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Bears, Saints to meet in 'elimination' game

Dec 9, 2008 - 8:51 PM NEW ORLEANS (7-6) AT CHICAGO (7-6), Thursday, 8:15 pm EST

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The New Orleans Saints cannot afford another loss. The situation is slightly better for the Chicago Bears.

The Saints visit the Bears in what amounts to a playoff-elimination game on Thursday night.

A loss would doom the Saints (7-6), who already are looking up at three teams in the NFC South and need to win out to have a chance at a wild card.

Chicago (7-6), with the help of a favorable closing schedule, has a little more wiggling room, trailing the Minnesota Vikings (8-5) by one game for the NFC North lead.

The Saints kept their faint postseason hopes alive with a gritty 29-25 victory over division rival Atlanta last weekend. Having relied on the vaunted passing attack for much of the season, New Orleans got a huge boost from its rushing game.

Pierre Thomas scored a pair of touchdowns and ran for 102 yards to help the Saints improve to 6-1 at home as opposed to 1-5 on the road. Thomas also had an 88-yard kickoff return to set up his go-ahead touchdown run.

"We really wanted to come out here and take it to these guys because last time we played them they came out and they took it to us," Thomas said. "Our main focus was trying to run the ball. We wanted to make that a point that we can run the ball on these guys."

Drew Brees bounced back from a three-interception performance to throw for 230 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Atlanta, putting the league's leading passer over 4,000 yards for the season.

The Bears kept their division title hopes alive at frigid Soldier Field, posting a 23-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Chicago built a 20-3 halftime lead as Kyle Orton tossed touchdown passes to tight ends Desmond Clark and Greg Olsen.

It was the first of three straight home games for the Bears, who were happy to have the elements to their advantage in becoming the first franchise in NFL history to win 700 games.

"Everyone has a home-field advantage," Chicago coach Lovie Smith said. "If you talk to teams that aren't from Chicago, believe me, they don't want to come to Chicago this time of the year to play football, but it's a part of our every-day life, so we have to play football in these conditions."

Matt Forte was limited to 69 yards on 21 carries but became just the eight player in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards and catch 50 passes as a rookie.