The Philadelphia Perspective of Chicago Bears vs Eagles

The Philadelphia Perspective of Chicago Bears vs Eagles

What’s up, Fran? Uh, what’s up, guys? Yes, you are a draft expert, but you’re also a PHLY guy, so we figured that we would just get a little ahead of the Eagles game here, even though Hogan John’s will have their preview and all that stuff. We’re killing two birds with one stone. Ding ding. Turkey and Eagle. Although, I I just I mean, we don’t have to get into it, but the anti-Thanksgiving take brags. I don’t I don’t know. I don’t I don’t know how I feel about it. Well, you don’t have to feel anyway. What you have to feel is the pain on Friday. Well, let let’s let’s start with in a gambling way here. Shout out to our friends at Bet 365. The line is seven, Fran. Do you think that’s right? I was a little surprised when I saw it was that big. Uh, you know, I think that, you know, there’s a few things at play there. Uh, I think that certainly with the way that the the Eagles offensively have played over the last three games since their by-week, uh, does not give a lot of confidence that they would be able to put up more than a touchdown lead on anybody. They jumped out early on Dallas. Um, but this is a team that has had a three-andout rate at like the it’s like legendary rate like the the most three and outs uh of any offense in the last like decade plus two almost two decades now at this point. So, uh, this is a team that just goes through stretches of such offensive futility, which you would not expect for the highest paid offense in football. You you look at all the investment that they’ve put into the offensive line, the receiver position, Dallas, Saquon Barkley, Jaylen Herz, like all these guys are super high paid. Injuries have played a part. Uh, inconsistencies have played a part. You have new coaching st, you know, some new coaches there on the staff. So, uh, there’s, you know, some some wiggle room for inconsistency, but, uh, to me, what we’ve seen from this offense certainly has not been up to par. So, Karm, yeah, like I was surprised that that number was as high. Uh, now that said, you know, we know that also like the the the Bears have won a bunch of close games and so some people look at that a certain kind of way and say like, well, the Eagles have been the same way like the Eagles have been really good in one-score games as well. So, uh, yeah, I was surprised the number was that big. How did the, you know, having not really had the opportunity to watch the game with the coverage we were doing with the Bears, how how did the Eagles fare without Lane Johnson? That that’s obviously a big hit for their offensive line. Yeah, I think when you look at Fred Johnson, he is he’s like, you know, really big, like powerful offensive lineman in terms of like his height, weight, speed. He’s really tall. He’s thick, but he’s actually he’s better in pass protection than he is in the run game. Uh, I think they when you look at his his struggles with pad level, playing with good leverage, uh, and they they felt that in this game. I mean, Saquon Barkley, he had nine car, he had what goes down in this in the box score is 10 carries, but one of them was a backward pass, a backward screen pass. So, it was nine carries for 20 yards in this game. It was the the worst performance in an Eagles uniform. And when go back and you watch those runs, three or four of them were because Fred Johnson missed a block at the point of attack. And so, I think that that’s an area certainly where they will want some better play out of Fred Johnson. in pass protection, he holds up fairly well. He did get flagged once for an illegal hands to the face, but I think that when you look at him, they feel that Lane Johnson lost more in the run game certainly than in the past game. All right. We’ll spill the tea then because we have been hearing a at least I’ve seen a lot of clips here over the last few weeks whether it’s Deshawn Jackson talking or you’ve got some people that are real close to the organization kind of speaking out about what they’re hearing behind the scenes because when you talk about the offensive struggles it seems to all roads being pointed towards something going on with Jaylen Herz and AJ Brown. So, kind of explain what’s going on here because I think as Bears fans trying to see if we can sneak a win, that kind of feels like where the the the door is kind of cracked with this Eagles team. These guys don’t seem to be getting along, at least from the outside perspective. What are you hearing? Yeah, I mean, these are guys that were best friends, you know, when when the Eagles traded for AJ Brown. I mean, he Jaylen Herz is the godfather of one of AJ’s children. these are guys that that had an established friendship before the trade was made. And you know, if you’re just looking at it from the human side of it, it is sad to see that it’s clearly not to that level. And I think that it’s been something that has been compounding over the last couple of years. Uh I don’t know like all the the reasons behind it, but clearly these guys, you know, are not not on the same page and it’s been something that has been festering over the last couple of years despite the success uh that they’ve had both as a team and then individually for both. Um, I think that the big thing that we’re seeing now and a lot of fans, you guys know how this goes, right? It’s a it’s a big media market. It’s the favorite team in the city. You know, there’s a there’s a lot of energy. There’s a lot of passion there. So, there’s arguments on both sides. And when you have some stretches of a lack of success, which is funny considering the Eagles were like the number one seed coming into this past week. Like there’s still this is still a team that has won a bunch of games. Uh there has been so much discord uh with the the dialogue