The Patriots' three-game win streak is over after they ran out of time and luck in their 30-24 loss to the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.
But for a team that came in dealing with multiple injuries, including being down two starters on the offensive line, coach Mike Vrabel left Soldier Field feeling disappointed in the outcome, but not downtrodden about the resolve of his team going forward.
“We fought. I would say that we need to (force opponents to) turn the ball over and tackle better and those are fundamental skills. But I like the way they competed and we certainly gave ourselves a chance,” Vrabel said.
With left guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring) joining right guard Mike Onwenu (ankle) on injured reserve this week, the Patriots went with recent addition Matt Pryor and Walter Rouse in their places. Quarterback Drake Maye was sacked twice, but the 10th different offensive line combination the Patriots have used this season held up well.
Maye completed 24 of 31 passes for 321 yards and two TDs and a rushing score. But after the loss he put the onus on himself to make better decisions, namely his costly second-quarter interception in the end zone when he was trying to complete a pass to tight end Eli Raridon. The Bears scored on their ensuing drive to take a 20-7 lead.
“I thought we battled the environment well,” Maye said. "And I thought we did some good things but didn’t execute at a high enough level to win.”
Despite the loss, New England's offense didn't show much regression overall. Maye had the one interception, but it was was on a pass in the red zone.
The running game took a step back. The Patriots rushed for just 70 yards after entering the night averaging 130.7 yards per game on the ground. Though they were playing catch-up for most of the night, it made the offense a lot more predictable in the second half, allowing the Bears to drop more players into coverage.
Running back Rhamondre Stevenson. He finished with five catches for 93 yards, including pulling in a short pass from Maye and rumbling 48 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the first half to cut Chicago's lead to 20-14. It marked his fifth career career TD reception.
Rookie edge rusher Gabe Jacas. Trailing 13-7 in the second quarter, Caleb Williams connected on a pass with Luther Burden for a 22-yard gain. But Jacas was called for roughing the passer for an extremely late hit on Williams. It added an additional 15 yards to give Chicago the ball on the New England 33. The Bears scored five plays later on a 24-yard TD pass from Williams to Burden.
Safety Kevin Byard departed after he was checked out by trainers with 9:44 left in the second quarter before returning. Defensive tackle Christian Barmore departed late in the game with an undisclosed ailment.
Minus-7 — That's the Patriots turnover differential through seven games. Only Indianapolis (minus-8 through six games) is worse.
The Thursday night game gives the Patriots a little extra time to rest and prepare before visiting Miami on Nov. 1.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) is tackled by Chicago Bears linebacker Devin Bush during the second half of an NFL football game in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel walks along the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, center left, and New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, center right, greet each other after an NFL football game in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
President Donald Trump on Friday said he told his administration to file its lawsuit to block certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, kicking off what many fear could become a lengthy battle between the government and states over certifying an election where the president's party is struggling.
“I'm the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters as he landed for a campaign rally in Florida.
The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, centers on one of the president's longstanding complaints in the Senate race — the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan who Republicans fear could siphon away votes from the incumbent in what's likely to be a photo-finish contest with Democrat Mary Peltola, the state's former congresswoman.
The second Dan Sullivan, who is Daniel J. Sullivan from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg, has said he decided to run on his own, but Republicans have contended he is a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from their candidate.
The lawsuit by the Republican president's Department of Justice in federal court in Alaska demands that the state be blocked from certifying a Peltola win if Daniel J. Sullivan remains on the ballot. “The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,” the lawsuit says, contending that federal law requires states to protect the integrity of federal elections.
The legal challenge came 11 days before the Nov. 3 election and months after the final ballot was set.
The Alaska Supreme Court rejected a previous Republican effort to remove Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot, and the state's Republican officials made the decisions about how to list him on the ballot. He will appear without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska's ranked choice voting system also will allow voters to select both of the men if confused.
The senator received more than 68,000 votes in the August primary, while the challenging Sullivan got 4,107, about 2% of the total vote. Peltola, who had previously served one term in the House, was the top vote-getter in the nonpartisan primary. Both parties expect that whoever wins in November will do so by a tight margin in a state of 738,000 people.
The campaign for Sen. Dan Sullivan did not address whether the senator supports the Department of Justice's intervention. “We'll let the DOJ complaint run its course,” campaign spokesman Nate Adams said in a text message. “Alaskans can tell the difference between a Democrat sideshow and Senator Sullivan's strong record of delivering for Alaska.”
Daniel J. Sullivan, whose presence on the ballot is at issue in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Donald Trump knows that Dan Sullivan is going to lose the election, so now his Department of Justice is filing a sham lawsuit to overturn the will of Alaska voters and steal an election when he loses,” said Devan Barber, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
In a statement on Friday, the Department of Justice noted that Alaska's election officials, who are Republicans, determined the other Sullivan's campaign was an attempt to “mislead:” voters and wanted him removed from the ballot. Both a state court and Alaska's Supreme Court disagreed and kept the second Sullivan on the ballot.
"The Justice Department, consistent with the National Voter Registration Act enacted by Congress, is taking the necessary steps to ensure that this frivolous candidacy does not undermine the integrity of Alaska’s election or the will of its voters,” the DoJ statement said.
The Department of Justice has increasingly been used to bolster the president's political operation, targeting his enemies and suing Democratic-controlled states before the election. Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long feared that the administration will try to block certification of elections that Trump's party loses, much as he unsuccessfully tried to do when he lost the White House race to Democrat Joe Biden.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said that was unlikely outside of extreme circumstances. “It is not DOJ’s intention to, and it’s never our intention to, improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process," he told reporters Thursday in Virginia before the lawsuit was filed.
The lawsuit was signed by Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who represented Trump allies and Jan. 6 defendants before becoming one of the top appointees at the department.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the lawsuit would likely only kick in if Republicans narrowly lost the Alaska Senate race and that it probably would not survive long. “The statute simply doesn't let the Department of Justice enjoin certification,” Muller said. “The lawsuit could well be mooted by a wide Democratic victory or a narrow Republican one, and if not, the court will likely dismiss it next month.”
The U.S. Constitution grants states the power to run their own elections. Elections for federal office like the Senate must comply with standards set by Congress. That division of power has frustrated Trump, who repeatedly has tried to seize control of election procedures through executive orders that courts have blocked.
The final step for a state election is formally certifying the winner, the act that the administration's lawsuit seeks to prevent, it requests, “pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for. Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan."
The process in Alaska is complicated by the state's ranked choice voting system, which Trump opposes, and many expect it to take weeks before a winner is known. Also on the state's ballot is an initiative to repeal that system.
Trump has complained about Daniel J. Sullivan's presence on the ballot, making reference to it during a rally in Alaska this month and in repeated social media posts, including one this week where he called it “CHEATING.”
“We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference, in the pursuit of Justice and Fairness,” the president wrote on Wednesday.
Clogging a ballot with third party candidates to siphon off votes from the other major party is a long-standing tactic in the country's two-party system. Republicans have been linked to an effort to persuade Ohio voters to support a socialist in that state's Senate race, which could help Republican Sen. Jon Husted fend off a challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, DC contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump greets Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, at a campaign rally at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Wasilla, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks at a campaign rally at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Wasilla, Alaska. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In this photo shot with a smart phone, Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan poses ahead of a debate with Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska's Senate race, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
