Ad Disclosure
Loser Football – 25 Immediate Observations from Bears 24, Eagles 15
Published:
Twice this season the Philadelphia Eagles have played on a short week after a choke job, and twice they’ve been handled in games that weren’t particularly competitive.
The only reason this one was remotely close was because Ben Johnson inexplicably decided to stop running the football. Then the light bulb clicked on and he went back to the ground game after Jalen Hurts fumbled in the red zone. If he had never gone away from D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monongai in the first place, it would have been curtains in the third quarter.
Meantime, Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo’s offense needed garbage time to break double digits. The QB was bad and the line was bad. More penalties and 1st down fecklessness. And Vic Fangio’s defense, which has been the catalyst for almost every win this season, gave up almost 300 rushing yards. They weren’t anywhere near their best, but gave the pathetic O a chance, which wasn’t taken.
Moving forward, on one hand, the Eagles lost two in a row earlier this season, then came back with a four-game win streak. They’ve got the Raiders and Commanders (2x) still on the schedule, which isn’t exactly murderer’s row. On the other hand, they’ve barely been scraping by in some of these wins to begin with, so when the calendar flips to December we’ll see if this is a repeat of the 2023 collapse.
But first, the observations:
1) Scintillating interview with Jalen Hurts to kick off the broadcast:
“What do you have to do to play four quarters of football?” (paraphrasing).
“We just have to go out and there play four quarters of football, (insert a couple of cliches)”
2) One of the things that gets lost in the 2023 Eagles shitshow is how good D’Andre Swift was that year. He ran for a career-high 1,049 yards and went to the Pro Bowl. 4.6 yards per carry and another 200+ yards and a touchdown in the receiving game. He had 125 and a score in this game.
3) Another fourth down stop for the Eagles’ defense, this time after a challenge on the opening Chicago drive. It looked like Kyle Monongai’s shin touched down before he lunged and got the ball across the line:
4) A.J. Brown false start followed by a first down on a hitch route feels like an apropos snapshot for the 2025 Eagles offense. Then you follow it up a few plays later with Hurts fleeing the pocket to his right and throwing the ball out of bounds on 3rd and 5. Awesome!
5) Not often you see the D line get moved backward, but on the second Bears drive they had Monongai stopped on 3rd and 2 and Chicago’s O line didn’t quit on the play. Good stuff initially by Jordan Davis but a frustrating result. 13 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter for the visitors.
6) With Xavier Gipson injured, they had Britain Covey and Will Shipley out there returning punts and kicks. Gipson might have been inactive even if he was healthy after the Dallas fumble.
7) Two pre-snap penalties on the first two Eagles drives. The false start against Landon Dickerson looked questionable, did it not? If he moved before the ball moved, it was by a split-second.
8) More early mistakes: Dallas Goedert and Jordan Mailata blowing a blocking assignment on a blown-up running play, then Hurts throwing behind DeVonta Smith on third down. There was a pre-snap signal from Hurts to Smitty, Chicago blitzed, and they couldn’t connect. Looked to me like they went hot and weren’t on the same page:
9) Only reason the Bears didn’t find the end zone on their 3rd drive is because Johnson decided to pass three times in a row after a 17-yard Swift run. He did the same thing to start the third quarter as well. At that point, they were running for 6.5 yards a carry and yet Williams had 26 passing attempts to 24 runs.
10) Sydney Brown got absolutely worked on the pylon shot that Caleb Williams couldn’t get enough juice on. Looked like he was playing inside leverage, turned the wrong way, and when he recovered he was 7-8 yards away from Rome Odunze:
11) Real chickenshit stuff at the end of the first half. They open with a play action pass to A.J. Brown that goes for one yard (felt like 0), then they let the clock run down to the two-minute warning instead of getting another play off. After the break, Hurts fires between two receivers in the same spot, then a soft offensive pass interference on Brown and on comes Braden Mann.
12) Tough play, but if Nakobe Dean comes down with that deflected pass, it totally changes the trajectory of the game with the Eagles getting the ball to start the third quarter. Swift did a good job of junking that up and getting in his way.
13) Chicago 222 yards at half, Birds 83. Two first downs and a 1-5 mark on third. Doesn’t get much more pitiful than that.
14) Sick play to start the second half with Hurts pulling and throwing for Barkley, who didn’t have his head turned. Then they ran it for a yard on second down and threw incomplete on 3rd and 9. You have halftime to pause and get your shit together, and that’s what you come out with?
15) The Hurts pick was pretty gross, but the offensive line didn’t block anything on that two-play drive. Grady Jarrett blew up the 1st down run, then 340-pound Andrew Billings was almost clean through on 2nd down. Some of the worst O line play going back many years now.
16) Gotta love it when the defender pushes the QB to the ground then puts his hands up as if he didn’t do anything. It will never not be funny.
17) As bad as the offense was early, the first touchdown drive was really nice. 5 plays, 92 yards with tempo. Two explosives on the QB run and the deep shot, but Hurts set the tone with a 1st down completion while standing in the pocket and taking a hit. That was the response everyone was waiting for.
18) Of course, special teams lets them down after the TD. Jake Elliott misses his first extra point of the season (now 30 for 31), and then the coverage team allows a 34-yard kick return. They can never seemingly link momentum together.
19) Jalyx Hunt! Let’s fucking go! (Why is Ben Johnson throwing a screen on 2nd and 1? Why?)
20) Tush push fumble: Sure looked like Hurts’ forward progress was stopped, yeah? If the officials blew the whistle too early in New York, the Kayvon Thibodeaux play, then the whistle seemed late this time.
21) Momentum shifts: Eagles force a turnover, then fumble in the red zone, then Chicago needs only two plays to run it out to the 50. Absolutely infuriating stuff. Makes you want to rip your hair out.
22) 4th and 5: if A.J. Brown is getting whistled for OPI, then Colston Loveland should be getting the same flag.
23) That was a blatant missed DPI on Smitty at the start of the 4th quarter. Doesn’t matter if the ball is underthrown. The defender is clattering into him and he has no chance to catch the ball.
Even Florio thought so:
24) They shouldn’t have tried the 2-point conversion when it was 24-15. Kick the extra point and give yourself something to play for. Extend the game and keep it going. That was the ballgame right there, and fittingly, another terrible play.
25) The good thing about the Friday game in LA is that we don’t have to watch this team for nine days.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com