November 28, 2025
If the Eagles don't figure out their main issues quickly – add you can add run defense to that list now – they're headed for a repeat of the infamous 2023 season that imploded down the stretch just one season after making the Super Bowl.
The Birds on Black Friday left the Linc feeling blue and with head coach Nick Sirianni red-faced. They lost 24-15 to the resurgent Bears, who leapfrogged the Birds into No. 2 seed for the NFC playoffs by winning their fifth straight and ninth of out 10. They improved to 9-3 while the Eagles fell to 8-4.
The Eagles were steamrolled in historic fashion by the Bears' rushing game on a very windy Friday night at the Linc that impacted throws from both quarterbacks, but the Eagles once again couldn't run the ball and couldn't mask their sporadic pass offense the way the Bears did.
The Bears rushed for an astronomical 282 yards and became the first team in more than 20 years to have multiple 100-yard rushers against the Eagles in a single game.
It'll be interesting to see where the Eagles go from here, with the Chargers up next in Los Angeles, and with a relatively light schedule in December, with three of their final four games against teams that currently have losing records.
Can they turn this around, or is this who the 2025 Eagles really are? Will it only get worse?
Let's take a look at the good, bad and ugly from this:
• There's really not much here. Let's put the AJ Brown 33-yard touchdown catch in the third in this category for the sweet double move he put on cornerback Nashon Wright and for the terrific body control, as he had to come back to catch the under-thrown pass before finishing off the touchdown. The wind might have impacted the throw, but it was surely a better catch than pass as Brown had beaten Wright and could've scored much easier if the pass led him.
• Brown's touchdown catch was set up by the Eagles' consistently best offensive play over the past month, a designed keeper by Jalen Hurts, who scampered up the middle on 3rd-and-6, dodged a tackle and then bounced to the right side for a 23-yard gain. Even the TV crew wondered why there hasn't been more usage of Hurts in the run game given the offense's struggles. (My take: I don't think it's the be all, end all to solving the offense's issues, but more wouldn't hurt).
• What happened to Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo? Sure, the Bears have a very good rushing offense, but there's no excuse for an iDL of the Eagles' caliber to get shredded for 142 rushing yards in the first half and allow an average nearly 7 yards per carry. Ojomo is a high-octane, long-armed pass rusher but he's not as powerful at the point of attack as Milton Williams was. Davis still plays too high at times, and it appears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio felt he needed to get Byron Young more involved, but even that didn't help. The Eagles had allowed 125 rushing yards on 31 carries to Dallas on Sunday, then turned around and performed even worse against Chicago. Guess what other team really likes to run? Right, the Chargers.
• Third down issues reared their ugly head early as the Eagles couldn't convert on their initial third down, as Hurts got chased out of the pocket quickly by defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and threw out of bounds. The Eagles then had their 3-and-out issues come back, going 3-and-out on their next three drives going into halftime. It appears that 8-2 record despite leading the NFL in 3-and-outs truly was an outlier.
• You can blame offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo's play calling all you want, but DeVonta Smith was WIDE OPEN on 3rd-and-8 on the Eagles' second possession, and Hurts threw behind him. TV replay also showed Dallas Goedert more open than Smith was. Hurts is typically very accurate, and misfires happens, but to get Smith schemed that open on 3rd-and-long against zone isn't a play design or play calling issue.
• The Eagles turned the ball over twice for the second straight game and third time of the season. Even the "Tush Push" is failing them, as Hurts fumbled trying to execute one in the third quarter but lost the ball when Nashon Wright punched it out and somehow recovered it at the bottom of a pile. The whole point of the Eagles surviving despite an average offense is that they protect the ball and don't give possessions away, but now you're seeing how difficult it is to sustain that approach.
• The Bears went after Sydney Brown early and often, especially in the red zone, and almost had him twice. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams made old friend Olamide Zaccheaus dive to try to bring in a pass in the end zone that was just a little too wide for the former Eagles receiver, who at least two steps on Brown, the fill-in for an injured Andrew Mukuba. In the second quarter, Williams just under-threw Rome Odunze in the right corner of the end zone after Odunze had toasted Brown on a double move. It's on tape now, so expect the Chargers and Justin Herbert to take a similar approach.
• Britain Covey, in his first reappearance with the Eagles, signaled for a fair catch at the 8-yard-line in the third quarter as the Eagles started with terrible field position. You don't see many punts that close to the end zone fair caught, unless you only watch Eagles games.
• The Eagles didn't even get their full second possession in before the end of the first quarter. That's how badly they were dominated in the time of possession battle, basically 2-to-1.
• Bears running back and old friend De'Andre Swift rushed for 88 yards in the first half alone – which is also Saquon Barkley's second-most rushing yards in a game this season.
• Nick Sirianni taking the clock to the two-minute warning on the Eagles' drive before halftime is such a drastic change in philosophy for him. In the past, Sirianni would've rolled the dice and tried to get another play in. He wouldn't have worried about giving the ball back to his opponent with time on the clock. That decision was as conservative as it gets. It was also a questionable decision to go for two on the fourth-quarter A.J. Brown touchdown catch that narrowed the Eagles' deficit to 24-15 although Jake Elliott had already missed a PAT.
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