Frequently during NFL games, the press box announcer’s voice will come through the ceiling speakers with an injury update supplied by one of the two teams.

Number. Name. Status. Injury.

The injuries vary, but usually they’re just announced as your typical “knee”, “ankle”, “hamstring”, e.t.c. Sometimes you’ll hear a player is “being evaluated for a concussion,” which almost always means that player actually has a concussion.

But during Sunday’s Bears-Patriots games, those of us in the press box heard a pretty unique injury update:

“No. 87 Rob Gronkowski is questionable to return with dehydration,” the voice said.

It was the third quarter and Gronkowski had already amassed nine catches for 149 yards and three touchdowns, so I guess you couldn’t blame him for being dehydrated.

At that point, the “dehydration” injury sounded like a joke, but it was an official announcement. Thus, the tweet accompanying the update needed a disclaimer:

Rob Gronkowski has “dehydration." This is not a joke.

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) October 26, 2014

Needless to say, the “injury” wasn’t a good look for the Bears’ defense, which had allowed Gronk to run all over the field all afternoon. The tight end’s last play was a 46-yard touchdown in which he beat the coverage from safety Chris Conte and then tossed the Bears’ other safety, Ryan Mundy, to the side en route to the end zone.

When the game was a over, a common question from fans was: How could the Bears allow Rob Gronkowski to constantly get a free release off the line of scrimmage?

“It wasn’t that way, I did look at the tape,” Bears head coach Marc Trestman said Monday. “We played a significant amount of man-to-man coverage, we had very, very tight coverage.”

You might roll your eyes, but the tape actually proves what Trestman said. Sure, the Bears played some zone too, but defensive coordinator Mel Tucker mixed up the coverages, tried multiple players in man-to-man, and Gronkowski simply beat all of it.

Let’s take a look at his first touchdown catch. As you can see, Mundy has tight coverage on Gronkowski and gets his hands on him, but one of Gronkowski’s best attributes is his ability to use his size to gain leverage:

In this case, Gronk gains outside leverage and creates just enough space to allow Tom Brady to put the ball in a perfect spot. Mundy’s coverage isn’t bad, it’s just not good enough to stop one of the best tight ends in football, which is a tough assignment.

“If you look at Ryan Mundy’s coverage on the corner route, it was right on his hip,” Trestman said. “Meticulous throw.”

Now let’s take a look at the Patriots’ next drive. This time, Gronkowski is lined up wide to the right. The Bears go with man coverage with Conte as the single high safety. Mundy once again draws the Gronkowski assignment and has pretty tight coverage, but the tight end is able to create separation.

This is a simple in-route right at the first down line and Gronk turns it into a gain of 10 on third-and-short.

Clearly, Mundy was a little over-matched, but other players got their crack to stop Gronk too. On his second touchdown, he went in motion to the left, creating a matchup on Shea McClellin, one Tom Brady probably wanted to see:

But McClellin’s coverage actually wasn’t that bad. He jams Gronkowski right away…

But once again, Gronkowski is able to use his strength to get outside leverage, and with a quarterback like Brady who can throw a perfect fade, this ends up being a touchdown, even though it looked like Gronkowski lost control of the ball as he went out of bounds.

Then, on Gronk’s third touchdown, Conte and Mundy essentially switch safety positions, with Conte drawing the matchup:

Same story. Tight coverage, but Gronk is still able to use his size and strength to get leverage in the direction he needs to go:

Conte possesses the speed to close after the separation, but he’s just a hair late as he dives for the ball.

“If you look at the crossing route, Conte was right in position, just missed,” Trestman said. “Was right on his hip again and Gronk actually picked it up off the ground.”

These are all examples of a simple matchup problem, which a fully-healthy Rob Gronkowski is for any NFL team. The Bears did everything short of putting a double-team on him, although it’s fair to wonder why they didn’t try that too.

And, yes, there were some free releases, which did nothing but make things even easier for Brady.

Let’s take a look at a few of these.

This play was man-coverage, with middle linebacker Darryl Sharpton assigned to the running back, meaning Mundy has to somehow close an inside window, which is pretty much impossible from where he’s lined up.  Conte is the single-high safety, but his responsibility is to be the deepest guy on the field, so asking him to break down hard on the throw is easier said than done.

On this next play, the Bears are in zone coverage, and Gronkowski draws Sharpton in coverage:

The biggest problem here is that the pass rush doesn’t get home and Brady is able to walk freely out to the right and wait for Gronkowski to get himself open. Sharpton actually has pretty good coverage, but it’s hard to hold it when the pass rush breaks down like that. Gronk breaks free and Brady delivers an accurate throw to get down to the 1-yard-line.

The last play we are going to take a look at was actually a huge play in the game. With about 4:30 left in the second quarter, the Bears were still only down 17-7 and the Patriots were facing a 3rd-and-14 in their own territory. A stop should be expected and if the Bears got the ball back, they could have made it 17-14 before halftime.

But the Bears just couldn’t stop Gronkowski — at least not with the defense that was called on this play.

The Bears rush five, with D.J. Williams blitzing, but the Patriots have the numbers to easily pick up that blitz. This gives Gronkowski a free release off the line and puts Mundy in a similar spot as we saw above. This time, Gronk is going to run right at him, getting Mundy backpedaling just enough to allow him to break right to the first down line.

