The Philadelphia Eagles had represented the NFC in two of the past three Super Bowls. The Chicago Bears hadn’t had a winning season since 2018.
But the teams met at division leaders on Friday with identical 8-3 records. And after the Bears extended their winning streak to five games with a 24-15 victory, the Eagles faced the same questions they had after the previous three games, variations on the theme of: What’s wrong with the offense?
The responses after the loss to Chicago sounded much like the press conferences following wins over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions and Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
“I can’t point to one thing and say this is what it is,” Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “Ultimately, we just got to take advantage of our opportunities when they are there. There can be a ton of different opinions on what or why, but when the opportunity’s there, you have to strike, and we can’t let the things get us that have almost gotten us and they’re getting us now, so we have to definitely regroup and reassess and find ways to eliminate things that have held us back.”
The Eagles entered their open date in Week 9 off a 38-20 victory over the New York Giants on Oct. 26. In the four games since resuming its schedule, Philadelphia has averaged scoring 15.5 points per game but has gone 2-2 with the defense bailing out the offense in a 10-7 victory over Green Bay on Nov. 10 and a 16-9 victory over Detroit on Nov. 16.
When Eagles coach Kevin Sirianni said his staff would use the extra time before Philadelphia’s next game to evaluate “everything,” the focus at his postgame press conference narrowed to first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patulo.
“We’re not changing the play-caller,” Sirianni said. “… If I thought it was one thing, then you make those changes. Obviously, it’s a lot of different things. I don’t think it is Kevin. Now, we all have a part in it. Kevin has a part in it. I have a part in it. All the coaches have a part of it. All the players have a part in it. Again, you win and lose as a team. It’s never one thing.”
Hurts didn’t pin any blame on Patulo and turned the talk toward one of his pet subjects.
“I got confidence in him,” Hurts said. “I got confidence in this team, I got confidence in us when we’re collaborative. I got a lot of confidence when we have an identity, so I think that’s the first thing that we got to establish.”
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Despite the offense’s uneven performance and Chicago’s game total of 281 rushing yards, the third quarter presented an opportunity for Philadelphia to take control of the game.
When the Eagles took possession at their 8-yard line trailing 10-3 with 9:59 left in the third quarter, their offense had more three-and-outs than first downs and Hurts had completed 5-of-13 passes for 57 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
Five plays later, the Eagles were in the end zone on a 33-yard pass from Hurts to wide receiver AJ Brown after the quarterback had run for a 23-yard gain on the previous snap.
Jake Elliott missed the extra point that would have tied the game. But Philadelphia quickly regained possession when defensive end Jalyx Hunt intercepted a pass by Chicago QB Caleb Williams at the line of scrimmage to put the Eagles on the Bears 36-yard line.
On third-and-1 at the 12, the Tush Push failed Philadelphia as cornerback Nahshon Wright pulled the football away from Hurts.
“I can’t turn the ball over,” said Hurts, who did so twice on Friday. “That’s the ultimate goal is to go out there and find a way to win, and that’s been a direct correlation with success for us is being able to protect the ball. And so that really, really killed us.”
Chicago went on a 12-play, 87-yard touchdown drive and, after the Eagles’ fourth three-and-out of the game, an eight-play, 63-yard touchdown march to take a 15-point lead with 6:19 remaining.
Twelve straight passes by Hurts, including three consecutive third-down completions, ended with a 4-yard TD toss to Brown. But when the Philadelphia quarterback’s 2-point conversion pass went incomplete, the Eagles had a nine-point deficit with 3:10 remaining, and Philadelphia’s only remaining possession resulted in a missed field-goal attempt.
The former Alabama quarterback completed 19-of-34 passes for 230 yards with two touchdowns and one interception and ran four times for 31 yards. Hurts lost a 24-yard run in the fourth quarter to an offensive-holding penalty and a 12-yard completion to an offensive-pass-interference penalty.
“Obviously, we weren’t good enough as an offense as a whole, coaches, players, everything,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, we’ll go back and look at everything, but I thought he had some good plays, had some good scrambles, had some good things that he did. Just like all of us, he’ll have some plays he’ll want back, and he had some really good plays. But, again, we just weren’t consistent enough as a whole.”
In its next game, Philadelphia plays the Los Angeles Chargers at 7:15 p.m. CST Dec. 8 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, in the Week 14 Monday contest.
“We got to definitely stay together and stay committed to what the team is trying to accomplish in the end,” Hurts said. “No one ever said it was going to be easy. We’ve got to embrace the challenge. We’ve got to embrace this time and respond to it the right way.”
