Can Birds Get Back Up?

PHILADELPHIA — Trudging through the wind swirling around the parking lots and drawing closer to Lincoln Financial Field, well before the Black Friday kickoff between the Eagles and Bears, the district sound of Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” blared in the distance from a nearby tailgate.

At the time, it felt a bit like foreshadowing, as everything leading up to the game suggested the 8-3 Eagles were poised to extinguish the 8-3 team on the opposing sideline in the upstart Bears.

But as the game established its personality, it was evident early that the Bears, under rookie head coach Ben Johnson, approached it with the intent of setting a physical tone.

The windy conditions certainly affected the passing game for both teams, but Johnson and the Chicago offense had a remedy that controlled the time of possession, staggering an Eagles defense that typically sets the temperature.

Leaning heavily on a healthy dose of misdirection, the Bears challenged the Eagles’ physicality with their backfield blend of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai. While it didn’t come with the household allure of the “Sonic and Knuckles” tandem of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs that they the Eagles had faced two weeks prior, Swift and Monangai had bested the other tandem’s game’s worth of production by halftime.

Can the Eagles pick up the pieces after getting demolished by the Bears’ rushing attack on Black Friday for their second straight loss?

For perspective, the Bears’ thunder and lightning backfield accounted for 255 yards and two touchdowns on 40 carries. Swift dazzled with elusiveness and acceleration while Monangai, a seventh-round rookie from Rutgers, showcased power and resilience running between the tackles. They wouldn’t back down.

The the outside zone and misdirection runs were perfectly executed behind an inspired performance from the Bears’ offensive line, forcing the defensive line to move laterally before getting them off-balance. They controlled the time of possession, 39:18 to 20:42, and kept an Eagles defense on the field for 87 snaps.

“I blame myself on that,” defensive tackle Jalen Carter said after the game. “It was some runs out there I got drove back, or I wasn’t making no affect on the play. They kind of started making an adjustment and started seeing who was playing on first and second down and then third down, and we just went from there.”

While Eagles’ defenders didn’t have an answer when it came to stopping the bleeding Friday afternoon, several were able to pinpoint sticking points after the game. For Carter, assessing his own play, he cited simply getting driven off the ball.

“You just gotta read with your eyes,” outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips explained. “That’s kind of the point with misdirection is to confuse you. And if your eyes aren’t good, they’re gonna catch you a step off . And good backs like that are gonna capitalize on that. So, I thought they did a good job and we didn’t do good enough.”

Carter also drew parallels to last year’s Week 2 matchup against the Falcons, when running backs Bijan Robinsin and Tyler Allgeier rushed for 97 and 53 yards, respectively. The third-year defensive tackle noted that the Bears’ center, Drew Dalman, played for the Falcons at the time, potentially aiding in their successful plan of attack.

“It kind of felt like the Atlanta game we played,” he said. “The center is from Atlanta — well, he played in Atlanta at the time — and he probably put in a word or two. Which, it felt like that when I was playing some of the runs.”

It’s atypical to see a Vic Fangio-led unit, one that prioritizes physicality and fundamentally sound football, get gashed in the run game and struggle to adjust. But much like a boxing match, the Bears continued to jab and remain on the attack before ultimately delivering the knockout blow.

Nothing they did was revolutionary, to be clear, but the game plan was well executed. And rather than veer away from it and work in other elements of their offense, the Bears not only committed to their throwback approach, they also proved they wouldn’t back down in that environment.

“I think that, schematically, improvements we need to work on when it comes to technique and playing certain schemes with a lot of stretch and cutbacks and different things like that,” Phillips said. “And so we just need to be fundamentally sound in our gaps.”

Across the board, on the heels of the 24-15 loss, defensive leaders were accountable and conveyed a unified message, vowing to rectify the issues that surfaced Friday. They’ll have more time than usual to process the loss and self-assess, but Carter perhaps put it best when it comes to getting back to work.

“When we come back in and we start that lift — that’s the first thing we gonna have is a lift — and just go in there and make sure everybody’s there on time,” he said, “everybody’s working and go out there and restart the week.”

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com