Thursday Night Football isn't a concept most NFL players like, since they have to play just four days after their last game and injuries are already at an all-time high. That's particularly true for the Patriots, who put another player on injured reserve ahead of their Week 7 matchup in Chicago, a game that most believed they couldn't win but needed more than their opponent.
The odds were stacked against them in more ways than one, and unfortunately, most of the problems that have plagued their season reared their ugly heads in primetime.
Those mistakes ultimately led to their downfall, and as usual, they couldn't recover, even when the Bears gave them the chance to take the lead and steal the game. With the next 11 days off, they'll need to clean up their act if they want to stay competitive for the rest of the season.
Otherwise, it's going to be a long 10 weeks.
9 immediate reactions to the Patriots primetime loss to the Bears
1. Josh McDaniels came out aggressive, going for it on 4th and 5 on the first drive, which is admirable, since he hasn't done a lot of that this season. But that wasn't the time or place to call that play, and it led to a Bears field goal and helped them maintain their lead when they scored a touchdown not long after.
2. McDaniels' play-calling continued to come into question when he stuck with running the ball on early downs, which was clearly not working, and had the Patriots on and off the field very quickly. He seemed to learn that lesson over the last few weeks, but it held the offense back too long to start this game.
3. It didn't take long to get a brutal reminder that the Patriots chose to draft TreVeyon Henderson in the second round last year instead of Luther Burden, when the wide receiver made an impressive 58-yard catch to put the Bears in field goal range and eventually led to their first touchdown. He ended the first half with 4 catches for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns.
4. Drake Maye reverts to his mistakes from earlier in the season when he tried to force a throw to Eli Raridon in the end zone after an impressive drive leading to halftime. Mike Vrabel emphasized that the team's turnovers this season have been "ridiculous" and "embarrassing," and this was another one they could add to the book.
From ESPN Research: Drake Maye's third interception on a pass thrown to the end zone this season, the only quarterback with multiple such interceptions.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 23, 2026
5. Ill-timed penalties continue to haunt this team. Multiple times, the Bears were about to get off the field when the Patriots' defense got flagged, giving Chicago a fresh set of downs. They need to avoid those kinds of mistakes, or they'll keep shooting themselves in the foot with no way to overcome it.
6. Tackling is a problem again for the defense, with Next Gen Stats charting that they missed 10 in the first half alone. Marcus Jones led the team with 4, including one on TE Colston Loveland on the opening third-quarter touchdown, likely due to a size mismatch. Their season high before Thursday's game was 8 missed tackles in last week's game, so the same old issues continue to plague this team.
Some of the worst tackling I've seen from the Patriots under Vrabel.
— Chris Mason (@ByChrisMason) October 23, 2026
7. For a quarterback who couldn't crack 300 yards or 3+ touchdowns in a game for a while to start his career, Drake Maye is off to the races over the past month, with his performance against the Bears his latest noteworthy game. He recorded 2 passing touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdown, adding to his growing list of multi-touchdown games this season.
8. This was another game headlined by the referees, who insist on getting their TV time across the league every week. The Patriots had multiple blatant non-calls, including a clear helmet-to-helmet and facemask on Drake Maye during his impressive-reach touchdown, and that continued throughout the game, along with bad accepted penalties.
However, they need to cut down on costly mistakes and not give flag-happy refs chances to penalize them for minor things.
9. This was a winnable game and came down to the wire, despite all the mistakes the Patriots made, with Maye's interception probably being the worst of all. Maybe they didn't deserve to win, but at least they put up a fight (mostly), and that's a silver lining to take away from it all.
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