The Patriots played one of their best all-around games of the year and came away with their third win of the year. This was a total team effort starting with the coaches and ending with excellent execution of all three units on the field.
I will temper the exuberance a bit by noting how bad the Bears Offensive Line was beat up. They looked worse than the Patriots line has at any time this year. The Patriots had 9 sacks and another negated by a pretty poor roughing the QB call. This from an Officiating unit that didn’t call many penalties and waived off a roughing the QB call against the Bears. The Bears were holding on every play and were missing their two starting Tackles, the primary backup and starting Right Guard before the start of the game. During the game they lost their highest rated O lineman Teven Jenkins and had to move starting Center Ryan Bates to Right Tackle. Caleb Williams looked shell shocked like Mac Jones did last year.
Williams did not look good at all going 16 for 30 for just 120 yards and no scores. He just looked unsure of himself while he ran around trying to avoid the Pats defenders. Surprisingly, he did not throw an interception, which is a silver lining. He missed several open receivers. He came in having the reputation as being an inaccurate thrower and it showed up in the loss.
The Patriots Defense played their best game of the season holding the Bears to 3 points in their own house. On third down the D held the Bears Offense to 1 for 14. I can’t remember the last time a Patriots defense held an opponent to just 1 conversion on 3rd down. The Bears were 0-8 for just 87 yards of offense in the 1st half. For the game the Bears had just 142 yards, -51 yards in sacks, and 1.8 yards per pass attempt.
Jahlani Tavai had 9 tackles and 7 were solo, a QB hit and a sack. Jeremiah Pharms was a force with 5 tackles of which 4 were solo, 3 tackles for loss and a sack. He came in for the injured Jaquelin Roy who had 1 tackle, a tackle for loss. Even Daniel Ekuale chipped in with a TFL. Anfernee Jennings and Dietrich Wise had 2 sacks apiece. I loved how the pass rush checked up, keeping Williams in the pocket, then collapsed the pocket for the sack.
The secondary had 5 passes deflected. Christian Gonzalez played perhaps his best game against DJ Moore. Jon Jones, Dell Pettus, Marte Mapu and Jaylinn Hawkins played well. I liked the press coverage that didn’t allow the Bears receivers to get open and put more pressure on Williams.
Maye looked like the more composed QB in the battle of the rookies. He completed 15 of 25 passes for 184 yards a sack, TD pass and INT. The Patriots actually lost the turnover battle. Maye played better than the #1 overall pick Williams.
Kayshon Boutte looked like a legit Pro Receiver today with 4 catches on 6 targets for 47 yards. He has come a long way this season which started with an arrest on illegal gambling charges. Those chargers were dropped and occurred while he was in college and doesn’t apply to the NFL. Demario Douglas chipped in with 4 catches on 5 targets for 50 yards. The one miss Douglas had some T-Rex arms and pulled up on a crossing route.
It was good to see Ja’Lynn Polk get his 1st NFL TD. It was a very nice design after the Pats had been pounding the rock trying to get into the endzone. They faked the run, and Polk had set up to block, leaking out to the flat late. He was wide open.
I had written about the Bears excellent Red Zone defense, coming into the game, 3rd in the league at 40.9%. They held the Pats to 1 for 5 attempts. Give Joey Slye credit for punching through 4 field goals in 4 attempts in very windy Soldier Field.
The O-line opened up holes for the running game. If you read my preview of Chicago, you knew they were very good defense ranked #12 overall, #8 versus the pass, and 5th in Scoring Defense. The vulnerability was against the run. They ranked 29th and that was before they lost Andrew Billings to IR. The Patriots used the same starting unit for a 3rd time this season. Lowe at LT, Jordan at LG, Brown at C, Onwenu at RG and Jacobs at RT. I think that is beginning to pay off. Chicago is a good defense and yet they only gave up one sack.
The run game led by Rhamondre Stevenson had 20 carries for 74 yards and Antonio Gibson had 5 carries for 26 yards (5.2 Avg). I would like to see Gibson more involved in the offense. Overall, they rushed for 144 yards, exceeding the Bears average of 131.9 a game.
Austin Hooper made a couple of good catches in his 3 receptions on 4 targets for 64 yards. That’s 21.3 yards per catch. The Pats used Hunter Henry as a decoy, and he was double teamed often. Looked like the Bears wanted to take Henry away but made the rest of the secondary vulnerable in doing so.
