FOXBORO, Mass. — The performance of Patriots quarterbacks, and how Bill Belichick used them, are the biggest storylines to come out of Monday night. New England’s quarterback controversy understandably will dominate headlines ahead of this Sunday’s matchup with the New York Jets.
However, it was the failures of the Patriots defense, led by Belichick’s son, Steve, that ultimately doomed New England in its awful 33-14 loss to the Bears.
Chicago entered Gillette Stadium with one of the NFL’s worst offenses and left after racking up 390 total yards, including 243 on the ground. Much-maligned quarterback Justin Fields had arguably his best game as a pro, throwing for 179 yards and a touchdown while adding 82 yards and a score on the ground.
Fields and the Bears were especially good on third downs. The Patriots struggled mightily with their situation defense, repeatedly failing to get needed stops in big moments.
Chicago converted 11 of 18 third-down attempts (61%) while averaging a whopping 13.5 yards per conversion, including pickups of 26, 20 (twice), 19, 17 and 16. The average would be 16 yards if you took out a pair of designed 1-yard keepers by Fields.
Of the Bears’ seven failed conversions, two were in garbage time with two others helping to set up more manageable field goals. Running back David Montgomery picked up 9 yards on third-and-14 early in the game to set up a 42-yard field goal, and later got five yards on a third-and-8 to set up a 50-yarder.
Here’s a full breakdown of Chicago’s 11 third-down conversions:
FIRST QUARTER
Third-and-4: Fields to Darnell Mooney for 20 yards
Third-and-6: Fields to Equanimeous St. Brown for 19 yards
SECOND QUARTER
Third-and-1: Fields rush for 1 yard
Third-and-5: Fields rush for 9 yards
Third-and-14: Fields scramble for 20 yards
Third-and-16: Fields to Mooney for 17 yards
THIRD QUARTER
Third-and-6: Fields recovers own fumble, scrambles 16 yards
Third-and-7: Fields to Cole Kmet for 26 yards
Third-and-1: Fields rush for 1 yard
Third-and-4: Fields to St. Brown for 7 yards
FOURTH QUARTER
Third-and-1: Montgomery rush for 12 yards
As you can see, Fields was a big problem.
“He kept drives going on third down,” Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon said during a postgame news conference. “We’d get him in third-and-long and it seemed like he’d just find a running lane and pick it up with his feet or make a throw. He was just keeping the chains moving.”
Fields is a great athlete, but defenses far worse than the Patriots’ had little issue with containing the Ohio State product in previous weeks. So, how did he give New England such a difficult time?
“Honestly, they was doing very simple stuff,” Judon said. “Crosses and quarterback runs. They had a couple long third downs that the QB extended the play and guys came open. But most of them, he was running and picking up the first downs. So, we just gotta see what went wrong on those third downs and we gotta come back and execute.”
This isn’t a new issue for the Patriots. We sounded the alarm After Week 4 when New England’s defense ranked 28th in third-down percentage, with opponents at the time having converted 46.3% of third-down tries. That number since has been trimmed to 44.4%, but the Patriots still are 28th, a ranking that would be the second-worst in the Bill Belichick era.
The Patriots appeared to turn a corner the last two weeks, holding the Detroit Lions to 33% (4-for-12) in Week 5 before limiting the Cleveland Browns to 27% (4-for-15) the following week. Obviously, Monday night’s game against the Bears represented a significant step back.
New England is talented enough on defense to get this issue corrected. But if it doesn’t, the Patriots defense won’t stand a chance against some of the league’s better offenses.
