Five Steps the Chicago Bears Must Take to Beat the Patriots

The Chicago Bears face the most monumental task of their young season on Sunday. They just suffered another tough loss last week. A 31-28 overtime thriller against the Dolphins in Miami where they squandered a number of chances to win. Now they have to return home to play host to the best team in the NFL over the past 18 years in the New England Patriots. Everybody who knows NFL football understands the situation. The Patriots are a hard team to beat. That's because they have arguably the best head coach and quarterback running the show. They haven't finished worse than 12-4 in a season since 2009. That's not a misprint. This team is always well-prepared and disciplined, on the road or at home. The Bears have had three shots at them since 2002 and lost each time. This may be their last chance to say they were able to beat Bill Belichick and Tom Brady at least once. Can they do it? If so, they will have to go down quite a checklist to make it happen.

#1: Score

It may sound overly simple but it's also true. Just look back over the previous two seasons. In that span, the Patriots have lost six games total. In those games, their opponents never scored less than 26 points. Three of the four wins New England has this year's involved opponents who failed to reach that mark. Only the Chiefs did by scoring 40 but their defense allowed 43, proving how difficult it still is to beat this team. The Bears have faced the Belichick-era Patriots three times. They're 0-3 with two of their losses having failed to reach that mark. The only time they succeeded was in 2002 when they scored 30 and they still came up short. Point is the Patriots always get their points, with or without the opponent being able to keep up. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/1280x720-Watch-Chicago-Bears-vs.-Miami-Dolphins-10142018-including-a-live-Drive-Chart-and-real-time-highlights-NFL.com-4.mp4"][/video]

#2: Get the lead early

The one thing teams cannot afford is for the Patriots to get out in front on the scoreboard early. No team is better at burying you in that fashion. This is why it has to be the other way around. While they can come from behind like any great team, they're not perfect at it. Both losses they've suffered this season involved the opposing teams jumping out to sizable leads in the first half. Jacksonville went up 14-0 and Detroit went up 13-3. It was the same last year too. Three of the four losses they suffered saw them trailing at halftime.

#3: Run the ball

It may play second fiddle in Chicago these days because of Mitch Trubisky's ascent, but running the ball still has great importance when playing a team like New England. Nothing is more important than minimizing the number of times that Brady can possess the ball. That means controlling the clock and shortening the game. This is done by running it. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Kareem-Hunts-Huge-Game-w-185-Total-Yards-vs.-Pats.mp4"][/video] Both defeats this year saw them give up at least 100 yards on the ground. It was the same last year in all four of their losses including the Super Bowl. Jordan Howard hasn't been the focal point lately, but he should be in this game.

#4: Stop the run

The demand goes both ways. The defense had a hard time stopping the run in Miami due to their tackling issues. They absolutely cannot afford that against the Patriots. That team is hard enough to beat with Brady at the helm. When they're able to run the ball well? Forget about it. Since last year New England is 11-2 when rushing for 100 yards or more. They've also rushed for at least 170 yards in two of their last three games. That should send a clear message to the Bears that this is something they can't afford to ignore.

#5: Pressure Tom Brady

The last one is also the most obvious. Don't be fooled by the fact that Brady is slower than most quarterbacks. He's also one of the hardest in the NFL to sack. Since becoming a starter in 2001, he's been sacked 40 or more times in a season just twice. He's been dropped just eight times in six games. This is because he's mobile in the pocket and gets the ball out fast. However, teams that have gotten to him even a couple times tend to mess up his rhythm. Against the Jaguars and Lions, he was sacked two times each. He had a passer rating of 85.6 combined in those games which are highly pedestrian by Brady's standards. Like everything else on this list it's not a guarantee, but it certainly improves the odds.