Patriots make Bears pay for missed chance

Bears safety Chris Harris thought he was all set to snap Tom Brady's eight-week streak without an interception.

Then Brian Urlacher went and got his big hand in the way and the game got away from the Bears soon thereafter.

Brady fired a 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski with 5:47 left in the first quarter to trigger New England's 33-0 first-half breakout Sunday at Soldier Field.

That initial score came one snap after Harris, standing in the middle of the end zone, couldn't hang on to Urlacher's tipped pass. He got his right hand on it, but no more.

“It's one of those plays where I thought I was in position to make the play before the tip,” Harris said. “I was able to get one fingertip on it. My hands were a little numb, so I couldn't quite feel it and bring it in with one hand.

“It was kind of sickening. Any time you get missed opportunities, it's like giving a team in baseball four outs. You can't give (Brady) second chances. If you give him second chances, he'll burn you.”

And if you flip the fraction and give Brady half a chance, he'll burn you as well.

With five seconds left in the first half and the Patriots 59 yards from the end zone, common sense called for the visitors to take a knee to avoid a catastrophic turnover for a score.

(Of course, it called for the Bears to be in a prevent defense, but that's a matter for another paragraph).

“At one point the coach was telling us to take a knee,” said Patriots wide receiver Deion Branch. “I'm looking at Tom like, ‘Take a knee.' And he looked at me like, ‘No.'

“He called a route and I was like, ‘All right, good. That's a good route.'”

Branch, lined up wide left against Charles Tillman, made an outside break toward the Bears sideline. While Tillman hesitated momentarily to keep his Cover-2 zone assignment, Branch flew down the sideline, caught a pass in stride and outraced late-arriving safety Major Wright for the 59-yard score as time expired.

Instead of a mere 27-0 lead, the Patriots took a 33-0 margin into halftime.

Brady taught the rookie a lesson with a tiny shoulder flinch that made Wright believe he might throw to the receiver angling away from him toward the opposite side of the field.

“Brady kind of gave me a little pump-fake to the seam,” Wright said.

Wright and Harris (who wasn't in the game) said the call was Cover-2. But coach Lovie Smith indicated otherwise.

“We should have had someone back deep and we didn't,” Smith said. “It was as simple as that. Basic Cover-4. Guess you didn't see the receiver out there. Breakdown in coverage.”