CHICAGO -- The New Orleans Saints have now lost the last eight games they've played when Dennis Allen was on the field.
Seven of those came last year, when Allen was head coach of the Saints before being fired.
The eighth came Sunday in Allen's first season as defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears.
If you think you were unhappy this time a year ago with what Allen was doing WITH the Saints, you had to feel downright miserable Sunday watching what he did TO the Saints.
When this one was all said and done, the Soldier Field scoreboard read "Bears 26, Saints 14." But really it wasn't that close, thanks to Allen's defense delivering an early knockout and adding to the misery of the team he coached past 2½ seasons.
On paper, this seemed like a winnable game for the Saints, which probably explains why Cam Jordan was sitting at his locker longer than normal after this latest loss.
"This is where you've got to really grind," Jordan said. "This is when you see who loves it and who is just here for show. If this loss doesn't hurt, you shouldn't be in this game. Being 1-6 hurts."
And if he thinks 1-6 is tough, imagine what 1-8 will feel like. The Saints are staring 1-8 right in the face, much like the Bears' defense stared in Spencer Rattler's grill in one of the most dominant 29-minute stretches of football you'll ever see. The Saints have a pair of Super Bowl contenders (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams) next on the schedule, which makes Sunday's loss even tougher to swallow.
"We've got to keep going," said Alvin Kamara. "We can't stop. We've got to keep going and find some way to catch some strides. Find some energy. Find some inspiration. Everybody's got to dig deep and find that want-to."
On Sunday, the Bears had all the want-to, which is why they have now won four straight games after an 0-2 start. And nobody had more want-to than Allen, facing the team that fired him after a seven-game losing streak nine games into the season. Allen's last win with the Saints came in Week 2 last year against the Dallas Cowboys. After that victory, he quoted a lyric by rapper Kendrick Lamar after the victory.
"Sometimes you gotta pop out and show 'em," Allen said in the locker room that day.
Well, that's what his defense did Sunday. Allen may not have succeeded as a head coach, but he's one of the best in the business in running a defense.
Nobody is ready to compare this 2025 Chicago defense with the Monsters of the Midway or the 1985 Super Bowl Bears, but the unit led by D.A. left the Saints D.O.A.
They forced Rattler into four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble) and also sacked him four times. The Saints had just 13 yards of offense before until the Saints put together a touchdown drive in the final minute of the first half. Kamara wasn't surprised by the Bears' success.
"It's D.A.," Kamara said. "I've been seeing it for eight years."
The Saints scored again to start the second half, but they really never had a chance. It didn't help the way the Bears ran the ball down the Saints' throat in a way that surely would have made former Chicago greats Gale Sayers and Walter Payton proud.
One of the two teams on the field Sunday came in with the 31st-worst rushing defense in the NFL. It wasn't the Saints, but you wouldn't have known that if you watched the Bears gash them for a season-high 222 yards on the ground.
So where do the Saints go from here?
"Your process is right; you just go back to your process, and you tweak it where you're dealing with a screwdriver and not a hammer," said Demario Davis. "Find out what areas you can tighten up and go back to work. There's no doubt about this group of men in this locker room that you're ever going to have to question that. We take a lot of pride in that. Just keep tweaking. We're right there at the door; just keep knocking. Eventually it's going to fall down in your favor."
Things look even more dire after Sunday, though. Center Erik McCoy (biceps) and running back Kendre Miller (knee) both suffered injuries that Moore said are concerning. The Saints fell apart last season when McCoy was injured in Week 3. This season is pretty much lost too after Sunday.
At some point, the Saints have to see what they have in backup quarterback Tyler Shough. When Moore was asked if he considered putting Shough in Sunday when Rattler struggled, he answered with a simple "I did not."
It was the right decision. Feeding Shough to Allen's hungry defense wouldn't have been a wise way for a rookie QB to make his debut. But seeing Shough play meaningful games is important.
And as the losses continue to mount up, the games are becoming more and more meaningless.
Kamara insists the team is going to keep fighting.
"Of course it's easier said than done," Kamara said. "The reality is we are 1-6. The wins are few. It's just one (so far). Singular. We don't have that feeling. We don't know what a win feels like enough on a consistent basis."
The Saints haven't won consistently since Allen was named head coach in 2022. On Sunday, he helped make sure it stayed that way.