Patriots' Kendrick Bourne still earns praise from Jerod Mayo after benching

CHICAGO — The Patriots were able to beat the Bears on Sunday without a familiar face at wide receiver.

Kendrick Bourne was active for Sunday’s game but didn’t come off the bench. Bourne and backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett were the only players on the Patriots’ gameday roster who didn’t play.

That comes as a significant surprise since Bourne was the Patriots’ leading wide receiver in Week 9. He saw his snaps incrementally increase in his return off of the PUP until this week but admitted that he didn’t have his best performance in last week’s loss.

“There was a lot that went into that,” head coach Jerod Mayo said. “You know, anytime we put the active roster together, we thought that that was the best thing to do for us to give us the best chance to win. All those guys bring a certain skill set to the game. We just didn’t know who was going to play more. It just played out that way.”

Bourne still managed to impress Mayo despite his benching.

“But I will say this,” Mayo continued. “Even though Bourne didn’t play today, he was the first one smiling when I walked in the locker room, and I’ve always appreciated that, just his energy and excitement.

“Same thing with (WR) K.J. (Osborn) and the rest of those guys. Sometimes even when they’re inactive, just the excitement for their teammates. We talk about abundance versus scarcity and having that mindset of abundance where we can all eat versus scarcity, if you have that scarcity mindset, you don’t want your teammate to do well because there’s only a certain amount of the pie. I will say the mindset of this team is if we go out there, there are enough plays to be made for all of us, we’ve just got to go out there and execute.”

Osborn, who was held catchless, and rookie wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk, who caught a 2-yard touchdown, took on bigger roles in Bourne’s absence. Tight end Austin Hooper led the team with 64 receiving yards on three catches. Wide receiver DeMario Douglas led his position group with four catches for 50 yards while starter Kayshon Boutte caught four passes for 47 yards.

The Patriots have seven wide receivers on their 53-man roster. Rookie Javon Baker played but has yet to tally his first NFL reception. Tyquan Thornton was a healthy scratch.