Bears pick off Patriots three times in Monday night beatdown
Justin Fields threw for 179 yards and a touchdown and ran for 82 yards and another score, and the Bears defense forced returning Patriots starter Mac Jones back to the bench on Monday night to give Chicago a 33-14 victory over New England.
In a matchup of quarterbacks from the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship game, Fields outperformed Jones, who led Alabama to victory over Fields’ Ohio State. And Fields also outplayed Patriots rookie Bailey Zappe, who came on after Jones was managed just two three-and-outs and an interception in his return after missing three games with a high ankle sprain.
With the damp Gillette Stadium crowd chanting “Zappe! Zappe!” the fourth-round draft pick from Western Kentucky led the Patriots to back-toback touchdowns and a 14-10 lead. But
Fields answered with a 25-yard pass to Khalil Herbert and then, after Zappe fumbled in the last two minutes of the first-half, the Bears (3-4) added a field goal to make it 20-14.
In the second-half it was all Chicago, as they ran off 23 unanswered points.
Zappe was 5 of 6 for 109 yards and a touchdown in the first-half. But in the second, he was 9 of 16 for 76 yards and two interceptions. Jones completed 3 of 6 passes for 13 yards, with one interception. Rhamondre Stevenson caught eight passes for 59 yards and ran 11 times for 39 for the Patriots (3-4).
Fields ran 14 times for 82 yards, including five third-down scrambles for first downs. David Montgomery ran for 62 yards and Herbert did the same for Chicago, who had lost three straight games and four out of five. The Bears had also lost five straight to the Patriots and eight out of nine since beating New England in the 1986 Super Bowl 46-10.