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10.22.18

Patriots Outlast the Bears in Grizzly Back-and-Forth Battle

Posted by: Gronkowski

Tom Brady remains unbeaten in Chicago after the Patriots took down the Bears on Sunday, but just barely. 

The 38-31 victory at Soldier Field was closer than is good for any of our nerves, and came down to a Hail Mary pass from Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky to Kevin White at the 2-yard line in the waning seconds that thankfully fell short.

Brady later described it as a play on which "you just kind of hold your breath," ESPN reported.

"They say it's a game of inches, and that's kind of what it came down to," Patriots running back James White added.

With Gronk out and resting up to play the Bills and Sony Michel leaving the game with a knee injury, Brady was left spreading the love between the remaining New England receivers against the Bears’ infamous defense. 

Julian Edelman and James White both scored touchdowns (White also led the offense with 97 yards), while Josh Gordan broke 100 yards and Chris Hogan had six catches and 63 yards. 

TB12 ended the day with 25 of 36 passes for 277 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, and a 108.2 passer rating.

One of the most entertaining plays came in the second quarter when Cordarrelle Patterson had an enormous 95-yard kick return for a touchdown. It marked the sixth career kick return for wide receiver and return specialist Patterson, and the most by any active player in the NFL. 

After all the talk of the indomitable Bears’ defense, it was the Pats’ D that sparked an awe-inspiring moment in the form of a blocked punt by Dont’a Hightower, that was then run 29 yards into the end zone by Kyle Van Noy for his first NFL touchdown.

The cool move didn’t go unnoticed by Gronk, who gave a shout out to his teammate.

“Huge play!!!!! Nice work baby!!” Rob tweeted after the game.

Pats fans got good news on Monday when MRIs showed that Michel’s knee injury is not serious, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport. The rookie is still expected to miss some play time but it is not know how much. 

In his weekly day-after-game conference call, Bill Belichick did not mention Michel and said any injuries will be noted on the obligatory report later this week (i.e. typical Hoodie non-disclosure).

The Patriots head to the Gronkowski's home city of Buffalo next week for "Monday Night Football" airing on ESPN.

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