The All-22 look shows the space in the alignment:

Gronk runs his route straight to the first down line and that’s right where Brady puts the ball:

From there, you know the story. The Patriots drove down the field and scored, got a stop and a good punt return to set up another score, and then forced a Jay Cutler fumble and scored again, creating a 38-7 halftime advantage. Game over.

So what can we take away from the Bears’ coverage on Rob Gronkowski? First of all, he’s a matchup nightmare, especially with Tom Brady as his quarterback. The Bears’ players will tell you that their techniques could have been better, but it’s clear they were overmatched in one-on-one matchups. Double-teams were needed, and it’s fair to wonder why that was never a part of the Bears’ game plan. Of course, that can lead to other problems for Brady to exploit, and the Bears were also having major issues with Kyle Fuller out of the game.

As for the free releases, they are going to happen when you try to mix up your coverages, but on a big 3rd-and-14, you can’t allow Gronkowski to get anywhere near the first down marker, and that particular coverage was questionable.

Five Highest Grades

RB Matt Forte (Grade: 5.0) – With the ball in his hands, it was another great game for Forte. However, he did not have a perfect day as he struggled in pass protection a couple of times in the second quarter, including on the Cutler fumble. The route he ran on the first touchdown was perfect.

DT Stephen Paea (5.0) – Paea caused all kinds of problems for Patriots center Bryan Stork. As long as he stays healthy, he’s making a case for a multi-year contract, either with the Bears or elsewhere.

TE Martellus Bennett (4.0) – Another member of the usual suspects, Bennett had another strong game, including making one of the best touchdown grabs you’ll see all season. The holding call on the Bears’ first drive was a killer though.

LT Jermon Bushrod (4.0) – Bushrod didn’t allow any pressures and was strong in his run blocking. It looks like he’s getting closer to 100 percent.

LG Matt Slauson (4.0) – The Bears are really going to miss Slauson, who suffered a season-ending torn pectoral muscle Sunday. He finishes the season with an overall grade of 1.80, currently second only to Bushrod’s 1.83 on the offensive line.

Five Lowest Grades

CB Al Louis-Jean (Grade: -5.0) – The Bears used the undrafted rookie instead of Sherrick McManis when Fuller aggravated his hip pointer and Louis-Jean was simply overmatched. He was guilty of pass interference, allowed a touchdown to Brandon LaFell, and was generally picked on by Brady.

LB Shea McClellin (-5.0) – I’m not going to blame him on the fade to Gronkowski. It wasn’t bad coverage and he never should have been in that position to begin with. That said, he’s played four games at linebacker this season and has looked lost in three of them. It’s fair to point out that McClellin has suffered untimely injuries after both of his two best games (in Green Bay last year and against the 49ers this year), but the guy has played in 32 career games now. That’s a pretty large sample size.

S Ryan Mundy (-4.0) – It was a bad game against one of the league’s top tight ends.  Tough matchup, tough day.

DE Lamarr Houston (-3.0) – I’m not sure what was going on with Houston Sunday, but he couldn’t seem to stay on his feet when blocked. The torn ACL suffered while celebrating his first sack of the season was just a tough way to go out in what will go down as a disappointing first season in Chicago. That said, he was leading the team in quarterback disruptions (according to STATS) and was good against the run. He ends the year with a solid 1.25 overall grade.

RT Michael Ola (-3.0) – It sounds like Ola might be the Bears’ right tackle in the second half of the season, but he has been far from dominant. It looked like he was confused on who to block on a few run plays Sunday, but those are correctable mistakes.

Other Observations

– It was pretty much forgotten after the blowout, but the Bears’ defense actually put together an impressive goal line stand in the first quarter. It looked like it was going to be an turnover on downs, but umpire Fred Bryan threw a late flag for a false start that I couldn’t spot on tape, no matter how many times I watched it. Referee Brad Allen did not provide a player’s number when he announced the penalty, which didn’t help clear anything up. Because it was a late call, the play went on and both Jeremiah Ratliff and Stephen Paea blew up the middle of the Patriots’ offensive line to help stop running back Jonas Gray in the backfield. The false start by the Patriots actually helped them because it’s a dead ball foul and allowed them to kick a field goal instead.

– On 2nd-and-4 with about 14:25 left in the second quarter, Cutler missed Alshon Jeffery as he stared down Brandon Marshall. The reason Jeffery (circled in blue) was open was because Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins (circled in red) saw Cutler staring at Marshall (circled in yellow) and cheated inside:

This would have been the perfect example of how to look off a defender had Cutler then thrown to Jeffery, but instead, he forced the pass to Marshall and it fell incomplete.

– The very next play was 3rd-and-4 and Cutler chose to drop it off on a swing to Forte, who was stopped short of the first down marker. This appeared to be because Santonio Holmes and Martellus Bennett were both in the same place, a yard short of the first down. These are the kinds of plays that have defined the first half of the season for the Bears’ offense.

– Some fans were questioning whether Tom Brady crossed the line of scrimmage on the 21-yard completion to Gronkowski on 3rd-and-18 with 8:59 left in the second quarter (this is the play broken down above with Sharpton in coverage), but the coaches film showed Brady was still behind the line.

Adam Hoge covers the Bears for 87.7 The Game and TheGameChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.