The Philadelphia Eagles are 8-4 after losing to the Chicago Bears at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. Final score: 24 to 15.
This one wasn’t even as close as the nine-point difference makes it seem.
The Bears dominated the Eagles:
- First downs: Bears 28, Eagles 14
- Total plays: Bears 85, Eagles 51
- Rushing yards: Bears 281, Eagles 87
- Total yards: Bears 425, Eagles 317
And that’s with Philly gaining 116 yards of garbage time offense on their final two possessions.
Once again, the Eagles’ offense — the most expensive offense in the NFL by a significant margin™ — was absolutely abysmal when it mattered. They scored one touchdown on their first nine drives. This despite going up a Bears defense that just hasn’t been very good this season.
The offense is beyond broken and clearly must change something. The team can’t hide behind winning in spite of the offense anymore. Maybe it’s Kevin Patullo getting the boot, though the offensive coordinator was hardly the only issue on Friday. Jalen Hurts missed throws. Players dropped passes. The offensive line didn’t block well. Penalties continued to be an issue.
Vic Fangio’s defense clearly had a bad game against the Bears’ rushing attack but his unit at least came up with some stops and a takeaway that would’ve led to an Eagles lead prior to a Hurts fumble in the red zone.
The Eagles didn’t need to let their collapse against the Dallas Cowboys be more than just one bad loss. But losing at home as seven-point favorites to a Bears team that isn’t even as good as their record suggest prompts one to wonder if another 2023-like collapse is coming.
Just like it was back then, it’s hard to feel like the head coach has answers right now. What is Nick Sirianni bringing to the table?
Next up: the Eagles are off until a Monday Night Football road game against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 14.
Read on for a recap and stay tuned for BGN’s postgame coverage.
FIRST QUARTER
- The Bears won the coin toss and elected to receive (a rare non-deferral). The Bears took over at their own 33-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-1, the Bears went QB sneak for a first down. Facing 3rd-and-5, Caleb Williams hit Rome Odunze for a first down with Adoree’ Jackson giving up a cushion. Facing 3rd-and-7, a draw to old friend D’Andre Swift picked up six yards. Facing 4th-and-1, Ben Johnson kept the offense on the field and Kyle Monangai was originally contacted short of the line to gain but the refs ruled he made it beyond the marker. Nick Sirianni threw his red flag to challenge the spot … and the ruling was overturned for a turnover on downs! Good job by the Eagles’ head coach. And good job by Vic Fangio’s defense.
- The Eagles took over at their own 25-yard line. The offense’s first play was a Saquon Barkley run that picked up five yards. Then A.J. Brown false started. A pre-snap penalty before the Eagles’ second play after a loss where they had a ton of penalties. Jalen Hurts then hit Brown for a first down. Facing 3rd-and-5, Hurts scrambled into pressure and threw away the ball. Hey, it wasn’t a three-and-out! Just a five-and-out!
- The Bears took over at their own 22-yard line after a mere 38-yard punt by Braden Mann. Monangai immediately ripped off a 17-yard run. Swift ripped off a 23-yard run by juking Sydney Brown to move the Bears just outside of the red zone. Facing 3rd-and-2, Monangai was first contacted behind the marker but a second effort got him beyond the sticks for a first down. A scrambling Williams missed a throw to a wide open Olamide Zaccheaus in the end zone. Facing 3rd-and-2, the Bears got in the end zone with a handoff to Swift. 11-play, 78-yard touchdown drive that took 5:26 off the clock. EAGLES 0, BEARS 7.
- The Eagles took over at their own 35-yard line. Barkley ran for eight yards and then Landon Dickerson got flagged for a false start. Lol.
SECOND QUARTER
- Facing 3rd-and-3, Hurts tossed a completion to DeVonta Smith for a gain of 30 yards into field goal range. Nice design! Barkley ran twice (first for gain and then for loss) to set up third down. Facing 3rd-and-8, Hurts threw behind a wide open DeVonta for an incompletion. Just a really bad miss by the QB. Could’ve been a touchdown or at least goal-to-go, where the Eagles’ offense has been unstoppable this year. Instead, the Eagles had to settle for a 44-yard Jake Elliott field goal make. Four-point missed throw. EAGLES 3, BEARS 7.
- The Bears took over at their own 20-yard line after Jake Elliott’s kickoff bounced in the landing zone and into the end zone for a touchback. Swift ripped off a 17-yard run where he stiff-armed Adoree’ Jackson into the ground. Facing 3rd-and-8 after a blitzing Zack Baun forced Williams to dirt the ball, Williams hit OZ over the middle for a first down. Facing 3rd-and-1, the Bears went QB sneak with Williams going uncontested for a first down. Facing 3rd-and-5, Williams extended the play and scrambled for a first down. Swift ripped off another 17-yard run into the red zone. Facing 3rd-and-10 after Williams left a wide open touchdown throw on the field by throwing it low to his intended target (second time Sydney Brown got bailed out after he left someone wide open in the end zone), Jaelan Phillips deflected Williams’ pass for an incompletion. The Bears brought on Cairo Santos for the 30-yard field goal make. Bend but don’t break effort on a 14-play, 68-yard FG drive. EAGLES 3, BEARS 10.
- The Eagles took over at their own 30-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-3, Hurts’ pass to Dallas Goedert over the middle went through the tight end’s hands. Three-and-out.
- The Bears took over at their own 20-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-10, it looked like Nolan Smith was going to get to Williams for a sack but he ducked it and instead got taken down by Jalen Carter. Carter’s first sack since Week 8 and just his second of the season. Good stop by the defense.
