The Chicago Bears return to Soldier Field to face the Super Bowl runner-up New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football.
The Patriots started the season slowly, just 1-2, with losses to Jacksonville and Seattle. Drake Maye was playing bad football, too. He led the league in interceptions with six in the first three games.
But they’ve turned a corner. Maye is playing much better and they come to Chicago riding a three-game winning streak. They upset the Bills, blew out the feisty, upstart Raiders
and took care of the Jets.
This game creates a test of sorts for the Patriots. Are they the team that beat the Bills and took out the Raiders, Jets and Steelers? Or are they the team that lost to the Seahawks with a back-breaking interception and got trounced by the Jaguars?
For Chicago, it’s a step up in competition. They have also been rocky — with comfortable wins over the Panthers and Jets — but ugly losses to the Packers and Vikings. And just last week they did their best to cough up a 31-7 lead in their 31-23 win over the Falcons.
But as usual, there are plenty of reasons for those blips. Backup QBs, bad weather and in the case of the Falcons, inserting backup players too soon in a game they led comfortably.
Each of these teams wants to establish themselves as a true contender and be mentioned above the best teams in the league.
A Thursday night win on national streaming TV could go a long way.
Plus, it’s a rematch for two of the top 3 overall picks of the 2024 NFL Draft with Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. It’s sure to be brought up, as well as when they faced off as rookies. That game did not go Caleb’s way.
New England Patriots
SB Nation site: Pats Pulpit
Record: 4-2, 2nd in the AFC East
Last week: 26-19 win over the Jets
Game day, time, TV: Thursday, 7:15 p.m., Amazon Prime Video
Spread: Bears -2.5
Bears all-time record against: 5-11, including postseason (Super Bowl XX that is!)
Historical meetings: In week 7 of the 2022 season, Matt Eberflus and the Bears went to New England to face the Patriots on Monday Night Football.
Mac Jones was benched after starting 3 for 6 for 13 yards and an interception to Jaquan Brisker.
Bailey Zappe didn’t fare much better and was picked by Roquan Smith and Kyler Gordon.
Justin Fields and David Montgomery rushed for touchdowns. Fields threw another TD to Khalil Herbert and the Bears won 33-14.
It was their last win of the 2022 season
Last meeting: Week 10 of the 2024 season.
The Bears hosted the Patriots in a game to forget.
The Patriots were 2-7, and the Bears laid a total egg. Four Joey Slye field goals and a Ja’Lynn Polk TD from Drake Maye were all the Pats needed to win 19-3.
Caleb Williams was sacked nine times, and the Bears mustered only 142 total yards.
Patriots won 19-3.
Injury report: Eight Patriots were listed on their Tuesday estimated injury report.
Did not participate
- C Ben Brown (knee)
- CB Carlton Davis III (neck)
- DT Joshua Farmer (personal)
- Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring)
Limited participation
- WR A.J. Brown (ankle)
- CB Channing Canada (hamstring)
- T Morgan Moses (foot)
- CB Karon Prunty (hamstring)
Offense: The Patriots offense enters this week ranked 18th in points but seventh in yards.
They are 10th in passing yards and sixth in rushing yards.
Drake Maye (63.9 pct cmp./1,463 yds./11 TD/7 INT) rebounded from a rough early couple of games to return to the form he showed last year. Since starting the year with one touchdown and six interceptions over the first three games, he has 10 TDs to just one INT in the last three.
With A.J. Brown (6 rec./53 yds/0 TD) missing time, Maye is relying on WR Demario Douglas (20/233/3), TE Hunter Henry (19/225/2 TD), RB Rhamondre Stevenson (15/111/0) and Mack Hollins (15/209/0). Former Packer Romeo Doubs (14/261/3) is the main deep threat. Eli Raridon (9/112/1), Efton Chism III (9/98/1) and Kyle Williams (6/147/1) each have touchdowns, too.
On the ground, it’s mostly Stevenson (71 att./263 yds./2 TD), followed by TreVeyon Henderson (49/194/1). Maye (34/185/1) makes some runs, too. Corey Kiner (31/138/0) also gets worked in.
Defense: The Patriots enter the week fifth in points allowed and sixth in yards allowed.
Their passing defense ranks 11th and their rushing defense ranks ninth.
Christian Gonzalez (14 tkls/5 PD/0 INT) became the highest-paid CB this summer and is a true No. 1 corner. With him, Marcus Jones (1 INT/5 PD/27 tkl), Charles Woods (25 tkls/5 PD/1 INT) and our old friend Kevin Byard (26 tkls/2 PD/0 INT) are patrolling the secondary. Craig Woodson (23 tkls/1 FR/2 PD/1 INT) also makes plays.
Up front, LBs Robert Spillane (39 tkls/2 QB hits/1 TFL) and Christian Elliss (38 tkls/1 sk/1 TFL/3 QB hits/1 FF/1 PD) lead the Pats in tackles.
Elijah Ponder (5.5 sks/7 TFL/10 QB hits/2 FR/1 FF) and Christian Barmore (2 sks/2 TFL/5 QB hits/1 PD) lead the pass rush. Gabe Jacas (1.5 sk/1 INT/1 PD/3 TFL/5 QB hits) and Milton Williams (1 sk/1 TFL/2 QB hits/38 tkls) are also making stops up front.
Key matchups: It’ll be interesting to see how Christian Gonzalez is used and how Ben Johnson tries to get his pass-catchers in favorable matchups.
Mike Vrabel is a good defensive coordinator, and he’ll throw a lot at Chicago to get the offense off balance and out of sync.
Dennis Allen, on the other hand, has to use his disguises and blitzes well against Drake Maye to try and get him looking like the Maye from the Super Bowl and the first three games of the season. Not the Maye from the last three weeks.
Key stats
- The Patriots defense ranks seventh in red zone defense, allowing touchdowns on 50 percent of opponents’ drives. The Bears, after their red zone performance, are scoring on 50 percent of their red zone drives.
- New England ranks ninth in blitz percentage, sending extra pressure 31.9 percent of the time.
- However, they rank 13th in pressure percentage, getting pressure 23.9 percent of the time. Chicago ranks fourth in pressure percentage at 30.2 percent.
- The Pats are allowing the ninth-worst completion percentage to opposing QBs at 66.1 percent. QBs have a 90.3 rating against their defense.
- New England has the second-most turnovers on offense with 13. Seven interceptions by Maye and six lost fumbles.
- The Patriots have 11 fumbles on the season and have lost six of them
Can the Bears beat the Patriots at home? Which of these teams is the more likely “pretender,” and which one is more likely the “contender?” Let us know in the comments.
