The Patriots displayed toughness with the deck stacked against them on Thursday Night Football, but ultimately, the Bears proved themselves the more complete and sound football team.
Despite a valiant effort, the better team won. The Patriots, however, are within spitting distance of where they need to be. They just have to get a little healthier, and stop tripping over their own feet.
New England head coach Mike Vrabel sounded a warning bell after the last two wins ripped off by his team. A 45-point beatdown of the Raiders and a one-score victory over the Jets left Vrabel terse at the podium. Sure, he declared himself “happy” after the win over Vegas and “lucky” following the Jets game, but he cautioned against the lack of growth he saw from his team game-to-game.
Perhaps this game would play out differently if the two teams met on a Sunday, or better yet for New England, when their injured reserve list doesn’t carry more names than a souvenir shop’s keychain rack. As the schedule had it, though, the Patriots suffered from backup play on their offensive line, growing pains among their young players, and the sort of whiffs on details that didn’t haunt them against lesser teams.
Drake Maye willed his offense into a game that looked primed to be a lopsided affair with a run in which he reached the end zone—and may have found himself in a sleeper hold from a Chicago defender in the process. Maye threw his first interception in three weeks on a bizarrely underthrown ball, but he took his lumps and made chicken salad out of chicken poop in admirable fashion. He finished the night 24-31, with 321 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, and 26 rushing yards in addition to his other touchdown.
Ditto for running back Rhamondre Stevenson, whose end-of-the-half rushing touchdown silenced Soldier Field. He did all the dirty work in pass protection, picking up the slack while Maye felt the pressure of Dennis Allen’s tricky fronts.
Ultimately, this game was a measuring stick for the Patriots’ defense, and they came up short. They faced the league’s best rushing offense. The Bears didn’t reach their 160-yard average, but their offensive line and running back D’Andre Swift were able to cook the clock in the fourth quarter with Ben Johnson’s recipe on the ground. An 11-play drive ate up more than four minutes in what was still a one-score game, ending with what could have been a pivotal sack by Christian Barmore.
It was simply too little, too late.
Thursday was a tough night for linebacker Christian Elliss. The hard-hitter got lost in coverage early, allowing a 58-yard completion between Caleb Williams and Luther Burden III. He also whiffed on a sack attempt on Williams. He wasn’t the only one off his P’s and Q’s. Rookie Gabe Jacas committed a head-scratching penalty with a late hit on Williams, and the tape is sure to show other missed tackles and missed opportunities.
“We fought, but I would say that we need to turn the ball over and we need to tackle, and those were fundamental skills. But I liked the way they fought,” Vrabel said post-game.
If the Bears were in the AFC, they’d be considered a much more dangerous team. Their reality is life in the NFC North, where they have to contend with the unbeaten Vikings, darling Packers, and has-their-window-closed Lions. They’ll have to fight tooth and nail to get into the playoffs, but Thursday night, they looked like a disciplined group with heaps of young talent.
This loss should sting for the Patriots. They had the aforementioned opportunities. They’re still waiting on A.J. Brown’s breakout game. He had 3 catches on 6 targets for 48 yards, and it was probably too much to expect him to hit the ground running on a short week. He looked far behind the likes of the Bears’ Burden and Rome Odunze, though.
Unlike the collapse against the Seahawks or the no-show against the Jaguars, the Patriots competed for the entire game against the Bears. Their 30-24 loss is no cause for a moral victory Friday—this team should be beyond that after a three-game win streak that began with an upset over the Bills—but it was far from a harbinger of doom.
