The 4-2 New England Patriots travel to the Windy City to take on the 4-2 Chicago Bears. The Bears have faced the 10th-most difficult schedule, while the Patriots sit 28th.
The Bears took the league by storm after they scored 59 points on the road to begin the season. They lost their quarterback and the game the next week against the Vikings. Since then, their other slip-up was with a backup quarterback.
In his first game in nearly a month, Caleb Williams threw for over 300 yards and a touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons last week, doing it exclusively from the pocket. The Patriots are down multiple cornerbacks, and All-Pro corner Christian Gonzalez has an illness.
It could be a long night for New England’s secondary, and a big night for Luther Burden and Colston Loveland.
It took a bit for him to warm up and be aggressive, but Michael Penix ended up throwing for three touchdowns and 225 yards against the Bears in Week 6. Jordan Love threw for 367 yards against Chicago the week before. You can throw it on the Bears.
Drake Maye has been on a three-week heater, throwing 10 touchdowns to one interception in the past three games. The Patriots have scored at least 26 points in each game. However, the Patriots are down multiple starting offensive linemen on this side of the ball. That could slow them down, or at least lead to more mistakes that put them behind the chains.
Whenever it’s an AFC versus NFC matchup, I’ll side with the latter. It’s the stronger conference from top to bottom. With Williams, Chicago looks closer to a top-5 team. Their floor is one of the highest in the league.
Maye might come back down to earth without a healthy offensive line, while the Pats’ could be leakier than usual in the secondary without Carlton Davis.
Bears 31, Patriots 20.