New England and Chicago bring matching 4-2 records to Soldier Field on Thursday night, with a Week 7 matchup that puts 2024 draft classmates Drake Maye and Caleb Williams back on the same field. The Patriots have won three straight, while the Bears can reach 5-2 for the first time since 2020 after Williams returned from injury to lead last week’s win over Atlanta.
The game closes October and could shape the early playoff picture for both clubs. New England is coming off a streak that began with a victory over AFC East-leading Buffalo, while Chicago is trying to carry momentum into November behind an improving defense and a more efficient passing attack.
Quick facts
- Patriots and Bears enter Thursday at 4-2.
- New England has won three consecutive games.
- Caleb Williams completed 83.3% of his passes for 305 yards and a touchdown against the Falcons.
- Drake Maye has thrown 10 touchdown passes over the past three weeks.
- Bears defensive lineman Montez Sweat will miss the second game of a two-game suspension.
- Patriots receiver Romeo Doubs is out with a shoulder injury.
Maye and Williams meet again
Williams, the No. 1 selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, and Maye, taken third overall, have known each other since high school. Their previous NFL meeting came in 2024, when the Patriots earned a 19-3 win during a season in which both franchises finished below .500 and later changed coaches.
Both quarterbacks have since taken major steps forward. Maye finished last season as the MVP runner-up and guided New England to the Super Bowl. Williams helped Chicago claim its first NFC North championship in seven years while becoming one of the league’s most dangerous off-schedule playmakers under coach Ben Johnson.
Maye’s opening three games this season were marred by six interceptions, the highest total in the NFL over that span. He has steadied himself since, throwing only one pick across the last three weeks while leading qualified quarterbacks in passer rating at 119.3 and EPA per dropback at 0.38.
His 10 touchdown throws during that stretch also lead the league. Thursday presents another test against a Chicago defense that has produced 42 takeaways since the beginning of last season, the most in the NFL.
Williams returned from a hamstring injury against Atlanta after missing three games. He threw for 305 yards and a score in the road win, and his 72.5% completion rate this season leads the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 75 attempts.
That accuracy is a sharp jump from his 58.1% completion mark in 2025. The Patriots, however, arrive with a defense ranked in the top six in both points and total yards allowed.
Brown gets another chance
A.J. Brown’s first game back since Week 1 did not go as New England planned. The Patriots’ major offseason acquisition caught three passes for 27 yards against the Jets despite drawing 10 targets.
It was the lowest reception total of Brown’s career in games, including the postseason, in which he had at least 10 targets. He went without a catch on three throws traveling at least 10 yards in the air and acknowledged afterward that dropped passes were an issue.
With Doubs sidelined, Maye may lean heavily on Brown again at Soldier Field. Chicago’s secondary was exposed in Green Bay two weeks ago, giving New England reason to believe Brown can find more room after his quiet return.
Chicago defense faces its biggest check
The Bears have improved dramatically in scoring defense and yards allowed after entering the year with questions about whether their 2025 turnover total had masked broader problems. Other than their difficult outing against Green Bay, Dennis Allen’s unit has generally kept Chicago in games.
There are still warning signs. Chicago is allowing 6.0 yards per play, the second-highest figure in the league, and has faced only 50.2 defensive snaps per game because of the Bears’ ball-control ground attack.
No NFL team has completed a season at such a low defensive-snap average since at least 2000. That light workload has helped preserve the defense, but Maye’s recent surge will provide a tougher measure of how sustainable the Bears’ ranking can be.
Sweat remains unavailable, leaving Chicago without its second-highest-paid player for one more game. Nickelback Kyler Gordon could take on a larger role after recording three sacks on only 16 snaps in his season debut last week.
The Bears will try to force Maye back into the mistakes that marked September. New England, meanwhile, will seek a fourth straight win and a stronger showing from Brown as the teams head toward the season’s midpoint.
