Patriots X-Factors vs. Bears in NFL Week 10

Looking ahead to the rest of their 2024 schedule, the New England Patriots won’t have many opportunities to recover from their 2-7 start. At least given their opponent’s recent development, one of their best games could come on Sunday: The Chicago Bears have lost both games since their bye week, and the pressure is mounting for head coach Matt Eberflus.

However, Chicago still goes into the game as the clear favorite. For the Patriots to make a splash at Soldier Field, they will need to play better against Tennessee than they did last week. They will also need the X-Factors to get them on their way.

Patriots X-Factor vs. Bears: Edge Defender

Even if the newly signed Yannick Ngakoue will not play a role on Sunday, the position at the top will be very important overall. There are two reasons for this: 1.) Chicago will be without both its starting left tackle (Braxton Jones) and starting right tackle (Darnell Wright) due to injury, and 2.) Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to extend plays and move outside the pocket.

Under these circumstances, the Patriots’ edge defenders will be in the spotlight on Sunday. This is especially true for Anfernee Jennings and Keion White, the nominally best two at this position.

Both Jennings and White will once again experience a healthy workload. As the best true outside linebacker on the roster, the former will play almost 100 percent of the defensive snaps for the third week in a row; The latter is more of an inside/outside tweener, but has emerged as the best counterpart to Jennings and New England’s best pure pass rusher.

In the pass rush area, White in particular has a unique opportunity to end his seven-game streak without a sack. The Patriots will look to move him into favorable positions as a pass rusher, and those should present themselves on both sides of the Bears O-line. Not only are expected starters Larry Borom and Matt Pryor a downgrade from a Jones-Wright pairing, but overall chemistry at the top could suffer as a result of the changes.

Of course, given the second point above, blindly rushing the passer won’t do any good. The Patriots are well aware that Williams can do damage with his legs, and they must play that role on Sunday.

That means Jennings, White and whoever else is responsible for staying ahead on a given play — Deatrich Wise Jr. and Jahlani Tavai come to mind as additional options — must be disciplined when they get to the end of the line stand in a row. Being too aggressive just because two backups start at tackle could lead to trouble.

More X-Factors in Week 10

Tight ends: The Patriots have relied heavily on Hunter Henry this season; The team captain is the team’s most reliable pass catcher and has developed good chemistry with quarterback Drake Maye. Against the Bears, however, he may not be the only player at the tight end position to see prominent snaps: Austin Hooper and even Jaheim Bell or Mitchell Wilcox, who was named to the practice squad, could also get into the game after Chicago’s usually good defense had a tough time against Arizona’s multi-tight end sets last week. The Bears countering those looks in a base set caused them all sorts of problems – problems that New England offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt might also be poised to cause.

Interior offensive line: The Patriots continue to move their pieces along the offensive line, and the latest move could see Michael Onwenu move from the right side – where he played both guard and tackle this season – to the left. Whether he will actually start at left guard on Sunday remains to be seen, but the bottom line remains the same: The interior offensive line needs to improve in both the running game and pass protection. This is especially true considering Chicago’s Gervon Dexter is one of the most disruptive defensive tackles in the NFL.

RT Demontrey Jacobs: Dexter isn’t the only player on the Bears’ defensive front who has the potential to be a problem. Edge Montez Sweat, who leads the team with 24 total quarterback pressures, is also something to keep an eye on. Based on his play so far this season, he’ll likely be matched up primarily against Patriots right tackle Demontrey Jacobs – a matchup New England can’t feel particularly confident about. The team needs to find a way to support Jacobs or Drake Maye could have sweat on his face all day.

CB Marcus Jones & CB Jonathan Jones: The Bears boast one of the best three-receiver groups in the NFL, with DJ Moore, Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen all capable of stressing opposing defenses on every down base. The Patriots obviously have one of the best cornerbacks in football – Christian Gonzalez – but they still need to find a way to slow down whoever he isn’t covering. That task will likely fall to the Joneses.

LB Jahlani Tavai: The Patriots will be without fellow linebacker Christian Elliss this week due to an abdominal injury, which will in turn put more pressure on nominal LB1 Jahlani Tavai. The veteran is coming off one of his better games this season, but the task isn’t getting any easier. While the Bears’ running offense has been inconsistent overall, top defender D’Andre Swift has performed highly both as a runner and as one of Caleb Williams’ top targets in the passing game. In total, he touched the ball 150 times for 729 yards and four touchdowns, leading the team in all three categories.

Ball security: It goes without saying that ball security is a key factor every week. However, with the Patriots suffering three losses in last week’s loss to the Tennessee Titans, special emphasis is needed. That’s especially true for quarterback Drake Maye, whose two interceptions and forced fumble put the team in a tough spot in Week 9 and ultimately ended the game unfavorably. New England’s offense as a whole and Maye individually need to do a better job of protecting the football, both from a technical standpoint and from a decision-making standpoint.