around this team, you know, and AJ Brown has said stuff publicly. uh he has posted messages on social media. He has said stuff on, you know, videos with Twitch streamers, right? Like there’s at every turn it feels like every week it’s like there’s something oh there’s another thing for them to talk about. Um clearly like offensively and I I mentioned earlier though there there’s something missing with this offense. Pass game is not consistent. There’s no real identity. I think when you watch the Chicago Bears like you can watch that offense and know like this is what they want to major in. You know that they want to be super condensed formation. The run game is going to be a big part of it. They’re going to do a lot of play action. you’re going to see motions, it’s going to be a lot of structured plays. The screen game is going to be a part of it. That is not the case when you watch this Eagles offense. There is nothing that you can point to and say this is their bread and butter. So, when uh you know, when stuff hits the fan and they have a stretch where it’s like, oh, they went three and out two or three times in a row, that’s where you kind of scale everything back typically if you’re a coach and say, “All right, let’s go with old reliable. Let’s let’s get back to basics.” They don’t have basics. They don’t they don’t have anything that they can lean on and say, “In the past, that’s been the run game.” And the run game has not been as good this year. They’ve had uh you know Cam Jurgens has not the starting center has not been healthy all year. He’s been in and out of the lineup. Landon Dickerson started the year very very hurt still coming off of last year. Jordan Milada came into the year banged up. We know about Lane Johnson’s injury now. Uh Tyler Steen is the new right guard. He’s been average. He hasn’t been great. Hasn’t been terrible, but he’s been average. And he went from a Pro Bowl right guard in Mai Beckton to Tyler Steen. So the offensive line has fallen off. That has led to issues with Saquon Barkley. He’s getting hit behind the line of scrimmage at a much higher rate than he was a year ago. he’s had a lot less room to be able to operate. I think he’s pressing a little bit now trying to go big play hunting. So, I think all of these things are compounding on itself. The quarterback run game not a part of the offense. You you’re not seeing Jaylen Herz using the design run game at all. Uh they sprinkled it a little bit this past week against Dallas. I’ll be interested to see if they continue to do that here against the Bears. But when you look at all of it, you strip it all down, you say, what does this team do well on offense? You don’t have a good answer. And that’s a that’s a tough way to live in 2025. Well, let’s flip to the other side then because you know the Bears were at least rumoredly if you will were in on Seaquan got too rich. He ended up with the Eagles. They ended up signing DeAndre Swift. Numbers wise the Bears are number two in the NFL running the football week in and week out to this point. The Bears will be able to run on the Eagles this week. What do you think? You know, I think that it’s a it’s an Eagles defense that has really kind of come to life over the last few weeks and for a number of different reasons. Obviously, they trade for Jaylen Phillips and I think that has certainly helped that defensive front, but it’s not just the Phillips edition. It’s also the fact that Nolan Smith came back from injury. They brought back Brandon Graham outside of retirement. Uh, you know, guys are getting that Nico Dean came back into the lineup and Nico Dean is playing at a very high level at the linebacker spot. So, getting all of those guys literally at the same time off the by-eek, I think that that has really kind of transformed this unit. Uh, you know, they’ve done an outstanding job. While the offense has been, you know, tanking the last three weeks, the the defense continues to to really really shine. And so, uh, any of the the run game stuff, when you look at like their numbers and some of the issues they had early in the year, I don’t know that you can necessarily apply it just to this game. I I think when I when I’ve watched the Bears on film over the last few days, going back to last week, and I’ve been watching, keeping an eye on uh over the course of the year, so much of it is perimeter. Like, let’s get DeAndre Swift out into space. Let’s to me like the the Eagles, it’s going to be really important for them to set really strong firm edges and with Jay Hunt in as a starting outside linebacker with, you know, Jiad Campbell sometimes flexing flexing into that spot. Uh, you know, now you’ve got Jaylen Phillips who has been really forceful on the edge and Nolan Smith, guys, that’s one of his best attributes. He is so violent at setting these edges and not letting runs get outside of him. That’s going to be so so important in this game. If they’re able to set those strong edges on the perimeter, you’re not letting DeAndre Swift get out the door. I I think that that would go a long way towards them being able to kind of limit put a cap on this run game. Well, it could could turn into the Swift revenge game. Will somebody put that in the chat there? You never know. Of course, he was an eagle before he became a bear after being a Lion. Go ahead. Certainly a strength versus strength situation it looks like there. Uh so we’ll see the war of attrition who wins that. But then when you look at the secondary for the Eagles, obviously Andrew Makuba is out for the year. Uh and then have you gotten any indication on if Blake Ship will be available on Friday? What’s this secondary looking like for the Eagles? Yeah, that that’s it’s a good question. And I think when you’re looking at it, uh yeah, Makuba OB obviously he’s out. Uh but I think when you’re looking at