Posted on October 21, 2018, by Travis Pulver
Beating the New England Patriots is never an easy task. It doesn’t matter how good the other team is at anything. The Patriots just have a knack for finding a way to win no matter how the game has been going. But Sunday afternoon in Chicago, it looked like the Bears might find a way to pull out a win at the last second.
They nearly did. They needed a Hail Mary even to have a shot. But when Kevin White came down with it, for a brief moment, it appeared the Bears might have a chance.
Via @CBSSports
Except he was just a little short of the goal line and surrounded by members of the Patriots defense.
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White talked about the play after the game with the media:
“Just tried to fight and get in,” he said. “Tried to change the game, make a big-time play. So after I caught it, I thought I had a chance, like I said, for a split-second and once I felt a bunch of guys I knew it was over.”
The 54-yard completion put Mitchell Trubisky over 300 yards for the day (333 to be exact) and over 400 total yards (he had 81 yards on the ground giving him 414 yards on the day. He had three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) to go with the yards. But he also had two interceptions, attempted 50 passes (completing 26), and led the team in rushing.
“I mean, close doesn’t cut it,” Trubisky said after the game. “And it’s good that coach Nagy is hard on us because there’s a new standard here and coming up one yard short and not tying the game and going into overtime, that’s not good enough anymore.”
While the Patriots did score 38, the Bears defense didn’t have a bad day. After giving up a touchdown on the opening drive, they clamped down hard giving up a single first down over the next three drives and forcing two fumbles.
Both fumbles led to touchdowns for the Bears; the second of which gave them a 17-7 lead with 11 minutes to go in the second quarter. Another turnover, an interception, late in the fourth quarter led to another touchdown and cut the deficit to seven, 38-31.
But when you play the Patriots, you have to play well in all three facets of the game—and the Bears failed miserably on special teams. After the Bears went up 17-7 in the second, Cordarrelle Patterson returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.
Later in the third, the Patriots returned a blocked punt for a touchdown and a 31-24 lead. The last time anyone had returned a blocked punt for a touchdown against the Bears was 1987.
‘‘Anytime you give up two special-teams touchdowns, I can’t imagine the numbers are too good in regards to winning that game,’’ Bears head coach Matt Nagy said after the game. ‘‘So that hurt us.’’
The loss drops the Bears to 3-3 on the season. They will try to get back on the right side of the scoreboard next week when the New York Jets come to town.
With the win, the Patriots improve to 5-2. They will be back on the road next week but will not have far to go. They face the Bills in Buffalo on Monday Night Football.