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The New England Patriots secured their third win of the season Sunday, and Drake Maye gave credit where credit was due.

In a 19-3 win over the Chicago Bears, the Patriots’ defense made life extremely difficult for Bears’ rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. New England sacked the 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick nine times and held Chicago to just 3 points. So when Maye took the podium for his post-game press conference, he made sure his defensive unit got their flowers. 

“Phones down, phones down. Notepads down. We’re clapping up the defense,” Maye told reporters. “Clap it up, clap it up. Somebody else clap up. There we go.”

On top of the nine sacks, Williams only completed 16 of his 30 pass attempts for 120 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. The Week 10 game had the Bears’ already disgruntled fan base calling for the immediate firing of head coach Matt Eberflus.

READ: Bears Fans Begging For Matt Eberflus Firing After Embarrassing Loss To Patriots

The Patriots have plenty of their own problems. At 3-7, they’ve spent the season in the basement of the AFC East, and head coach Jerod Mayo made headlines last month when he called his defense “soft” after a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

They certainly didn’t look soft Sunday.

As for Maye himself, he ended up completing 15 of his 25 passes for 184 yards, a touchdown and an interception. On the ground, he picked up 24 yards.

The New England Patriots cruised to an easy win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

(David Banks-Imagn Images)

The loss snapped an eight-game home winning streak for Chicago. The Bears have now failed to score a touchdown in two-straight games.

Again, the Patriots (probably) aren’t winning the Super Bowl this year, either. But in the battle among rookie quarterbacks, Drake Maye won this round.