Just when it looked like the Eagles had grabbed the momentum in the third quarter on Friday afternoon, the bottom dropped out on them.
Edge rusher Jalyx Hunt intercepted Bears quarterback Caleb Williams a few plays after the Eagles cut the Bears’ lead to 10-9 on an A.J. Brown touchdown catch and the Eagles moved the ball inside the Chicago 15-yard line. They faced a third-and-1, which everyone in the NFL knows is tush push time and Bears cornerback Nashon Wright came up with a winning way to stop the play.
As Jalen Hurts was trying to grind his way to the first down, Wright stripped him of the ball and recovered the fumble. Bears rookie running back Kyle Monangai ran the ball for 73 yards on the ensuing drive, including a four-yard touchdown that pushed the Bears’ lead to 17-9.
Monangai has 17 carries for 121 yards and D’Andre Swift has 14 carries for 113 yards as the Eagles have failed to come up with the same kinds of answers to the Bears ground game that Wright came up with for the tush push.
The Eagles got out of their own way long enough to put the ball in the end zone in the third quarter of Friday’s game against the Bears, but they still trail their visitors from the NFC North.
Jalen Hurts hit A.J. Brown for a 33-yard touchdown that marked their first trip to the end zone in more than 78 minutes of game action. Kicker Jake Elliott missed the extra point, however, so the Bears still lead 10-9 with eight minutes to play in the third quarter.
Hurts and Brown also hooked up for a 16-yard gain earlier in the drive and Hurts had a 23-yard run to keep the chains moving. The Eagles also benefitted from a very late hit by Bears defensive lineman Gervon Dexter on Hurts after a pass.
The Eagles’ score came after Hurts was intercepted and the team went three-and-out on their first two possessions, but their defense held the Bears in check and the game can still swing Philly’s way if the offense can keep things moving.
The Eagles spent most of the first half of Friday’s game playing defense and they’re trailing the Bears as a result.
Chicago possessed the ball for 21 minutes and ran 47 offensive plays to just 17 for the Eagles. Running back D’Andre Swift ran for the first half’s only touchdown on one of those plays and the Bears lead 10-3 in Philadelphia.
Swift has 10 carries for 88 yards and rookie Kyle Monangai has chipped in with eight carries for 41 yards as Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s unit has had no answer for the Chicago rushing attack. Caleb Williams has been less effective through the air while going 10-of-23 for 83 yards, but the Eagles will have a hard time coming back if they continue to struggle to stop the Bears from moving the ball on the ground.
The Eagles offense did not score for the final 41 minutes of last Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys and they only mustered one field goal today, so it’s been over 71 minutes without a touchdown for the NFC East leaders. The home crowd serenaded the offense with boos multiple times in the first half, so it has been an unhappy day in Philly thus far.
The Bears have drawn first blood on Black Friday.
Running back D’Andre Swift plowed into the end zone from three yards out to give the Bears a 7-0 lead with 91 seconds left to play in the first quarter in Philadelphia.
Swift’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 78-yard drive for the visitors and the Bears also moved the ball well on the opening possession of the game. They ended that drive with no points after Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni successfully challenged the spot of the ball after a fourth down run by Kyle Monangai.
Monangai kicked off the touchdown drive with a 17-yard drive and has 38 rushing yards. Swift has six carries for 43 yards and the Eagles will try to get something going on their second possession.
The third Black Friday game on Prime Video features a new twist. It will stream globally without an Amazon Prime subscription.
Given that the league stuck the landing when picking the 8-3 Bears at the 8-3 Eagles, the game itself is inherently compelling, and the outcome will be consequential to the NFC playoff picture. Will this reality, coupled with the ability of anyone/everyone to watch it for free, set a new record for streaming?
The current mark was set last Christmas, when 24.3 million watched Ravens-Texans on Netflix. (Earlier that day, 24.1 million viewed Chiefs-Steelers.)
The Netflix game was not free. And, obviously, free matters.
That said, it didn’t matter much for the Week 1 Friday night game from Brazil. Chiefs-Chargers was a disappointment, even after someone put a thumb on the scale and pushed the total viewership from 17.3 million to 19.7 million.
That’s it? A a free, worldwide stream of a game featuring the Chiefs?
We’ll find out early next week whether today’s free game on Prime Video gets to 20 million and, more importantly, whether it gets past 24.3 million.
