What a shellacking that was. The Chicago Bears came into Foxborough and hammered the New England Patriots on primetime, robbing Bill Belichick of the chance of passing legendary Bears HC George Hallis on the all-time win list.
The ghost of George Hallis and all of his championship winning Bears teams must have infused themselves in the current Bears roster last night as they were simply unplayable. Every aspect of the Bears team, whether it was the offense, defense, and/or special teams, had the game of their lives as they ran the Patriots out of their own backyard.
To be honest, I don’t think the Bears have played that well in twenty years.
Funnily enough, the Bears 32 points tally was actually the highest they have scored with Justin Fields as their starting QB (so, for two years). And it was well deserved as Fields was a menace against the Patriots defense.
Throwing for 13/21, 179 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, and then rushing for an additional 82 yards and another TD, Justin Fields tore the Patriot defense apart. Even though he was sacked three times, with NFL sack leader Matt Judon getting 2.5 sacks for himself, Fields was able to slip by the Patriots defensive frontline nearly every down and either rush for twenty yards or throw to an open receiver for thirty.
Honestly, there must have been four separate occurrences where Justin Fields slipped out of pocket and threw to a wide-open Bears WR to pick up a huge chuck of yards and a new set of downs. Fields looked like the QB he as at Ohio State, which must have been a great sign for all Chicago fans. They really need Fields to be the guy to break their horrific curse with starting QBs.
Another positive for the Bears last night was their defense. It’s not often a team can get the Patriots to turn the football over even once, and especially not four times. And in Foxborough, no less.
LB Roquan Smith (12 tackles, 1.0 sacks, 1 INT) and S Jaquan Brisker (7 tackles, 1 PD, and 1 INT) were all over the field, stuffing both the pass and running games the Patriots tried beating them with. Smith especially played great, considering the fact that he publicly wanted out of Chicago this past offseason. If he keeps having games with 1+ turnovers and 1+ sacks, then there’s going to be a lot of contending teams interested in his services.
In the end, it was just a great night for the Bears defense.
Oh, and it must have felt good for that defense to see the opposing team’s QB getting benched after only six throws due to their own stellar play. Especially for Jaquan Brisker as it was Mac Jones that tried to stamp his foot through his groin.
Speaking of benched QBs, the Patriots are in an absolute QB mess right now. Like I said, Mac Jones was benched early in the second half after going 3/6, 13 yards, and 1 INT, while Bailey Zappe threw two interceptions and had a fumble (which was kind of Jakobi Meyers’ fault).
And, with the veteran Brian Hoyer out, Bill Belichick has a huge decision to make for the starting QB when the Patriots face the 5-2 Jets this Sunday.
Personally, I’d go with Zappe. Not only did Zappe actually have a half-decent passing game (aside from the two picks) as he went 14/22, 185 yards, 1 TD, but Mac Jones also just seems to be a mess right now. The former 1st-round pick looks utterly shook whenever he’s getting blitzed or the pocket breaks down, which then causes him to throw up dreadful passes that get picked off more often than not (ie: Brisker INT).
Zappe, on the other hand, looks far calmer when getting blitzed as he made the easy checkdown throws to bypass the pressure consistently. Plus, unlike Mac Jones, he made key throws to Jakobi Meyers and Devante Parker that set up the only two TDs the Patriots scored yesterday.
Nonetheless, the bigger problem for Belichick will be fixing this defense. Aside from Matt Judon, they were atrociously awful. Not only did they give up 240+ rushing yards to the Chicago Bears (you know, one of the worst rushing offenses in the NFL), but they also gave up 24 First Downs and went 7/18 on 3rd down stops.
Simply put, Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears offense bullied the Patriots defense.
If Bill Belichick can’t fix this defense quickly, then the Jets (5-2) and the Dolphins’ (4-3) lead over them in the AFC East may get out of hand before they know it as the Patriots are now 3-4.
As for the Bears, this team may now be 3-4, but I don’t think they have a chance of making the playoffs in the NFC. This win was more of an anomaly than a statement, though the Bears time will come soon. Just not this season.
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