For the first time in Drake Maye's brief tenure as the Patriots starting quarterback, this game wasn't about him, despite out-playing draft classmate Caleb Williams. No, Sunday's 19-3 win in Chicago was about a dominating day by DeMarcus Covington's defense, so much so that Maye started his postgame press conference by jokingly asking reporters to put down their phones and notebooks and give that group a round of applause.
The Bears were undoubtedly complicit. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who interviewed in New England for the Pats job this off-season, had zero answers schematically against a unit that, let's face it, has been incredibly underwhelming all season (30th in DVOA coming into the game). Waldron also was working with a patchwork offensive line that was missing both its starting tackles to start the game and then lost its best lineman, Teven Jenkins, during the first half. But I'm not expecting any of you to have sympathy for Chicago. How long have you had to watch lousy line play here in New England? Besides, the Pats have had opportunities to knock out bad teams this season - Dolphins, Jaguars, and Titans all come to mind - and instead proved to be the opposition's 'get right' game. But not today. No sirree.
The Pats abused Williams, who probably wished he had stayed at USC for one more year after the beating he took. They sacked him nine times - their most since November 3, 2022, vs. Indianapolis and Sam Ehlinger - and had a dozen more hits. Williams was so confused by the picture this defense presented that the rookie either had no idea what he was looking at or was so skittish in the pocket that he missed layups that you can't miss in this league.
"We was dialing up pressures from the very beginning," said Deatrich Wise. "We know how good Caleb Williams is."
"We were attacking him and getting back there," said Keion White. "I feel like you have no choice but to keep your eyes down and look at the rush, especially with the way we were pressuring the quarterback."
Covington had some wrinkles, including what Jerod Mayo called their "Longhorn" package featuring special teamer Brenden Schooler. The University of Texas grad acted as a spy on Williams several times. He had a sack and a quarterback hit, and his speed helped to eliminate the top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft from hurting them with his legs.
"It started early on in the week," said Schooler, who didn't have a defensive snap this year. "They told me this was kind of what we're going to be doing. And there are a couple of different ways we'll be getting to it today. So, every single time third down was up, I was looking over at (Covington), and if he's going to throw up the Longhorn signal for me to get in there. But yeah, I was super, super excited to get in there and just help the team."
The Pats have gone this route before, most recently using Jonathan Jones in that role. Covington also deployed a fair amount of seven-defensive back looks designed to inject as much speed on the field as possible to help limit the impact Williams' legs would have in the game. Mission accomplished.
"Oh, that was definitely a huge part of it," said Mayo. "We've said that, you know, if you were to take away just our third down - penalties and our third down - letting the quarterback out of the pocket over the course of the season, we'd be much better...
"That's the recipe, and we just have to be patient enough to do it on a down-after-down basis."
I'll briefly quibble with that assessment by the head coach. You don't get to highlight the good, Jerod, and gloss over the bad. There's been plenty of the latter, and it's one of many reasons the Pats entered the game with a 2-7 record. But on this day, I'll keep the critique to the minimum. The mistakes were - at first watch - few and far between, and the defense finally took advantage of a favorable matchup, marrying the front to the back for a signature performance.
They were tested early. The Bears' first possession of the game started on the Pats' 47-yard line — their second at their own 40 and the third near midfield (48). Yet Chicago got exactly zero points out of that great field position. And it was different players making difference-making plays.
Anfernee Jennings fought through two defenders to record a sack - he had two - on the opening series. White's penetration stopped a critical run play on the next drive, and then Wise delivered a third-down sack. After Maye's poor decision and throw was intercepted, Marcus Jones nearly had an INT of his own on a third-down swing pass, disrupting the play's structure. Jaylinn Hawkins cleaned it up, and the Bears had to punt again.
Chicago ended up with 142 total yards of offense, averaging 2.4 yards per play. The Pats allowed just one third-down conversion of 14 tries (the Bears were 2-for-4 on 4th down). Keenan Allen had 44 yards receiving. D.J. Moore had 24. Rome Odunze, a top-10 pick himself, finished with 23. This
"Coverage was huge," noted Mayo. "All of those guys in the back end, again, you know, we have the young safeties out there, and Gonzo (Christian Gonzalez) continues to play at a very high level. I'd also say Jon Jones is one of those guys. You can put him in as a slot corner, put him outside, put him in the back end, just a veteran player that, again, goes in that box of he's a football player. Wherever you ask him to go, he'll go out there and try to perform."
"I feel like we had all those sacks because of our DBs playing a complete game and locking those guys up," said White. "And just us forcing Caleb to be a pocket passer. I feel like when you keep him the pocket, and don't let him scramble, you kind of eliminate some of his explosive plays."
The Pats have yet to prove they can handle prosperity this season and take one game's success into the next. The Rams, who come to Foxborough next weekend, are as creative an offense as they have seen so far, and Sean McVay will test Covington's readiness. But for tonight at least, the first-year DC can smile about a job well done before trying to figure out how to repeat that same success.