The Eagles had a sloppy day in cold and windy conditions in Chicago, but they made just enough plays to emerge with a 25-20 win over the Bears. Winning ugly is still winning, and Philly moves to 13-1 with the victory.
Here's what I saw.
The Good
• What an absolutely ridiculous day for Philadelphia's pass rush. They have been one of the strengths of the team all season, and were one of the only things standing between the Eagles and a deeper deficit in the first half. And the best part was how many guys got rolling against Chicago, the Bears unable to plug one hole without opening up another.
Every time you went to write about a player's excellent season, another guy reminded you of his terrific output this year. There was Josh Sweat, setting a new career-high in sacks with Philadelphia's first of the day. There was Hasson Reddick, inches away from a three-sack effort in the first half alone, adding to an awesome return to his hometown team. And you simply could not forget about Javon Hargrave, who moved into double-digit sacks for the year with a play early in the second half. The Eagles shifted Hargrave to the edge and let him attack from a different spot, and Hargrave rewarded the coaching staff for the opportunity.
What's so impressive about this group is how many ways they have to beat and stop you. They can overwhelm you with strength or speed and sometimes do both at the same time. We've often killed the Eagles for asking Reddick to drop back and cover, but the physical traits that make him believe he should do so showed up on a huge play midway through the third quarter. Reddick didn't just force his second fumble of the day, he ended up being the guy who jumped on the football and created a turnover for Philadelphia, hauling down Velus Jones Jr. before getting the takeaway.
Save for Fields' highlight-reel run in the first half, the Bears had very little going all day.
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• DeVonta Smith was the clear-cut star for the Eagles' offense for most of Sunday's game, only to be usurped at the end of the game by A.J. Brown in the closing moments of Eagles-Bears. It was one of the most complete games he has played as a professional and a reminder of just how many ways he can and has killed opponents for years. No matter what they ran, "throw it to No. 6" felt like the best option on most plays, and he rewarded Hurts nearly every time the ball went in his direction.
Philadelphia's one-two punch is so dangerous because you can't box them in or take away one route and hope to contain them. Smith may not be the physical presence Brown is, but they share the ability to kill on all sorts of routes — we saw Skinny Batman kill the Bears on post routes, slants, screens, and even in scramble drills, drifting away from his defender while waiting for Hurts to find him on a broken play.
Smith was so good that for most of the day his counterpart Brown almost "quietly" put up a dominant day of his own, Brown hurting the Bears underneath with slant routes through traffic. There was nothing quiet, though, about Brown's 68-yard reception in crunch time, the game very much in doubt with the offense still sputtering. On the most important play of the game, Brown's physicality won out, and he nearly took the catch all the way to pay dirt before being brought down:
• After the Micah Parsons "controversy" from this past week, you could either use the first half of this game as a point in his argument or a reflection of how important Hurts is to the success of the team. We don't need to dress it up — Hurts was just bad early, throwing a duck on his first interception and following that with a second bad giveaway. Frankly, he wasn't a whole lot better in the second half. Hurts managed to cut down on the poor turnovers, but his touch was on-and-off all day, perhaps because it was cold enough to impact his grip on the football.
But you play all 60 minutes because sometimes a few big plays are all you need to get a victory over the line. After Boston Scott gave the Eagles beautiful field position to open the second half, it didn't take long for Hurts and. Brown to remind everyone how they've pushed this team to the best record in football. It did not look like Brown even knew where the ball was in the moments before the catch, but he fooled everybody, turning at the last moment to haul in another ridiculous catch in a season filled with them.
A few plays later, Hurts was driving through the muck in the middle of the line for another QB sneak touchdown, pushing his rushing touchdown total to 12 on the year. Hurts would pick up No. 13 on another sneak late in the fourth quarter, and if you weren't already aware, he is on the verge of history for a QB. Hurts is already the owner of the Eagles' season record for QB rushing touchdowns — a real feat when you consider who else has played here — and he is approaching the season-long record (14) for the entire league, set by Cam Newton during his rookie year in 2011. Even when he has a bad day at the office, Hurts is marching toward a win and more history.
