LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Tom Brady was a senior on the Junipero Serra High School football team in San Mateo, California, in 1994, the year Chicago Bears starting quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was born.

Twenty-four years and five Super Bowl rings later, Brady is the gold standard against which NFL quarterbacks are judged.

His greatness is not lost on Trubisky, the NFL’s 2017 second overall pick, who makes his first start opposite the legendary quarterback when New England visits Soldier Field on Sunday.

“Is it cool [to have the chance to face Brady]? Yeah. For sure,” Trubisky said before Wednesday’s practice.

“He’s just really been able to push the limits at what can be accomplished at this position and how everybody looks at it. He’s really taken this thing to new levels, and it’ll be cool to compete against him on Sunday.”

Trubisky, who was named Bears starting quarterback in Week 5 of last season, enters the Week 7 matchup with the New England Patriots on a high note.

After uneven performances against Green Bay, Seattle and Arizona to open the season, Trubisky has completed 41 of 57 passes for 670 yards and nine touchdowns with one interception over his last two games, while also rushing for 100 yards on 11 carries.

Trubisky is the first Bears quarterback to throw nine combined touchdown passes in back-to-back games since Sid Luckman in 1943.

However, the stakes will be raised on Sunday.

The Patriots (4-2) have looked vulnerable in 2018 – particularly on defense, where they’ve given up an average of nearly 25 points and 380 total yards per game.

But the Patriots are still the Patriots.

Trubisky knows that a victory over New England would further accelerate Chicago’s rebuild under Matt Nagy, as the Bears try to rebound from a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins that snapped a three-game winning streak and left their record at 3-2.

“They’re a great opponent, and they’re always in the mix every single year,” Trubisky said. “No matter how they start, they always finish strong and they get better every single week throughout the year. So it will be a great challenge for this team this week, and we’ll kind of have a good measurement of where we’re at as a team and how we’ve grown from last year and the first bunch of games this year.

"So it’ll be a great challenge and we’re excited about this weekend. And we’ll definitely be able to see where we’re at against a very high-caliber opponent.”

For Brady, it has been business as usual this year.

“It doesn’t matter the score with Brady,” Nagy said Wednesday. “You always see that. He just has this mentality that at the end of the game, they’re going to win because of him."

The 41-year-old future Hall of Famer has passed for 1,599 yards and 13 touchdowns with six interceptions (98.2 passer rating) through six games.

Brady is 4-0 lifetime versus the Bears – the last two victories were blowouts in 2010 (36-7) and 2014 (51-23).

“I admire his competitiveness and just following his journey and what he’s had to overcome to be able to get where he’s at,” Trubisky said. “It’s very admirable, and doing it this well over a long period of time is pretty incredible. So you always look at that. And what they’ve been able to do. As a quarterback, you’re judged by how many games you win and he’s been successful at that as well, so ... obviously he’s one of the best to do it.”