- The Eagles took over at their own 35-yard line with 2:47 on the clock and three timeouts to work with. The Eagles schemed up a 1-yard completion to a crossing A.J. Brown and Sirianni let the clock run down to the two-minute warning, clearly with the fear that the offense might go three-and-out and give the ball back to the Bears with plenty of time left. Fear-based mentality. Hurts threw over the middle to Brown beyond the marker but missed the wide receiver. Facing 3rd-and-9, Hurts hit Brown but the refs called offensive pass interference. Terrible call. Great. Facing 3rd-and-19, Hurts checked down to Shipley, who went out of bounds to unwisely stop the clock.
- The Bears took over at their own 19-yard line with 1:36 on the clock. A Williams pass was tipped by Carter high into the air and was dropped by Nakobe Dean. Eagles really needed that interception. Williams almost threw an interception on a play where his receiver slipped and the ball went to Reed Blankenship … but it bounced on the ground before the pick. Phillips drew a holding penalty that knocked the Bears back and stalled the Bears’ attempt to get some end of half points.
THIRD QUARTER
- The Eagles took over at their own 27-yard line. Hurts threw to Barkley with the running back too late to get his head around to look for the pass (or the pass too early). Then Barkley ran for one yard. Facing 3rd-and-9, Hurts’ pass to Goedert was a little short but catchable and dropped. Three-and-out to start the second half. Truly inspired football.
- The Bears took over at their own 24-yard line and went four-and-out. Unlike the offense, the defense looked invested in winning the game.
- The Eagles took over at their own 26-yard line. Barkley ran for no gain. Hurts scrambled away from pressure and threw downfield for Darius Cooper, who uncovered but the QB overthrew him and got picked off by former Eagle Kevin Byard.
- The Bears took over at their own 49-yard line. They went three-and-out. Ben Johnson punted from 4th-and-3 from the plus 44-yard line because he understandably felt so unthreatened by the Eagles’ offense.
- The Eagles took over at their own 8-yard line. Surely, a 92-yard drive incoming? Hurts hit A.J. Brown on a slant over the middle for a first down. Incredible concept! Then the Eagles picked up another first down via a roughing the passer penalty on the Bears. The Eagles doubled their first down total from the entire game in just a couple plays. Hurts took off running 23 yards into Bears territory. And then Hurts gave Brown a chance to make a play downfield … and the wide receiver made a great adjustment on the ball for a touchdown! My sarcasm came back to bite me. Funny to see them go 92 yards in five plays after making offense look impossible for most of the game. Turns out that going up tempo helps! Unfortunately for the Eagles, Jake Elliott missed the extra point to prevent the Eagles from tying the game. EAGLES 9, BEARS 10.
- The Bears took over at their own 36-yard line. Jalyx Hunt batted a Williams pass and then picked it off for a big takeaway! Wow! Hunt’s second interception of the season (previously had the pick six in the Vikings game).
- The Eagles took over at the plus 36-yard line. The Eagles went with three Barkley runs to get to 3rd-and-1 at the 12-yard line. The Eagles went tush push and Hurts fumbled for a Bears recovery. Welp. Pretty bad to get zero points there. Interesting decision to go away from having success with Barkley runs on the previous plays.
- The Bears took over at their own 13-yard line. Monangai ripped off a 31-yard run. The Bears quickly moved into Eagles territory. Facing 3rd-and-5, Williams dirted the ball against pressure. Facing 4th-and-5, Blankenship fell down to allow a first down catch to Colston Loveland. The Bears moved just outside of the red zone to end the third quarter.
FOURTH QUARTER
- The Bears moved into goal-to-go at the 4-yard line. Monangai entered the end zone untouched for a touchdown. Hurts’ fumble prevented an Eagles lead and instead led to a 12-play, 87-yard Bears touchdown drive. The Eagles got fortunate that Ben Johnson didn’t decide to go for two to make it a two-possession game. EAGLES 9, BEARS 17.
- The Eagles took over at their own 21-yard line. Hurts tried to go to DeVonta deep and it looked like DPI but no flag on the underthrown pass. Facing 3rd-and-6, Hurts completed a pass to Brown for just three yards. The punt team came on and Cameron Latu false started to prevent the possibility of attempting a fake. Really should’ve gone for it anyway with the defense struggling to stop the run.
- The Bears took over at their own 37-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-4, Williams hit a crossing target who was schemed open for a first down. Wonder if the Eagles’ offensive coaching staff knows that’s something worth trying. A few plays later, Williams hit Cole Kmet in the end zone for a dagger of a touchdown. Nice punt, Nick! That really helped the team win the game. EAGLES 9, BEARS 24.
- The Eagles took over at their own 20-yard line. With the Bears playing soft defense, the Eagles moved 80 yards in 12 plays with 3:09 off the clock with Hurts hitting Brown for the touchdown. The Eagles went for two and failed with Hurts pressured into a missed throw. EAGLES 15, BEARS 24.
- The Eagles attempted an onside kick that was recovered by the Bears. The Bears ran seven plays and gained 17 yards to take 1:58 off the clock and force the Eagles to burn their timeouts before turning it over on downs.
- The Eagles picked up some garbage time stats and got into position for a 52-yard field goal to try to cut the lead to one possession but Elliott missed the kick. Lol.
- The Bears ran victory formation to seal the game.
FINAL SCORE: EAGLES LOSE, 24 to 15
EAGLES LINEUP NOTES
- Sydney Brown started at safety next to Reed Blankenship, as expected.
EAGLES INJURY NEWS
- Adoree’ Jackson got banged up on the Bears’ first drive. He was back on the field for the Bears’ second drive.
- DeVonta Smith got banged up later in the fourth quarter. He quickly re-entered the game.