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The Patriots dropped to 4-3 on the season after falling 30-24 to the Chicago Bears in a hard-fought Thursday night loss. While there were positive flashes from the passing game, structural flaws defensively and miscues on both sides of the ball ultimately doomed the Patriots in a tough loss.
Here are seven points on the Patriots loss in Chicago.
1. Defense plays fundamentally poor: The New England defense turned in a surprisingly uncharacteristic performance, struggling heavily with basic fundamentals like tackling and gap integrity. Missing numerous tackles throughout the night, the unit allowed Caleb Williams and the Chicago offense to sustain long drives and convert crucial high-leverage third downs.
2. Maye plays well in loss despite throwing interception: Drake Maye put together another strong statistical outing, throwing for over 300 yards and accounting for multiple touchdowns while displaying poise under pressure. However, a costly first-half red-zone interception stalled crucial momentum and served as the lone major blemish on an otherwise impressive performance by the young quarterback.
3. Run game is non-existent: The Patriots completely failed to establish any rhythm on the ground, rendering the traditional rushing attack a non-factor. With the running backs continually bottled up behind the line of scrimmage, the offense lost its balance and was forced to rely entirely on one-dimensional passing scripts for chunks of the game. The Patriots rushed for only 70 with Maye being their leading rusher with 26 yards.
4. Patchwork offensive line struggles: Operating with a heavily banged-up and reshuffled unit, the patchwork offensive line had a tough time handling Chicago’s front. They struggled to open up running lanes or maintain a clean pocket consistently, putting immense pressure on Maye to escape collapsing rushers all evening. Pass protection was a problem.
5. AJ Brown doesn’t make an impact: Despite high expectations for his involvement in the offensive scheme, A.J. Brown was largely quiet and failed to make his usual game-changing impact. The Bears’ secondary focused heavily on limiting downfield targets, leaving Brown on the periphery for much of the contest. He finished with 3 catches for 48 yards.
6. Secondary has a bad night: The back end of the defense had a difficult assignment trying to contain Chicago’s explosive playmakers and gave up far too many big plays through the air. Coverage breakdowns and missed assignments in the secondary allowed Caleb Williams to pick apart the coverage windows, leading to key conversions in critical moments. Giving up a 24 yard touchdown on a NOW screen on 3rd & 17 illustrates just how bad the defense was all night. Teams throw those screens to gain some yards back for kicking purposes. The Patriots gave up a touchdown.
7. Coaching was iffy: Conservative on offense, poor adjustments on defense: The coaching staff left plenty to be desired with an overly conservative approach on offense early in the game that failed to aggressively exploit matchups. Defensively, the staff was slow to adjustment as Chicago continued to exploit soft spots in coverage and in the run game throughout the second half. It wasn’t a good night for Mike Vrabel and his staff.