Caleb Williams threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns, Luther Burden III turned four catches into 130 yards, and Cairo Santos hit a 58-yard field goal with 1:34 left as the Chicago Bears beat the New England Patriots 30-24 on Thursday night, October 22, at Soldier Field.
Chicago improves to 5-2. New England falls to 4-3, and its three-game winning streak is over. The win also evened the score between Williams and Drake Maye, the first and third picks of the 2024 draft: the Patriots won the first meeting 19-3 when both were rookies.
Burden sets the tone
The Bears made the first big play of the night. On their opening possession, Williams found Burden for 26 yards, and Santos made a 43-yard field goal. Late in the first quarter, Williams went deep to Burden again for 58 yards to the New England 4, and D’Andre Swift ran it in on the next snap to make it 10-0.
Maye answered with a nine-play, 74-yard drive. He was first ruled down at the 1 on a scramble, but New England challenged, the call was reversed, and his 7-yard run counted as a touchdown with 11:33 left in the half. Chicago went 2-for-2 on fourth down in the game, and the first of them came on the next drive, when Swift picked up 5 yards on fourth-and-1 at the New England 20. That drive ended in Santos’ 31-yard field goal and a 13-7 lead.
The swing at the end of the first half
The biggest moment of the first half came with 3:32 left. Maye had the Patriots at the Chicago 15 after a 15-yard scramble, but his throw for rookie tight end Eli Raridon was intercepted in the end zone by linebacker D’Marco Jackson. “You know those plays that can swing the game, can impact the game and that was definitely one of them right there,” Maye said. “Yeah, I wish I definitely had that one back.”
Chicago then went 80 yards in 10 plays. A roughing-the-passer penalty on Burden’s 22-yard catch moved the ball into New England territory, and after a sack left the Bears at third-and-17 from the 24, Burden caught a screen and followed his blockers into the end zone with 14 seconds left. “The whole cavalry came … and it was like a wave carrying him through there,” Ben Johnson said.
The Patriots still got points before halftime. Maye hit A.J. Brown for 18 yards, and on the last play of the half he lofted a pass to Rhamondre Stevenson out of the backfield. Stevenson ran past the defense for a 48-yard touchdown, and it was 20-14 at the break.
Trading touchdowns, then a long field goal
Chicago got the ball first in the third quarter and scored again. The drive went 72 yards in nine plays, with a 22-yard catch by Colston Loveland and a 12-yard touchdown pass to the second-year tight end. New England answered with an 80-yard drive, and Maye beat the coverage deep for a 30-yard touchdown to Raridon with 3:46 left in the quarter. That cut the lead to 27-21.
Neither team scored again until the final two minutes. Santos missed a 53-yard try off the right upright with 8:02 left, after the Bears had kept the drive going with a 9-yard catch by Loveland on fourth-and-2. Chicago got the ball back at its own 9 with 6:22 left and put together a 12-play drive. Rome Odunze had catches of 21 yards on third-and-9 and 21 yards on the next set of downs. Kmet was carted off with a right knee injury during that drive.
Christian Barmore sacked Williams for a 10-yard loss on third-and-5, which pushed Chicago back to the New England 40, but Johnson sent Santos out on fourth-and-15 anyway. His 58-yard kick was good, a career long that ties the Bears’ franchise record, and it made the score 30-21.
Maye moved New England 46 yards in 57 seconds, helped by a 13-yard pass interference penalty and a 16-yard catch by DeMario Douglas, and Andy Borregales made a 47-yard field goal with 37 seconds left. Odunze recovered the onside kick, and Williams knelt to end the game.
The numbers
- Caleb Williams: 22 of 33 for 308 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions; sacked three times. He is the first Bears quarterback with 300 passing yards in back-to-back games since Mitch Trubisky in 2018.
- Bears receivers: Burden had four catches for 130 yards and a touchdown. Loveland caught seven of 12 targets for 69 yards and a score, and Odunze had four for 69.
- D’Andre Swift: 22 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown.
- Drake Maye: 24 of 31 for 321 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, plus 26 rushing yards and a touchdown.
- Patriots receivers: Stevenson had five catches for 93 yards and a touchdown, Hunter Henry seven for 71, and Raridon three for 56 and a score.
- Defense: Christian Elliss had 13 tackles for New England, and Marcus Jones had a sack. For Chicago, safety Dillon Thieneman had eight tackles and half a sack, Kyler Gordon had a sack, and Jackson had the interception.
Chicago outgained New England 405-380 and ran for 116 yards to the Patriots’ 70. The Bears held the ball for 32:24 and scored on three of their four red-zone trips. New England averaged 7.6 yards per play, but it converted only two of seven third downs and was flagged 10 times for 71 yards.
Injuries
Kmet was hurt on an 8-yard catch with about five and a half minutes to play and did not return. “We’ll know more tomorrow, but I don’t think it looked very good,” Johnson said. Cornerback Malik Muhammad left in the third quarter with a toe injury. For New England, Barmore went down after his late sack, and safety Kevin Byard was checked in the first half but returned. Cornerback Christian Gonzalez played after being listed as questionable on the final injury report with an illness.
It was Chicago’s first home game since Mike Ditka died on October 9. The Bears held a moment of silence before kickoff, and many of the 60,520 fans wore his No. 89 jersey or sweaters like the ones he wore on the sideline.
What comes next
Both teams get extra rest. New England plays at the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, November 1, at 4:25 p.m. ET. Chicago visits the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night, November 2, at 8:15 p.m. ET.
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