Chicago Bears Have a great effort but lose another game

The Chicago Bears surprised the Philadelphia Eagles early but faltered down the stretch, losing their seventh straight game.

When NFL experts looked at the Chicago Bears vs Philadelphia Eagles game, almost all of them figured it would be a bloodbath. The Bears are 3-10 and the Eagles are 12-1. The Eagles have the best offense while the Bears have one of the worst defenses in the league.

The Bears once again gave a good showing. They didn’t get intimidated by the Eagles’ dominance this season. In the end, however, they didn’t have the assets to keep up with the best team in the league and ultimately fell 25-13.

Some of the same old things happened to the Bears — key penalties, injuries, and failing in key situations.

It was great to see Chicago still fight, however. They are already eliminated from playoff contention so they are playing for pride.

There is still a lot of pride in this team. No matter what the records are, opposing teams know they are in for a tough game when they play the Bears.

That is exactly what happened with Philadelphia. Quarterback Jalen Hurts came into the game with just two interceptions. The Eagles overall had the fewest turnovers with 10. Against the Bears, however, Hurts threw two interceptions and the Eagles had 3 turnovers overall.

One of the things head coach Matt Eberflus said he wanted to see in the final four games was more turnovers forced. Seeing three of them against the best offense in terms of protecting the ball certainly made him happy. Moreso since they only had two forced turnovers in their last five games.

The Eagles did not panic and eventually took over, but it was a battle. Even when they took a 25-13 late in the game, Justin Fields led his offense on a scoring drive to cut the lead.

This is a good sign for the Chicago Bears moving forward.

The injuries are still something to be concerned about, though. They lost wide receiver Equanemious St. Brown and offensive lineman Teven Jenkins within their first several plays of the game. St. Brown suffered a concussion while Jenkin’s injury was a much more serious neck injury.

Both players were out, but Jenkins had to be carted off. It didn’t look good. Now we have to wait and see what type of injury he has.

Additionally, the Bears lost linebacker Jack Sanborn. Sanborn had been flourishing since Chicago traded Roquan Smith at the trade deadline. The undrafted rookie recorded 54 tackles in his last five games. He added five before exiting the game.

Fields again displayed some of his magic once again. His six-game streak of rushing for a touchdown was snapped but only because he stepped out of bounds on a beautiful run.

He dropped back and looked like he would get sacked on three different occasions. He broke loose and ran down the sideline. He got into the end zone but stepped out of bounds at the Eagles’ nine.

Fields finished the game 14/21 for 152 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added 95 yards on the ground. The rushing yards got him to 1,000 for the season. He became just the third quarterback to do that. He has a good chance of reaching Lamar Jackson‘s NFL record of 1,206 yards.

Many experts expected the Philadelphia defensive front to dominate Chicago’s offensive line. The Bears already had some linemen out because of injuries and then losing Jenkins early on made things worse.

What they expected was exactly what happened. The Eagles, who could send up to 12 defensive linemen at an opponent, dominated in the trenches. They had six sacks for 61 yards in the game. However, the line did a better job in the second half, giving up just one sack.

The lack of a pass rush again hurt the Bears. They recorded just one sack. Hurts had all day to throw and found receivers. His accuracy was just phenomenal. He made throws where only the Eagles receivers could go out and make the plays, and they did.

Despite getting a good performance by the secondary, Hurts still finished 22/37 for 315 yards. The Bears were able to keep his passes out of the end zone and they got those two interceptions. However, Hurts had 61 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground.

Another frustration for the Bears was Cairo Santos. After the Bears scored their first touchdown, he missed the extra point. It was his fifth miss on extra point attempts. Previously, he missed just two in the last three seasons.

Additionally, he didn’t feel he could make a 49-yard field goal attempt with the wind going at his face. Instead of attempting the field goal, the Bears took a delay of game penalty and then elected to punt the ball.

Santos is normally dependable. With kickers, though, they sometimes lost it quickly. The Bears might just bring in some competition for him next offseason. He will have to earn his position again.

The loss puts the Bears solidly in the top three picks of the 2023 NFL Draft. They are tied with the Denver Broncos but with the strength of schedule, the Bears are ahead of Denver (whose pick actually goes to the Seattle Seahawks due to the Russell Wilson trade).

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Bears. They face the Buffalo Bills next week. Then they face a Detroit Lions team that is on a roll and finished the season against the Minnesota Vikings. Let’s see if the Broncos win a game down the stretch because it looks like, despite playing hard, the Chicago Bears likely won’t.