3 key matchups to watch in Patriots vs. Bears: Caleb Williams vs. Drake Maye and more

Chicago Bears fans need Sunday to hurry up and get here, because it's been a rough couple of weeks. What not long ago appeared to be a season in which the Bears would finally rise back to contention has quickly turned into yet another season on the brink.

The Bears need a win, badly, and luckily for them, the 2-7 New England Patriots are coming to town. Coming into the season, the Pats were thought to be one of the bottom teams in the league, and with a bottom-four point differential, they've done little to dissuade that notion.

For years, seeing New England on the schedule usually meant a loss for whoever was unfortunate enough to play them, but this isn't Bill Belichick's or Tom Brady's Patriots. This is a team that's struggling to find its identity now that its dynastic days are long gone.

The Bears have lost two straight after entering their bye at 4-2, but if there's one thing they've shown the ability to do, it's beat bad teams. We're nine weeks into the season, and yet all four teams that the Bears have vanquished have combined for a total of 10 wins, with the recently-hot Rams doing a lot of the heavy lifting with three straight wins to get to 4-4.

That doesn't mean it will be a cakewalk at Soldier Field on Sunday, because the Bears have some struggles of their own. They still appear to be reeling from losing on a last-second Hail Mary to the Commanders two weeks ago, and last week's loss to the Cardinals was by far their worst all-around performance of the season.

Football is a game of matchups, and despite not exactly being Game of the Week material, this game will feature some fun storylines and things to watch. What are the matchups that will determine the winner? Let's take a look.

Caleb Williams vs. Drake Maye

We have to begin with the battle of the rookie quarterbacks. No. 1 pick Caleb Williams came out on the short end against No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels a couple of weeks ago, but he has a chance to prove himself this week against the player taken next, Drake Maye.

Unlike Williams and Daniels, Maye wasn't thrown into the fire as his team's starting quarterback right away. Instead, he sat behind Jacoby Brissett, partly for his own protection, and partly because it was believed that the veteran Brissett would give the Patriots a better chance to win early on.

It's clear by now that even with his limited experience, Maye is a better option, both now and in the future, for New England. He has a big arm that can stretch the field, and he's able to use his legs not only to scramble and buy time, but to get big gains on the ground, which we saw last week when he turned eight runs into 95 yards against the Titans.

Williams has better skill position talent to throw to than Maye, and Bears fans hope that will be the difference in this game. DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze and Cole Kmet have been inconsistent game to game, but they've only dropped six passes on the year. Compare that to the Patriots pass-catching corps of Kendrick Bourne, DeMario Douglas, Hunter Henry and Ja'Lynn Polk. They've dropped 19 balls, which is the fifth-worst mark in the league.

Both Williams and Maye are capable of making incredible plays, especially after evading incoming rushers and extending the play. Maye sent last week's game to overtime with a comically long scramble and touchdown throw, while Williams has done some of his best work after running in a circle and then either uncorking a bullet over the middle or taking off and running.

Both teams know the ceiling for their quarterbacks, but this game could be determined by who can raise their floor higher. Williams and Maye have both struggled at times to keep drives alive, often because they're hunting the big play. Whichever rookie quarterback can take easy gains and move the chains should end up winning.

Who will win the sack battle?

We can't talk about these quarterbacks without also mentioning the offensive lines that are supposed to be protecting them. Neither the Bears nor the Patriots have been good up front, which has made life for their young franchise players much more difficult.

Other than the Cleveland Browns, who have a whole set of their own problems to worry about, no team in the NFL has given up more sacks per game than the Patriot and Bears. Both clock in at around 3.5 sacks allowed per game, which is concerning not only because sacks are the surest way to kill a drive and come away with no points, but each team desperately wants to protect their young stars from injury.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bears get to the quarterback 2.9 times per game, compared to just 1.8 for the Patriots. That would seem to give the advantage to the home team, but with starting tackles Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright both dealing with injuries (Jones got in a limited practice session on Thursday, meaning he may be trending towards playing, but Wright was a DNP), it could open the door for New England's pass rush to create more havoc than usual.

One of the worries for Williams before the Bears drafted him was that he holds the ball too long and ends up getting himself sacked more than he should. His release time has actually been good since landing in Chicago, and I would say that he's avoided more sacks than he's run into with his scrambling ability, at least through the first eight games of his career.

When Williams has been given time, he's looked like a Pro Bowler, but too often this year, including last week at Arizona, he's been pressured instanteously upon receiving the snap. If the Bears hope to win this game, they need to make sure that he's under less pressure than Maye.

Matt Eberflus vs. Jerod Mayo: which embattled coach will buy themselves more time?

Bears fans and Patriots fans don't share all that much in common, but one thing they can agree on is this: neither fanbase likes their head coach right now.

Mayo has been put in the impossible situation of following a Hall of Fame legend, as he took over for his mentor Belichick this past offseason. While it's not his fault that the Patriots aren't what they used to be (to be fair, they had already fallen off by the end of Belichick's reign), he's angered Pats fans with his conservative in-game decision-making, his reluctance to give Maye the job when Brissett was so obviously ineffective and his decision to publicly blast his team for being soft.

Eberflus isn't in much better shape from a public relations perspective. His questionable late-game decisions, penchant for doubling down on mistakes when asked about them afterwards and milquetoast rah-rah positivity, even when things are clearly not going well, has fans lamenting that the team didn't fire him last offseason so that they could have pursued Ben Johnson or Jim Harbaugh.

Both coaches have been called out in the media by their teams, with Ja'Lynn Polk refuting Mayo's assertion that he needed to "get over a mental hump" and multiple Bears, including star corner Jaylon Johnson, questioning Eberflus' decision not to use a timeout at the end of the Commanders game. DJ Moore didn't exactly give his coach a ringing endorsement when asked this past week if he'd lost the locker room, either.

Mayo is in his first year with a team that had no expectations of being able to contend, so even if the Patriots lose, it probably won't change his fate very much. For Eberflus, though, everything is on the line. Losing to a bad Patriots team at home to extend the Bears' losing streak to three might be the last straw.