Pats Pulpit Podcast Episode 118: Patriots overcome a dozen mistakes against the Bears

The New England Patriots fumbled the ball twice on their own side of the field and James Develin handed the ball to a defender, leading to 21 points by the Chicago Bears.

No matter, Tom Brady and company said, New England will overcome these issues to win 38-31 in a game that should not have been anywhere close to that final score. Josh Gordon had his first 100-yard game with the Patriots and James White chipped in 97 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The offensive line shut down the vaunted Bears defense and all was well on offense, even with Rob Gronkowski and Sony Michel absent with injuries.

The Patriots defense is still questionable, as they failed repeatedly at keeping Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky in the pocket and allow tight end Trey Burton to waltz up the seam uncovered and seemingly at will. New England will have to fix this problem.

Fortunately, they get a favorable game on Monday Night Football against the hapless Buffalo Bills, owners of the worst offense through 7 games over the past 30 years, per Football Outsiders. That should definitely help the defense.

The Patriots are now in great position in the AFC East and in the AFC, on pace for yet another first round bye.

Alec and Rich cover it all. This podcast is available in the iTunes store, Stitcher, TuneIn, BluBrry, Podcast Mirror and via RSS Feed. Please subscribe and comment on what you want to hear about in future podcasts!