand that this is a trap game, as people would say … ” receiver Rome Odunze said. “That was last year. A lot of different circumstances.”
Head coach Ben Johnson has tried to motivation where he can. Twenty-four hours after the Bears beat the Cowboys in a Week 3 game they never trailed, he declared the Bears were “underdogs already” against the Raiders. The point spread wound up being a pick-em — and the Bears’ first win of the season.
The Saints struggling this season might also explain why Johnson, unprompted, complained publicly about ESPN announcer Troy Aikman’s comments about his team on “Monday Night Football.” Whether he’d admit it or not, Johnson was looking to find an edge.
“Our guys, they’re feeling like the urgency is where it should be,” Johnson said. “It’s normal for us at this point …
“I really feel like this is a big step for the growth of our team. Because the last time we had a short week like this we didn’t handle it very well. That to me is the most important thing — it’s about us.”
The Bears opened the season on “MNF” and, after practicing only twice because of a short Week 2, got blown out by the Lions. They gave up 52 points, the fourth-most in modern franchise history. In terms of point differential, it was the Bears’ 20th-worst loss since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
They haven’t lost since.
“I thought we went back to work,” Johnson said. “I have a lot of belief in this team, I have a lot of belief in those guys in that locker room. I think we’re a talented group. I think we have a really strong coaching staff. And so most important to me is that we’re finding a way to get a little bit better each week. That’s the message. It always has been.
“If you start looking in the past or too far in the future, that’s where things can go sideways in a hurry.”
That’s what makes Sunday feel dangerous.
The Bears have been favored in 11 of 56 games since the start of the Matt Eberflus era, and only six times since Week 10 of the 2023 season.
They haven’t beaten the Saints — who score the third-fewest points and allow the eighth-most — in 17 years. They haven’t won four in a row since the final games of the 2018 season.
“It was a good win [Monday],” linebacker T.J. Edwards said, “but it’s time that we got to go prove it all over again.”
The Bears are coming off an emotional late-night victory against the Commanders, quarterback Caleb Williams’ hometown team.
“Their record does not show what type of team [the Saints] are,” Williams said. “And so that’s not something that we’re going to underestimate. We’re not going to try to take advantage of all that. …
“I think going into this with the right mindset is what we will have and what we will do and understanding the opportunity that we will have to be able to go out and execute to be able to turn out 4-2.”
That’s an ominous record. The Bears were 4-2 last year when they lost on the Fail Mary and entered a 10-loss tailspin.
“Obviously the season turned around … ” Williams said. “Being able to move on from an emotional game, being able to move on from myself playing in my hometown and the game going down to the wire, all of that is important. It’s important for me, it’s important for us as a team to be able to focus on the next one.”
Especially when the next game puts the Bears in a position they’re not used to.
“Can’t overlook nobody in this league …” running back D’Andre Swift said. “It’s about us. We’re focused on the work that we put in. It’s not about their record or anything like that.”