Saints move to top of NFC South with 31-15 victory over Bears

Drew Brees and the Saints found a cure for their problems — playing the Bears.

Brees threw for 375 yards and three touchdowns, and New Orleans beat Chicago, 31-15, on Monday night to grab the NFC South lead.

The Saints (6-8) moved into first place ahead of Carolina (5-8-1) and Atlanta (5-9) after losing four of their previous five games. They also rebounded from a 41-10 loss to the Panthers.

Brees completed 29 of 36 passes and reached the 4,000-yard mark for the ninth straight year. He threw two touchdown passes to Josh Hill and another to Marques Colston.

Pierre Thomas had five catches for 83 yards. David Hawthorne had three of New Orleans’ seven sacks, and the Saints intercepted three of Jay Cutler’s passes to bring his NFL-leading turnover total to 24.

For the Bears (5-9), the loss comes after a week in which they were again engulfed in controversy. Offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer admitted he was a source behind a critical report by the NFL Network about Cutler, owning up to it in public Friday after asking players and coaches for forgiveness.

Cutler completed 17 of 31 passes for 194 yards, and the Bears couldn’t get anything going. They managed only 278 yards against one of the league’s worst defenses on a soggy night in which thousands of seats went unused.

There were 10,749 no-shows, and that might not have been a bad thing for the Bears, the way they played.

The Saints went ahead in the second quarter after wasting several opportunities in the opening period. Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller was called for a 17-yard pass-interference penalty trying to defend Jimmy Graham, setting up New Orleans with a first down at the eight.

Brees then rolled to his right on the first play of the second quarter and found an open Hill, who lunged across the goal line.

The first half was so bad for Chicago that its best play of the first two quarters might have been Pat O’Donnell’s 56-yard punt that went out of bounds at the New Orleans five with about four minutes left in the second. But the Saints responded with a 10-play, 95-yard drive.

Brees threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Colston with 38 seconds left, giving the Saints a 14-0 lead. Cutler’s pass was then picked off by Pierre Warren on the final play in the half.

Brees and Hill connected for a seven-yard touchdown on their first possession in the third on a similar play as their first score, making it 21-0. It was 24-0 early in the fourth when Cutler hit Marquess Wilson with a one-yard touchdown pass, denying New Orleans its first shutout since 2012.