Bears vs. Patriots live updates (2024)

The Bears get a big 33-14 win in Foxboro over the Patriots on “Monday Night Football.”

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(Photo: Paul Rutherford / USA Today)

It was the end of the game and Peyton Manning was displeased. With the Bears offense. Who could’ve guessed? Before the game, I imagined a frustrated Peyton with a ball in his hand trying to will Justin Fields to accurately throw the ball to his receivers.

If I could’ve told myself before the game why Manning was annoyed, well, I wouldn’t have believed me. No one would have.

“I think if you have a chance to score 40 in Foxboro,” he said to his brother Eli and a national audience, “you score 40 in Foxboro.”

“Score 40 in Foxboro?” I would’ve said to my future self. “Just how many games were they playing?”

Yes, Peyton Manning was annoyed because Justin Fields took a knee on fourth-and-goal with a 33-14 lead and scant seconds left on the clock.

Rub it in, Manning seemed to be saying. Well, not seemed. He was actually saying that.

You figure Peyton, who often has the body language of someone who is still ready to lead a huddle during the Monday night Manningcast on ESPN2, was thrilled to see someone, anyone, pound Bill Belichick and the Patriots into submission. (I’m guessing Tom Brady found a rare bit of joy in his life watching it as well.)

Everyone was curious how bad Fields and the Bears would look in their third (and likely) final prime-time game this season. What no one expected was a one-sided beatdown from the visitors. The Bears had never won a game in Foxboro. They were coming off a loss to the Washington Commanders. They were 8 1/2-point underdogs.

But the Bears scored first, fought off a Patriots comeback in the second quarter and had another dominant second half en route to an easy win.

Read more here.

The Bears had back-to-back empty possessions, Foxboro had “Zappe Fever” and Monday night’s game at Gillette Stadium started to look like most prime-time Bears games in recent seasons.

But this was different. This time, the Bears had an answer, and once they responded, they never turned back.

Justin Fields’ 25-yard touchdown pass to Khalil Herbert was the type of athletic play and display of toughness he’s always been capable of, but it also showed an improvement from the Week 6 loss to Washington. In fact, it showed an improvement from the same play he attempted 11 minutes earlier.

It kick-started a dominant Bears stretch of football, unlike any we’ve seen under this regime, let alone in recent seasons. It led to the 33-14 win.

Read more here.

Bill Belichick has long preached to his players the gospel of tuning out the noise. Don’t read the stories, he’ll tell them. Don’t watch the TV roundtables or listen to the talk shows. Focus on the football. Do your job.

Hey, Bill, good luck with that for the rest of this week.

The fact is that anyone with a stake in the fortunes of the New England Patriots — including the team’s own players — will be mulling and gossiping about the stunning quarterback saga that had Gillette Stadium overflowing with a range of emotions Monday night.

Yes, the masses cheered respectfully when Mac Jones returned to his job as starting quarterback for the Patriots’ “Monday Night Football” showdown against the Chicago Bears after missing three games while rehabbing a high ankle sprain.

Yes, these same masses jeered — quite disrespectfully — when Jones submitted two three-and-outs before being intercepted by the Bears’ Jaquan Brisker.

And, yes, yes, yes, the joint absolutely rocked when Bailey Zappe, the rookie quarterback whose steady play and schoolboy enthusiasm enthralled Pats fans in victories over the Lions and Browns, came in from the bullpen with 11:55 remaining in the second quarter and, on his third pass attempt, connected with Jakobi Meyers for a 30-yard touchdown pass and catch.

They cheered again, even more loudly, when Zappe began New England’s next drive with a 43-yard completion to DeVante Parker, setting up a 4-yard touchdown run by Rhamondre Stevenson.

OK, now let’s stop for a moment and note that the Patriots lost this game, and lost badly: The final was Bears 33, Pats 14. About the only thing missing for the Bears in this “Super Bowl Shuffle” lip-sync was William “The Refrigerator” Perry roaring into the end zone for a piling-on touchdown.

While it’s true, then, that New England didn’t do much to stop the Bears, that doesn’t change the fact that Belichick did an astonishingly bad job of handling this entire situation. For a guy who won’t tell you how he takes his coffee to be dropping all these breadcrumbs about using both quarterbacks, and then, to confirm to ESPN he planned to use them both, was bad enough. But yanking Jones following the interception came across as ham-handed and unnecessary.

The Bears had second-and-goal from the Patriots’ 1-yard line with 12:24 remaining in Monday night’s game.

A surprising but dominant win was there for the taking — on national television against Bill Belichick, who was on the verge of surpassing George Halas in all-time coaching wins.

The Bears just had to “finish everything” — quarterback Justin Fields told reporters after the game that was the team’s motto during their Week 7 preparations — in New England.

“The Patriots … they cannot give up a touchdown here, I don’t think, and stay in this game,” Hall of Fame quarterback-turned-analyst Troy Aikman said on the ESPN telecast.

And then wham.

The Bears’ finish started with the fullback.

Halas would have loved it.

Khari Blasingame not only blocked safety Adrian Phillips but buried him. He drove him into the end zone and pancaked him onto his back.

Or, to use the Bears’ buzzword, Blasingame finished him.

Read more here.

This was the type of game Bill Belichick’s defense was supposed to dominate. The Chicago Bears rolled into town on a foggy night with a first-year coach, an offense struggling to put up points and a quarterback struggling to gain a foothold due to inconsistent play.

Belichick usually feasts on situations like this. But not on Monday night. Not with a chance to move above .500 on the season. Not with a chance for the defense to buy time for what is looking more and more like a mess at quarterback.

What in the world the Patriots do with Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe will get the top headlines this week as Belichick figures out whether to go back to the former first-round pick that he benched, or continue to trust a fourth-round rookie who fizzled in the second half of a disappointing 33-14 loss. That topic will occupy hours of talk radio time and be discussed around water coolers throughout New England.

But don’t let that mangled situation distract you from the main culprit against the Bears. On Monday night, with the home crowd eager to see a team coming off two straight impressive performances, Belichick’s defense was dismantled by Justin Fields and rookie coach Matt Eberflus.

The Chicago Bears posted season high marks in rushing yards and takeaways on the way to a convincing 33-14 win over the New England Patriots in the Week 7 Monday Night Football game.

The Bears 243 yards on the ground was the most Chicago has posted since the 2010 campaign. Justin Fields led the way with 82 yards on 14 carries, but David Montgomery (15 carries for 62 yards) and Khalil Herbert (12 carries for 62 yards) also were large contributors to the impressive total.

This ground prowess helped the Bears score 10 points on their first two drives. The Patriots started the game with Mac Jones under center, but after New England failed to score on its first three drives, Jones was benched for Bailey Zappe. The move provided a spark to the Patriots offense, as New England scored on back-to-back drives in the second quarter to take a 14-10 lead.

That ended up as the high-water mark for the Patriots, as New England turned the ball over three times in its next five offensive drives. That was key to Chicago outscoring New England 13-0 in the second half, as Cairo Santos hit two of his four field goals on the day to help close the game out for the Bears.

Chicago (3-4) travels to Dallas to face the Cowboys in Week 8. New England (3-4) has an AFC East road matchup against the Jets next week.

With the Patriots out of this game as the fourth quarter clock ticks down, Chad Graff raises an interesting question looking ahead:

After three quarters, Justin Fields and the Bears offense are taking it to the Patriots defense. Already up 26-14, they are driving again in New England territory.

The Patriots defense came into this game as an inconsistent third down defense, ranking 20th in third down conversion percentage, but even those struggles didn’t portend this.