uh Blankenship, Odori Jackson left the game as well, the the starting outside corner, you know, what does that mean for the structure of the Eagles secondary? Cydney Brown came in uh in relief of Makuba and Cydney Brown struggled and Vic Fangio has shown time and time again that he he doesn’t really want to get Sydney Brown into the football game. And I think that that’s scenario where if with Makuba out if he has his brothers like I wonder if Cooper Deene ends up moving from slot to safety as long as Adori Jackson’s healthy and so that that puts Cooper Deene at safety. Michael Carter who they traded for at the deadline he becomes the new nickel and as long as Adori Jackson’s healthy like that’s I think that’s your your your core five. But it’s it could be possible hey we’re going to keep Dene in there and maybe we try Sydney Brown. He’s got a full week of practice. Let’s see how he handles being the guy. He’s just been such a volatile player and and you guys know Vic Fangio from when he was in Chicago. Like he doesn’t want guys that are inconsistent up and down. He wants guys that you know they’re are assignment sound that do their job that are where they need to be are really heady and really instinctive and you know and know their job. And so uh that that has not necessarily been Cydney Brown’s uh forte since he’s been here in Philly. So it’s going to be interesting to see how they ultimately play that in the coming days. Who do you like in that matchup, Ben and Caleb or the Eagles defense? and uh former Bear, one of my all-time favorites, Vic Fangio. Yeah, I I personally I I like Fangio in that one only because when I look at Caleb and and I’ve really loved watching him over the course of this season, obviously it hasn’t all been pretty, right? We know that he can spray. He’s going to have some of those misses, but uh to me, watching what Ben Johnson has been able to do just in year one of getting him to play within structure and really eliminate those negative plays, the sack avoidance has been really impressive. He’s cut down the interceptions. Uh he’s done such a nice job of cutting some of those plays down. And so, uh, the big thing when I’m watching Caleb is that, you know, the the average time to throw from like a when they’re forcing to hold on to the football, he holds on to the ball for a long time. And now he’s he’s done such a good job of avoiding those sacks. I don’t think this is a hey, let’s cut the dogs loose on him and let’s really pressure him. I think this is a let’s really change up the coverage looks and see if we can get him to to make some mistakes, turn down some throws, question what he’s seeing. I think it’s that kind of performance. And honestly, when I look at this Eagles team, that’s something they’ve been able to do at a high level. Now, are they able to do that without Reed Blanketship? Are they able to do that if you’re if you’ve got Cindy Brown and you’ve got, you know, Key Ringo in the game instead of Adori Jackson and you’re moving all these pieces around and Michael Carter’s only been on the team for three weeks. That’s going to be the big thing to me in this game is that secondary that Braggs asked about earlier. If they’re not able to execute those assignments and they’re not able to disguise it as well as you would like, what does that mean for the rest of the defense? That to me is the the biggest factor going into this one. I think you nailed it earlier with Jaylen Herz and if they’re going to do, you know, and and run, you know, run do designed runs and run the football outside of the pocket. I think that is something that the Eagles need to look at. If you look at the Bears against Tyler Huntley or Jackson Dart or earlier in the season when Jaden Daniels was healthy, they’ve struggled with a few of these quarterbacks. to flip it on the other side. Just looking at a few of the Eagles losses with Jackson Dart really giving the Eagles some problems running the football. Do you kind of see this as an opportunity? Like to me, if the Bears have any shot to win this game, Caleb Williams might have to take things into his own hands and get yards on his own account. Yeah, that that New York loss, you know, you saw a lot of missed tackles, you know, whether it was, you know, trying to get Dart down in the back field or whether it was guys out in the open field and Makuba was guilty of a couple of those. He’s missed some tackles, especially going back to the first half of the year. He’s been a lot more sound uh down the stretch over these last few games, but obviously he is out now moving forward. And so again, Sydney Brown over the course of his three years so far in Philly, he is a very like uh volatile player where he’s going to come down, he’s going to try and deliver a huge hit and he might come in and just fly by the ball carrier. Like Vicio does not like that. So how is he going to play to me? if he’s got a one- on-one shot, one-on-one shot against Caleb Williams in the hole or against DeAndre Swift in the hole, that’s going to be it’s those kinds of plays that could spell doom here for this Eagles defense. And so, uh, yeah, that that has been an issue in the past, but the to me like the tackling has been much much better over these last few weeks. And honestly, when you look at that defense last year on their Super Bowl run and they’re t they were one of the best tackling teams in

Fran Duffy of PHLY Eagles joins the CHGO Bears Podcast to preview the NFL Week 13 matchup between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. With both teams vying for the top spot in the NFC, who has the edge? Can the Eagles overcome injuries at Safety? Will AJ Brown be on the same page as Jalen Hurts as their chemistry comes into question? Or will Saquon Barkley be too much to handle in the run game?

#chicagobears #philadelphiaeagles #nfl #beardown