The Eagles entered the game against the Bears as the more dominant team but early on that was not the case. The Bears dominated the time of possession in the first half as the Eagles’ defense struggled to contain Justin Fields early on. It wasn’t until Haason Reddick channeled his inner beast and became Fields’ kryptonite for most of the game. Still, though, that didn’t stop Fields completely as he continued to break off big run after big run against the birds.
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles’ offense struggled to find a rhythm. Jalen Hurts threw two picks against the Bears’ defense as it seemed he and the receivers were just completely off. The offense continued to struggle even after taking a 17-6 lead. After that score, the Eagles failed to score multiple times as they went 4 and out on one drive and had a Jake Elliot missed field goal on the other.
Leading the way for the Eagles were DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown. Smitty finished the game with 126 receiving yards on 5 receptions while his counterpart, A.J. Brown, finished with 9 receptions for 181 receiving yards. Jalen Hurts did his best to help the offense out of the quicksand that they were stuck in as he scored the only rushing touchdowns of the game for the Eagles.
Hurts finished the game with 17 carries and 61 rushing yards along with those three rushing touchdowns. He turned to pass heavily toward A.J. Brown as they continued to draw plays for the star receiver on short routes. Once again on the season, Hurts finished the game with 300+ passing yards but unfortunately, he ended up with no passing touchdowns. The odd part of the Eagles’ game plan was the lack of usage of Miles Sanders. Sanders only had 8 carries for 36 yards after having back-to-back weeks with more than 100+ yards rushing yards.
Eagles defenders making history…
On a brighter note, the Eagles’ defensive line used Fields’ ability against him as they tallied 6 sacks against the Bears. Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, and Javon Hargrave each had two sacks during this game. With those sacks, Hargrave now has 10+ sacks on the season. The Eagles now have two players with 10+ sacks for the first time since 2011. While the game was a bit of an odd ending for the first-place Eagles, the fact of the matter is that they were able to win a game on a day when things were not going their way at all.
The Eagles will now face the second-place Dallas Cowboys on Christmas Eve in hopes of locking up the NFC East Division title. The team is coming off a 25-20 victory over the Bears as they are now 13-1 on the season but they will have plenty of lessons learned to carry with them in what could be the game of the year.
Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire
