After sleepwalking through the first two-and-a-half quarters of Friday’s game, the Eagles’ offense woke up. And the momentum swung fully in Philly’s direction after an interception on Chicago’s next drive.
Down 10-9, the Eagles had the ball at the Bears’ 36. A 15-yard gain from running back Saquon Barkley gave the home team first and 10 from the 21.
Two plays and nine yards later, the Eagles faced third and one. It was time to trot out the tush push. And the end result was a fumble that the Bears recovered.
“I was hoping that [forward progress] was stopped, but it wasn’t,” quarterback Jalen Hurts told reporters after the 24-15 game. “It was kind of similar to the New York game except that they just didn’t blow the whistle as soon. That’s not to point the finger at anyone else. I mean, I have to hold onto the ball. It definitely presents itself as an issue and it always has. It’s just never gotten us and so today it got us and it’s something that we and I need to tighten up.”
Does the tush push sometimes create issues with ball security?
“It’s been like that for a very long time,” Hurts said.
He then was asked whether defenses have figured out how to stop the Eagles’ signature play.
“It’s becoming tougher and tougher,” Hurt said. “But ultimately, me holding onto the ball, that’s something I can control.”
The fact that defenses are doing a better job of stopping the play could take some steam out of the seemingly inevitable renewed push to get it out of the game. If the Eagles make an early playoff exit, that could make a new assault on the play even less of a priority.
If, in the end, the effort to get rid of the tush push is abandoned, it will confirm the simple reality that it was never about safety or aesthetics or difficulty of officiating or anything but taking away from the Eagles something that no other team could stop or replicate.
Trailing the Bears by 15 with 3:10 to play on Friday, the Eagles scored a touchdown. They had a big decision to make.
Kick the extra point and go down by eight, or go for two and trail by seven (if successful) or nine (if not). The Eagles went for two, and they didn’t get it.
After the game, coach Nick Sirianni addressed the decision to go for two when he did.
“Obviously, we had to get one at one point,” Sirianni told reporters. “We had to get a two-point conversion at one point. I’ve done a lot of studies on that in my notes down nine. I’m always going to go for a two in that scenario, so I followed the plan that — again, I don’t try to wing anything in situational football. That’s what I wanted to do. That’s in my notes from my studies in the past, and that’s what we did.
“Now, the thought behind it is you want to know exactly what you need right there. If you go down seven, then obviously it’s a one-score game. If you go down eight, I know it’s a one-score game as well. That’s what we do in that scenario. I’ll always go back and look and reconsider things. Had three timeouts there to be able to potentially kick it deep there if we did get it. Obviously, we didn’t in that particular case, but at some point, you’re going to need it and I always want to know early what I need going forward.”
Another factor is the wind. Kicker Jake Elliott had already missed an extra point. The 33-year, one-point kick is never a gimme, especially on a blustery day.
Then there’s the possibility of going for two, getting it, scoring another touchdown, and going for two again, with the possibility of bypassing overtime.
The bigger issue than the decision was the play. Receiver A.J. Brown had just caught a touchdown pass, his second of the day. He was lined up wide to the right, with single coverage. The no-brainer move was to throw a fade to Brown and let him go get it.
That’s always the most important aspect of the two-point decision. If you go for it, you need to have a good play. A play that will work. On Friday, the play that was called and executed did not work.
The Bears ran for 281 yards in Friday’s win over the Eagles, and both of their running backs, with running back Kyle Monangai gaining 130 yards and D’Andre Swift gaining 125 yards. That doesn’t happen without great offensive line play.
Bears coach Ben Johnson made a point after the game of mentioning left tackle Ozzy Trapilo, left guard Joe Thuney, center Drew Dallman, right guard Jonah Jackson and right tackle Darnell Wright.
“It doesn’t happen without that offensive line,” Johnson said. “You can’t say enough about Ozzy and Joe and Drew Dallman, and Jonah and Darnell. Those guys, they were huge for us. Really proud of them.”
On a windy day in Philadelphia, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams completed just 17 of 36 passes for 154 yards, and Johnson said afterward that he should have stuck with the running game even more than he did.
“I look down and I see 36 attempts and I go, ‘Shoot, I probably called too many pass plays in this game,’ especially with how we were running it, so that’s an area that I can be better at,” Johnson said.
But in a cold and blustery game, the big guys upfront can make all the difference, and that’s what Johnson wanted to call attention to after the game: “I can’t say enough good things about our offensive line today.”
In Philly, it’s beginning to look a lot like 2023.
But Eagles coach Nick Sirianni isn’t panicking. Even if he arguably should be.
After Friday’s 24-15 loss to the Bears, Sirianni said he won’t be shifting the offensive playcalling duties away from coordinator Kevin Patullo.
“We’re not changing the playcaller,” Sirianni said, via Tim McManus of ESPN.com. “But we will evaluate everything. It’s never just about one person. You win as a team, you lose as a team and you try to evaluate everything, win, lose or draw, and get better from it.”
It’s hard to reconcile a vow to “evaluate everything” with a clear and firm decision to not change the playcaller. If everything is going to be evaluated, playcalling will be, too. And, as part of the evaluation, a change would be, in theory, possible.
It’s becoming more and more clear that something is broken. And with two straight losses after an 8-2 start, the season is taking on the same vibe as it had two years ago, when a 10-1 start melted into five of six losses and a one-and-done postseason exit.
Of course, changing the playcaller won’t matter if the issue is execution. In this regard, Derrick Gunn’s reporting from last week takes on specific relevance. If quarterback Jalen Hurts is freelancing, playcalling isn’t the issue.
Whatever it is, the Eagles have a problem. The boo birds were out in full force on Friday. They have a few extra days before the Week 14 Monday night game at the Chargers. After that, the Eagles have a date with the woeful Raiders, two games against the listless Commanders, and a showdown with the Bills looms. The Eagles should win at least three of the final five games.
The problem is, frankly, that the team that took the field on Friday doesn’t seem equipped to beat anyone.
Whether that changes at this point is up to the Eagles.
The Bears ran all over the Eagles in Friday’s 24-15 win and it’s been a long time since a Vic Fangio-coached defense has been pushed around like that.
Chicago piled up 281 rushing yards in the win, which Sheil Kapadia of TheRinger.com points out is the most that any team has put up against a Fangio defense since he was the coordinator in Houston during the 2005 season. Fangio has been the coordinator in Philadelphia since the start of the 2024 season and they had not allowed more than 174 in a single game until Friday.
Former Eagle D’Andre Swift ran 18 times for 125 yards and rookie Kyle Monangai had 22 carries for 130 yards. Both running backs also scored touchdowns in the game.
While most of the attention has been paid to the sputtering Eagles offense this season, that performance gives the Eagles something else to focus on as they head into a Week 14 Monday night road game against the Chargers.
