PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles are 8–4, but they hardly feel like a contender right now.
After a bleak, 24-15 Black Friday loss to the Chicago Bears at Lincoln Financial Field, the Birds are facing a reality they hadn’t confronted all season: a once-promising playoff position is slipping, and the problems holding them back are no longer isolated.
They’re structural — starting with an offense that can’t find answers and a once-formidable defense that just got bullied.
“We’re evaluating everything,” Sirianni said Monday. “You don’t have as much time as you have in a normal bye week, but it’s a mini-bye. We’ll think about some different things that we want to do, all over the place — scheme, everything. But I don’t think it benefits us for me to share, in particular, what that is.
“Just know this, we want to get this thing fixed more than anybody. We live it, breathe it, have been involved in it every waking second of our lives. So that’s what we’re working on right now.”
Friday’s loss crystallized all of it. Chicago dictated the game physically, piling up 281 rushing yards — the most the Eagles have allowed in years — and controlling the ball for more than 39 minutes. The Bears ran 85 plays to the Eagles’ 51, doubling them in first downs and eliminating any real chance for Philly to get into rhythm.
“They were more physical than us,” tight end Dallas Goedert, who had just two catches for 27 yards, said about the Bears. “When that’s the case, nothing else matters. All 11 of us have to execute. All 11 of us have to want it. We’re not doing that consistently right now.
“You miss one assignment, the whole play changes. That’s where we’re hurting right now.”
After blowing a 21-point lead to the Dallas Cowboys in a short week a few days earlier, running back Saquon Barkley said the Cowboys “wanted it more.” And now Goedert is saying the Eagles “have to want it.” There’s clearly something wrong that goes beyond offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who has been taking most of the fire.
Much of this is on the players. There seems to be a lack of motivation and maybe some fatigue after last season (at least for some of the team).
Of course, the offensive line has been decimated by injuries, which is huge. It’s one of the biggest factors. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. The offense has spent much of 2025 looking predictable, static and uninspired — not adjusting well to those injuries — and Friday was another step backward. The Bears repeatedly anticipated route concepts and early-down tendencies.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts finished with 230 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns, but the numbers masked an attack that again lacked creativity or sequencing. Philadelphia was just 4-of-12 on third down, went three-and-out four times, and managed only 87 rushing yards.
Hurts turned the ball over twice. If he hadn’t, the Birds might have eked out a win, as they’ve eked out other wins all season, but obviously the problems run deep. He didn’t sugarcoat it.
“We’re not playing clean football,” Hurts said. “We’re not consistent. We’re not efficient. We’re not sustaining anything. That’s on all of us — me included. It has to be better.”
Patullo remains the offensive play-caller, and coach Nick Sirianni reiterated Monday that no change is imminent. (Whether owner Jeffrey Lurie or GM Howie Roseman have anything to say about it is a different story.) But the frustration is clear inside the locker room.
“We show flashes,” Goedert said. “Everybody can see it. But we fall out of rhythm too easily, and that’s been happening too much. We have to string things together, and we’re not doing it.”
The problems, as mentioned, extend far beyond the offense. Philadelphia’s defensive front — long a major component of the team’s identity — was repeatedly knocked backward by a Bears line that controlled the point of attack from the opening series. Missed tackles, late fits and poor communication allowed Chicago to churn out physical, chunk runs using zone schemes and gap counters.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams didn’t need to do much — he threw for 154 yards — because Chicago took the game out of his hands with the running back tandem of Kyle Monangai and former Eagle D’Andre Swift, a St. Joseph’s Prep grad. By the fourth quarter, the Eagles were visibly worn down.
“They ran the ball at will,” defensive tackle Jordan Davis said. “We have a standard up front. We didn’t meet it. That’s the truth.”
The timing of the loss is particularly damaging. As the season has marched on, the Eagles have gotten worse, not better.
Philadelphia, once firmly in possession of the No. 1 seed in the NFC, has dropped two straight games and now sits behind the Bears and the Rams. And Dallas (6-5-1) has surged back into the NFC East race by winning three in a row.
With five games remaining in the regular season, the Eagles are moving in the wrong direction. The next test is Monday night against the Chargers (8-4) in L.A. After that, it’s the Raiders, division-rival Washington, Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills and the Commanders again.
Friday’s loss wasn’t just a setback — it was a warning. How the Eagles respond will determine how long their season lasts.
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Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc for the latest updates.
Source: Berkshire mont