Eagles
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Well the Eagles lost in brutal fashion to the Bears 27-7. Turns out that Ben Johnson busted out the anarchist’s cookbook and put the ball into Case Keenum’s hands for most of the game. I would’ve been fine with this if you told me anytime before last night. Still we’re going to breakdown the game and some now-troubling trends that the Eagles are displaying. Also if you’ve been following, you know I promised to stick my finger in a mousetrap if they lost. That’ll be at the end don’t you sickos worry.
Last year the Eagles played the Bears and things looked different but also kind of the same. The Bears rushed for 281 yards last year. Last night, the Bears torched the Eagles through the air with 24 completions for 247 yards and two touchdowns. This came in the form of a lot of short passes. The Bears clearly had a game plan going into both games and executed much better than the Eagles. They also throughly embarrassed the Eagles in a prime time game, again.
Let’s look into the game itself. There’s a couple of specific plays that we’ll want to look at. The first is the most important and that was Sirianni’s refusal to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 49 yard line. Opting to try to get the defense to jump offsides isn’t wrong but I think you still call the timeout and take the risk with the sneak. The offense wasn’t fully stalled yet and continuing to move the chains would’ve provided a much needed win for them. Not only was Jalen Hurts, rightfully, upset going to the sidelines but the next drive the Eagles went for it on 4th and 5 only to fail.
This is an unbelievably large mistake by the Eagles to not go for a 4th and long 1 at the 49 down by 13 points.
One of the biggest win probability mistakes I can ever remember from Sirianni pic.twitter.com/jGyY0UhE7o
— Ryan Paganetti (@RyanPaganetti) September 29, 2026
The next play is specifically the Andy Dalton interception. Not only was this just a bad pass but he never should’ve been in that position to begin with. I get that he’s likely on the roster as trade-bait for a team when their quarterback goes down but I doubt he becomes a popular choice given that brief stint we saw him.
All that said, he never should’ve had the chance to throw that interception. Two negative run plays pushed the Eagles back when they should’ve just done a QB sneak or tush push. If your backup quarterback isn’t willing to sacrifice everything to score, I don’t want them as the backup. There’s also the idea of using a timeout to get Jalen back into the game. While it would’ve worked, I can’t imagine the NFL will like the idea of a team trying to rush the concussion protocols.
Next we’ll start to look at some trends the Eagles have been demonstrating so far. The most common one you’ll see is that the Eagles have zero turnovers in three games. For a team built around a strong defense, this is hard to justify. You could argue that turnovers require a bit of luck. If you do, you’re probably hoping the pendulum swings in the Eagles favor going forward. Still it’s a growing concerning trend with this team.
3 games. 0 takeaways.
It’s the first time the Eagles franchise has gone through its first 3 games of a season without a takeaway… and their franchise started in 1933 😱 pic.twitter.com/8iFLCvI3OL
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) September 29, 2026
The other trend is whatever is happening with the run game and screen plays. For the first half the Eagles ran the ball extremely well. Then the second half comes along and they have only four designed runs plays (six total but Hurts had two scrambles). Abandoning the run is a sure-fire way to get the fan base to start turning on you as a coordinator. To add onto that, calling screen plays that don’t work is right up there as well. I was excited to have Ertz back. That said, even in his prime he wasn’t a prolific blocker. So when you have him as the sole blocker to try and spring Makai Lemon, you’re going to have a bad time. Just in general, the screen plays either need to vastly improve or just give up on them.
Here’s every time the Eagles have miserably failed to run the Makai Lemon screen pass play this season. Will they make it 0/4 next week? pic.twitter.com/ONLQND2VGt
— Eagles Nation (@PHLEaglesNation) September 29, 2026
It’d be wrong to write this and not mention Hurts. Jalen did not have his best game. I don’t think he played horrendously, especially when you realize the run game was non-existent in the second half. Even the interception looked more like a good defensive play than like what Dalton threw directly to a defender. I’ll also end it with a positive before wrapping up. Hurts did have an awesome fire drill play to score with zero seconds left in the half. I do love the idea that he could execute in that situation.
At the end of the day I’m not going to metaphorically throw the baby out with the bath water. I still think this team has the talent to compete against any roster in the league. They just need a chance to put it all together. Also it was another weird week in the NFL. Every team that started a quarterback that wasn’t the same as the Week 1 starter won (6-0).
Teams who started their non-Week 1 QB this season are 6-0. 👏
That’s the most teams to win without their Week 1 starting QB through 3 weeks since the 1970 merger (excluding 1987). pic.twitter.com/TRH7Bszkch
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) September 29, 2026
Next week the Eagles will try and right the ship against the Rams. This will be a true test for the Eagles. The Rams have one of the best rosters in football and are 1-2 to start the season. You know they will be fighting hard to get that .500 record. That said I still like the Eagles chances. Now I don’t like them enough to hypothetically bet I’ll put my finger in a mouse trap but I am hopeful. Speaking of, bets made, punishments delivered.
Sources: Pro Football Reference, Eagles on Instagram, ESPN Insights on X, Eagles Nation on X, Pardon my Take on X, Ryan Paganetti on X, NFL on Instagram
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Hello, I’m a greater Philadelphia native writing mostly about the Eagles and the rest of the NFL. Articles aren’t … More about Kyle Lavin
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