I'll say this: the Eagles emerging victorious in this one doesn't mean we have to pretend Hurts grew into the game or was "resilient" or any number of buzzwords that will be used to describe the performance. Some old and bad habits popped up as Hurts struggled to settle into a groove against Chicago. There were plays where he dropped his eyes instead of progressing through his reads, picking up short gains on the ground that Chicago was ultimately happy to live with. It's okay to say that he had a lot of bad moments but that they probably don't matter too much. If we look at how badly the Cowboys struggled against the Jaguars on Sunday, we could easily conclude both teams looked past inferior opponents with the rivalry game of the season on the horizon.
Ultimately, it's another win, and despite a tough day at the office Hurts still uncorked some big-time throws.
• The Eagles have gotten a big lift from Scott as a kick returner the past couple of weeks, which is sort of a huge deal. Special teams have been the one weakness for Philadelphia most of this season (Jake Elliott's steadiness aside), so if they can get any sort of consistent production, look out.
The Bad
• I can't seem to figure out what the Eagles were doing half of the time from a play calling perspective. This was the most obvious "pound the rock" game I can remember, and the Eagles basically ignored the opportunity. Miles Sanders was a non-entity for most of the game, with Philadelphia consistently ignoring obvious running opportunities to chase kill shots and big plays that didn't come off.
After an absolutely massive first half for Smith, the game somehow devolved into a Quez Watkins showcase, the Eagles looking to him on a lot of critical plays that went sideways as a result. Presented with a third-and-two in the third quarter, the Eagles opted for a home run play down the sideline to Watkins, drawing plenty of groans from a fanbase who was already frustrated with the absence of a run game.
I can certainly understand allowing Hurts to play through a pretty obvious funk, as his ability to shake off bad starts is more important to their contention hopes than a result against the Chicago Bears in December. But the strength of this team all year has been adapting to the moment and killing defenses with whatever the moment calls for. They never found their footing in this one — on the rare occasion where they did run, it was often in a spot like second-and-10, where the Bears were ready to swarm the backfield.
(Another weird quirk — their read-option game left a lot to be desired against the Bears. It's hard to question the guy who has killed out of that look all year and throughout his football career, but Hurts made some poor decisions to tuck and run the football himself in this one, which contributed to the slow day for Miles Sanders. It's hard to get the running back involved if he's not able to touch the ball. On top of that, Hurts took some big, unnecessary shots on a day where big hits feel a bit more painful, and there was a nervy moment in the second half where Hurts stayed on the turf much longer than you'd like.)
• Sanders picked a terrible time for his first fumble of the year. The Eagles did not involve him in the game plan early and looked to finally be in a position to lean on Sanders as they built a double-digit lead in the second half. But on a fairly basic screen play early in the third quarter, Sanders got ripped as he completed the catch, and the Bears were able to reverse the momentum of the game in the process. Let's go to the replay of this one:
Based on the NFL's seemingly arbitrary judgment process, I think you could at least debate whether it was a catch-and-fumble, but I lean toward yes and it's a bad turnover regardless.
• When the Eagles finally looked like they had put the game out of reach, a breakdown in the secondary all but gifted the Bears a late touchdown, forcing the Eagles to recover an onsides kick and execute on offense to put it to rest. This game had no right to be so nervy in the final couple of minutes, and they were lucky to draw a pretty bad opponent who could not punish them for their crimes against football.
• Seriously, why was Quez Watkins such a gigantic part of the game plan? Am I missing something?
The Ugly
• The Eagles somehow making it out of this game with no major injuries feels like a miracle when you consider how many times we had to wait around while Bears players were treated on the concrete-hard field. Take that victory and get out of the Chicago tundra as quickly as possible.
• I am glad the officials were consistent with their application of pass interference rules, which is to say they just let everybody get away with contact all day. As long as you establish where the line is and enforce it consistently, I don't care how many times you call PI, if at all.
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