How the Bears beat the Patriots: Bears offense runs wild, Bailey Zappe steps in for Pats

Bill Belichick has long preached to his players the gospel of tuning out the noise. Don’t read the stories, he’ll tell them. Don’t watch the TV roundtables or listen to the talk shows. Focus on the football. Do your job.

Hey, Bill, good luck with that for the rest of this week.

The fact is that anyone with a stake in the fortunes of the New England Patriots — including the team’s own players — will be mulling and gossiping about the stunning quarterback saga that had Gillette Stadium overflowing with a range of emotions Monday night.

Yes, the masses cheered respectfully when Mac Jones returned to his job as starting quarterback for the Patriots’ “Monday Night Football” showdown against the Chicago Bears after missing three games while rehabbing a high ankle sprain.

Yes, these same masses jeered — quite disrespectfully — when Jones submitted two three-and-outs before being intercepted by the Bears’ Jaquan Brisker.

And, yes, yes, yes, the joint absolutely rocked when Bailey Zappe, the rookie quarterback whose steady play and schoolboy enthusiasm enthralled Pats fans in victories over the Lions and Browns, came in from the bullpen with 11:55 remaining in the second quarter and, on his third pass attempt, connected with Jakobi Meyers for a 30-yard touchdown pass and catch.

They cheered again, even more loudly, when Zappe began New England’s next drive with a 43-yard completion to DeVante Parker, setting up a 4-yard touchdown run by Rhamondre Stevenson.

OK, now let’s stop for a moment and note that the Patriots lost this game, and lost badly: The final was Bears 33, Pats 14. About the only thing missing for the Bears in this “Super Bowl Shuffle” lip-sync was William “The Refrigerator” Perry roaring into the end zone for a piling-on touchdown.

While it’s true, then, that New England didn’t do much to stop the Bears, that doesn’t change the fact that Belichick did an astonishingly bad job of handling this entire situation. For a guy who won’t tell you how he takes his coffee to be dropping all these breadcrumbs about using both quarterbacks, and then, to confirm to ESPN he planned to use them both, was bad enough. But yanking Jones following the interception came across as ham-handed and unnecessary.

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