On Special Teams, Bryce Barringer had a big day kicking with 5 punts for a 57.0 average. Two punts were touchbacks and 1 inside the 20 really flipping field position. One of the touchbacks came on a booming 75-yard kick. The Bears did have a 39-yard punt return when Barringer outkicked his coverage. Marcus Jones had three punt returns averaging 15.0 per return, one 24=yarder setting up the field goal drive with just :35 seconds left in the half.
Brenden Schooler made a big impact on the defense with his “Longhorn” package. A nice move by the defensive coaches having Schooler play linebacker. He faked into the line and allowed the RB to help pick up rushers, and once they commit, he comes flying up and makes the sack. He had a sack and 2 QB hits on the day.
Jerod Mayo went out of his way to mention that Jahlani Tavai and his partner had a baby Friday night and called her by name Honua. He also stated that Joey Slye and his wife also had a baby this week named Palmer. Meaningless dribble by the coach, not at all. He has their backs, goes out of his way to know the names of the newborn and acknowledges this in his press conference. This kind of personal attention will go a long way in a locker room. The players aren’t machines, they are human beings and having this kind of personal relationship with them will only make this team stronger.
The Locker Room was very noisy after the game as reported by the local media awaiting the post-game news conferences. He gave out Game balls to the two new dads.
Another point was the way the Patriots showed poise in the way they conducted the end of the first half. Marcus Jones returned rookie Bears punter Tory Taylor’s 48-yard punt from the patriots 16-yard line and returned it 24 yards to the NE 40 with :35 seconds left. The Pats tried a deep bomb to Boutte that was incomplete. A short pass to Douglas for 9 yards followed by a James Hasty run of 4 yards for the 1st down at CHI 47. Good use of the timeout with 16 seconds left. Maye hit Boutte down the middle for 23 yards to the 24-yard line. No panic on the Patriots part as they hustled up to the line of scrimmage and calmly got everyone set and spiked the ball. They showed poise from Boutte, bringing the ball and handing it to the official so he could mark the ball. Everyone is set for a second so there wouldn’t be any illegal procedure penalty. Alignments correct for the number of lineman on the line of scrimmage and the correct number of back/WRs off the line. Then here comes the flag! Offsides versus Chicago because the big Montez Sweat didn’t make it back across the line of scrimmage for Chicago from the previous play. Add 5 yards and the clock was stopped with 1 second left. Joey Slye calmly banged the ball through the wind for a 37-yard field goal. That is the kind of play we are used to seeing from Patriots teams.
Drake Maye was unsatisfied with practice on Wednesday and afterwards he asked Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt if he could speak with the team which he was granted. This is becoming Drake Maye’s team, astonishing for a 23-year-old kid with just two years of college football.
Another interesting point is that Kendrick Bourne did not play at all in this game. He didn’t seem to be upset about it after the game. Was he an active “inactive” player because of his repeat offender status, jumping offsides last week for an illegal procedure, not looking down the line and watching the ball be hiked?
Like this article? Support Mark and buy him a coffee.
Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.
Nice Article Mark. One thing given all the noise and venting at coaches is: the team executed and played well almost end to end. They played hard and as as unit. I think Mayo has done a respectable job given the roster issues. Those same issue also plagued BB last year and he’s a HOF’er. As well, theres a lot of young guys and new guys and a new offense is surely a work in progress this year. You could have pulled in Bill Walsh/49ers as coach this year and this was going to be a struggle. I see positives.… Read more »
Bruce
1 year ago
Was Polk’s 2nd TD this year. Sheesh!!!! This is what you do. C’mon
By: Ian Logue Here's what New England Patriots first-round draft pick Caleb Lomu had to say after being drafted with the 28th overall pick Thursday night.
By: Mark Morse The Patriots made a questionable first-round trade-up for Caleb Lomu, raising questions about Will Campbell's role and Lomu's fit at offensive tackle. Scouting reports analyze…
By: Ian Logue The Patriots traded up in Round 1 of the NFL Draft, acquiring the 28th pick from Buffalo to select Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu, bolstering…
Follow us
Follow Us
Nice Article Mark. One thing given all the noise and venting at coaches is: the team executed and played well almost end to end. They played hard and as as unit. I think Mayo has done a respectable job given the roster issues. Those same issue also plagued BB last year and he’s a HOF’er. As well, theres a lot of young guys and new guys and a new offense is surely a work in progress this year. You could have pulled in Bill Walsh/49ers as coach this year and this was going to be a struggle. I see positives.… Read more »
Was Polk’s 2nd TD this year. Sheesh!!!! This is what you do. C’mon