December 14, 2022
Dan Powers/USA TODAY Sports
Bears fans get to enjoy some occasional explosive runs from Justin Fields, and not much else.
The Philadelphia Eagles will play a football game against the Bears in Chicago for the first time since a Cody Parkey field goal attempt hit an upright, and then a crossbar, and then fell to the ground on the harmless side of the goalposts. It's a much different team now than it was then. Here are our five matchups to watch.
The Eagles faced a running quarterback in Week 14 in Daniel Jones, who only ran with the football four times. There was a reason for that. One of the Eagles' priorities defensively in that game was to have disciplined rush lanes on the way to the quarterback, something Nick Sirianni praised the defensive line for in his postgame address to the locker room.
A fun one yesterday@NovaCare | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/S8ZXauN0LZ
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 12, 2022
"Defensively, a big key was keeping this guy in the pocket with disciplined rush lanes," Sirianni said. "Defensive line, that was beautiful. The way we were covering in the secondary and the defensive line, how you rushed, that was awesome. Great job guys."
Jonathan Gannon was asked how the Eagles were able to keep Jones in the pocket.
"You can't be selfish when you play quarterbacks with that type of skill set," he said. "It's really everyone has to rush together, whether you're rushing four, five or six. You have to stay disciplined, and you have to be where you're supposed to be, and I thought they did a good job of that.
"They know the value of that, of the rush plan I'm talking, and executed at a high level. Then going to this next upcoming game, [Justin Fields] is electric, so we're going to have to have some tools that we use and we're going to have to do basically the same thing because the way that they move the ball down the field is all through the quarterback. Got a big-time challenge with that."
Fields has become a human highlight reel, busting out runs of 50 yards or longer in three of his last four games. Here's a bunch of runs (in two videos) against the Dolphins, including a 61-yard TD run:
a barrage of Justin Fields runs against the Dolphins from today. Some true upper echelon plays. pic.twitter.com/PtPVEEjuTH
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) November 7, 2022
Here's a 67-yard TD run vs. the Lions:
JUSTIN. FIELDS.
— NFL (@NFL) November 13, 2022
67-YARD TD! #DaBears
📺: #DETvsCHI on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/bBQuxnO25T pic.twitter.com/yMZ8iWXAUZ
And here's a 55-yard TD run against the Packers:
Justin Fields another highlight pic.twitter.com/IjynF9mZOs
— Menace 2 Sports (@Menace2Sports) December 4, 2022
Again, that's all within his last four games. The Bears are 3-10, but Fields has at least given Chicagoans some entertainment this season with some of the ridiculous plays he has made with his legs.
As a passer, Fields has improved significantly from his rookie season into Year 2, but he remains a work in progress, with just 13 TDs vs. 10 INTs. As we noted last week, the Eagles are facing a string of the most run-heavy teams in the NFL, and the Bears are the run-heaviest, as they run it on an absurd 58.6 percent of their plays, which is crazy for a team with a 3-10 record that trails in most games.
The Eagles' run defense will catch a break in this game, as RB Khalil Herbert is on IR, and will not play. Herbert rushed 108 times for 643 yards (6.0 YPC) and 4 TDs before going down with a hip flexor injury. Herbert formed a nice speed/power duo with David Montgomery, who has 160 rushes for 641 yards (4.0 YPC) and 4 TDs.
The Bears' offense is a little bit like the Giants' offense in another way — their receivers are depleted, and bad. Bears No. 1 receiver Darnell Mooney is done for the season with an ankle injury. A look at their top WR options in his absence:
| Chicago WRs | Rec | Yards | YPC | TD |
| Equinimeous St. Brown | 17 | 280 | 16.5 | 1 |
| Dante Pettis | 14 | 202 | 14.4 | 2 |
| Chase Claypool (5 games in CHI) | 12 | 111 | 9.3 | 0 |
Yuck. Those are Reagor numbers. The most talented receiver of the bunch is probably Claypool, who the Bears acquired at the trade deadline for the insane price of what will likely be a top 35 pick. The Eagles actually faced Claypool earlier this season when he still played for the Steelers. He had four catches on six targets for 45 yards.
The Eagles are facing some adversity in the secondary this week, as Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (lacerated kidney) is on IR, and his replacement (Reed Blankenship) will very likely be out. K'Von Wallace will probably start at safety, which would normally be a big concern, but probably isn't quite as much against this offense.
The Bears' offensive line looks like this:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Braxton Jones | Cody Whitehair | Sam Mustipher | Teven Jenkins | Riley Reiff |
At the start of the season, the above group was thought of as a bottom five type of offensive line, but they really haven't been that bad. Bears quarterbacks have been sacked 42 times (3.2 per game), which certainly isn't good, but a lot of those have been on Fields. They have actually improved from a season ago, when Bears quarterbacks were sacked 58 times (3.4 per game).
The Eagles lead the NFL as a team with 49 sacks, and they have a chance of breaking the all-time single-season team record of 61 sacks, set in 1989 under Buddy Ryan. This is the type of opponent that pass rushers circle on the schedule.
#FeastinMeter: 8 turkey legs 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
It's hard to even pinpoint any one specific thing for the Eagles to attack offensively, because the Bears defense suck-diddly-ucks across the board. Chicago has the 32nd ranked defense overall by DVOA. They are 31st against the pass, and 29th against the run. They're inexperienced in the secondary, and they have no juice whatsoever upfront, as they have a league-worst 16 sacks. We're talking about a team here whose best pass rusher earlier this season was Robert Quinn. 😬
The Eagles can beat teams in multiple ways. Against the Packers a few weeks ago, they ran it down their throats for four quarters. Against the Titans, Jalen Hurts threw it all over the yard. In this matchup, the Birds can take their pick of what they want to exploit.
Easiest prediction ever: The Bears are going to select a pass rusher with their first-round pick in the 2023 draft.
It's going to be cold on Sunday in Chicago, and occasionally windy (gusts of up to 21 MPH, per early weather reports). And, well, the Eagles' special teams haven't been stellar this season. The Birds are breaking in a new punter in Brett Kern, which is maybe mildly concerning from a field goal operation standpoint, even if Kern has 15 years of NFL experience.
What the Eagles cannot have happen is a devastating special teams play that swings this game, because this is an otherwise very bad team that the Eagles should dominate on both sides of the ball.
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