The New England Patriots got a really good performance from starting quarterback Drake Maye in Thursday night's Week 7 loss to the Chicago Bears.

But it wasn't enough to leave Chicago with a win.

Poor pass defense, bad tackling and a costly turnover all proved too much for the Patriots to overcome against a quality opponent.

Let's recap the good, the bad and the ugly from the Patriots' 30-24 loss with a new version of Stock Watch.

STOCK DOWN

Patriots tackling

Mike Vrabel's defense missed 17 tackles on Thursday, including six from Marcus Jones and three from Charles Woods. Credit goes to Bears head coach Ben Johnson for scheming up plays that put two of New England's smallest defenders at the point of attack and asked them to tackle bigger bodies. But it's hard to beat a good team on the road when the tackling was as shoddy as it was.

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There were several plays when the Patriots couldn't even get into position to make a tackle, never mind actually bring the ball-carrier down. They allowed an untouched touchdown to Luther Burden on a third-and-17 screen call. They allowed a 58-yard gain to Burden when he had no one near him over the middle of the field.

But when they had opportunities to finish plays, they couldn't do it consistently enough. D'Andre Swift's touchdown run late in the first quarter featured a blown edge by Elijah Ponder and misses by Jones and Robert Spillane. Jones missed another on Colston Loveland's third-quarter score. Christian Elliss missed a game-changing sack by coming up empty after getting a free shot on Caleb Williams in the fourth quarter. The Patriots also allowed a 47-yard kick return -- with a five-yard Patriots penalty tacked on at the end -- that led to a Bears field goal.

"The tackling wasn’t good enough, not against this team," Vrabel said. "We knew coming in, certainly against this team, whether it’s (D’Andre) Swift, Burden, the quarterback. It just leads to extra yards and conversions."

A.J. Brown

This was not the bounce-back performance the data suggested it might be prior to the game as Brown finished with three catches for 48 yards on six targets. 

One of those targets was an incomplete pass down the right sideline with fourth-round rookie Malik Muhammad in coverage. While Muhammad got his hand onto Brown's arms a tick early, it was timed closely enough that the officials did not throw a flag. For Brown, whose game is contested catches and winning with physicality at the catch point, it's worth wondering whether or not he could have stacked Muhammad -- gotten Muhammad on his back once he got a step ahead -- and prevented Muhammad from making a breakup attempt.

Brown made a catch over the middle that helped set up Rhamondre Stevenson's long catch-and-run score, and he caught one late as the Patriots ran their hurry-up offense to kick a field goal with time winding down. But in terms of consistent impact, that wasn't there from Brown. The Patriots have to hope that with some extra rest following a Thursday game, Brown gets healthier and his production ticks up in kind.

Fourth-down offense

The days of Vrabel trusting his offense to get what they need on fourth down might be over. Emphasis on might.

This is two games in a row now where the Patriots have gone for it on fourth-and-medium situations and failed. Against the Jets, a fourth-down throw to A.J. Brown was broken up and went incomplete. Against the Bears, on their first drive, the Patriots ran up the gut on third-and-six and got... one. Still, the Patriots went for it on fourth down and came up empty.

The Patriots had been effective on fourth down earlier this season. They executed against Josh Allen and the Bills. They did it again the following week against Kirk Cousins and the Raiders. Vrabel implied that as long as his offense had earned confidence in those situations, he'd act on that confidence in those situations. But now that things have started to swing the other way, it would come as little surprise if Vrabel had second thoughts about his fourth-down aggressiveness moving forward.

The Patriots looked to be going for it on fourth down again at midfield in the fourth quarter when Matt Pryor false started, pushing them back to a fourth-and-long situation that prompted Vrabel to punt. 

STOCK UP

Rhamondre Stevenson, RB

The Patriots wouldn't have been in the game late if not for Stevenson's remarkable -- aided in large part by some horrendous tackling on the part of the Bears -- catch-and-run touchdown at the end of the first half.

He finished the game with 93 yards receiving on five catches and 22 more yards on the ground on six carries. Stevenson's 13-yard run got the Patriots to the precipice of the end zone in the second quarter, and he might've scored had A.J. Brown been able to hold a block on the outside. Moments later, Drake Maye scrambled for a score.

Stevenson's dependability out of the backfield, both as a receiver and a pass protector, makes him hard to pull off the field and could be one reason why TreVeyon Henderson's workload has been cut in recent weeks.

Hunter Henry, TE

Henry was Maye's go-to guy on Thursday night. When Maye scrambled away from pressure and needed to throw to a trusted target -- and there were about a half-dozen of those moments in Chicago -- Henry was almost always that target. 

Since a one-catch, five-yard performance in Jacksonville, Henry has returned to being a key piece to the Patriots offense. He has 19 catches for 225 yards in his last four games.

Eli Raridon, TE

The rookie tight end went for three catches for 56 yards and a touchdown, and Maye clearly felt as though Raridon was a mismatch for the Bears defense when he found himself in one-on-one coverage.

Maye's biggest miscue was an interception when his pass for Raridon was underthrown and thrown inside and hit linebacker D'Marco Jackson between the numbers. If thrown a little higher, or a little more to the outside, that's likely a touchdown.

The Patriots could use more help from their wide receiver room, but if Raridon can be a dependable option against opposing linebackers and safeties moving forward, his receiving production could help make up for what New England is lacking at the moment on the outside.