Patriots may have a long way to go, but this win showed they are playing hard for Jerod Mayo
The Patriots are now 3-7 after Sunday’s win over the Bears.
CHICAGO — Welcome to the Unconventional Review, an instant reaction to standouts, stats, and story lines from the Patriots’ most recent game …
Jerod Mayo and this post-Bill Belichick coaching staff have endured their growing pains in some obvious ways, whether it’s curious (to be kind) clock management, curiouser play calling, or in the rookie head coach’s case, feeling the need to walk back occasional candid comments.
The Patriots, now 3-7 after Sunday’s 19-3 win over the Bears, have a long way to go as a team. Mayo probably would acknowledge himself that he has a long way to go as a head coach.
But after what we witnessed Sunday, Mayo and his staff deserve some appreciation.
This team plays hard for him. The defense has been overwhelmed by injury and attrition, and yet depth players such as safeties Dell Pettus and Jaylinn Hawkins have filled in admirably. Most importantly, it seems they have handled rookie quarterback Drake Maye perfectly, from helping him correct flaws with his footwork to deciding the right time to insert him as the starter. He has been ready for the moment, and that’s a credit to him foremost, but it’s a credit to his coaches, too.
It was quite a contrast Sunday, watching the Patriots play as though there were real stakes, while Caleb Williams and the more talented Bears went through the motions for hapless coach Matt Eberflus.
I don’t know what Mayo’s ceiling is as a head coach. Maybe he’ll never be anything more than adequate. Maybe he becomes one of the better coaches in the league with experience and time. But this is certain now: His team continues to play hard for him, and that is a darned good sign.
Some further thoughts, upon immediate review …
Three players who were worth watching
Players suggested in the Unconventional Preview: Marcus Jones, Hunter Henry, D’Andre Swift.
Jeremiah Pharms Jr.: The second-year defensive tackle, who came to New England via Friends University, an NAIA program in Wichita, would have been rather low on any list of Patriots predicted to submit a dominant defensive performance. He has just one career start (Week 8 against the Jets), and he entered Sunday’s game with 10 tackles this season, eight coming in the first four weeks.
So what did he do? He dominated in a best-of-Christian Barmore kind of way, stacking up five tackles — including a game-high three for a loss — and being one of seven Patriots to record a sack when he buried Williams for a 4-yard loss on second and 5 at the New England 47 early in the third quarter. This wasn’t just the best day or week of Pharms’s career. You could say it was the best of the month, or even the year.
Austin Hooper: In his five starts, Maye has developed a quick rapport with the reliable Henry. But Sunday brought a reminder that the Patriots have another capable tight end in Hooper, who made two of the biggest plays in a three-catch, 64-yard performance.
On the first play of the Patriots’ second possession, he reached up and hauled in a perfect Maye throw for a 28-yard gain to the Bears 38. That drive ended with a field goal for the game’s first points.
Later in the quarter, with exactly four minutes remaining before halftime, Hooper caught a Maye throw on third and 1 at the Bears 37, made a nifty cut, and picked up 24 yards to the 13. That drive ended with the game’s first and only touchdown.
Kevin Byard III: The Bears’ defense must loathe the Bears’ offense. It held the Patriots to one touchdown and four field goals, a decent day’s work for a defense, and had no chance whatsoever to win the game.
Byard, the nine-year veteran safety and two time All-Pro, played a terrific all-around game, making 11 tackles and breaking up a pass. He also took on much of the responsibility of making sure Maye didn’t gash the Bears on the run the way he did to the Titans a week earlier, when he picked up 95 yards on the ground.
Byard let Maye know early that the running lanes were going to be harder to come by. On the Patriots’ second possession, which ended with a Joey Slye 30-yard field goal, Byard drilled the scrambling Maye on third and 5 deep in Chicago territory, holding him to 4 yards and forcing the kick. Maye finished with 24 yards on four runs, getting loose just once, for a 19-yarder early in the fourth quarter
Grievance of the game
I mean, what is there to gripe about with this one? Can my grievance be that I don’t really have a grievance?
The Patriots were the tougher and more cohesive team. Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in April, outplayed Williams, the No. 1 overall pick. They stacked up nine sacks after entering the game with just 16 through nine games. It was a swell day all around for the visitors.
Fine, just to keep the bit going, we’ll designate Maye’s interception near the end of the first quarter as the gripe. It could have been a game-shifting play, though of course it was not.
Maye said he was trying to throw the ball away, but in real time it looked like he either made a bad decision to force the ball to Hooper or just didn’t see the interceptor, Tremaine Edmunds.
So there you go. That’s our grievance. Didn’t sell it very well, huh?
Three notes scribbled in the margins
Predicted final score: Bears 19, Patriots 16
Final score: Patriots 19, Bears 3
Yannick Ngakoue, claimed on waivers from the Ravens last week, was inactive. But I wanted to spend a few words to note that this is exactly the kind of thing the Patriots should be doing — churning the back end of the roster trying to find young talent with some promise, or accomplished talent like Ngakoue (70.5 career sacks) who could help in the quest for competence … Ja’Lynn Polk apparently isn’t the only rookie receiver from the University of Washington whose hands don’t always seem to cooperate. Rome Odunze, the No. 9 pick in the April draft, had what should have been an easy catch thud off his hands on third and 10 on the Bears’ first possession. We should note, too, that Polk’s arrow does finally seem to be pointing up. He had the game’s lone touchdown, getting wide open for 2-yard reception in the second quarter … By the way, Polk beat Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson for the touchdown. It should be noted that Stevenson was not interacting with the fans as the play developed, as he so foolishly and hilariously did three weeks ago in Washington during his tragicomic failure on the Commanders’ game-winning Hail Mary.
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