Heading into Week 3's edition of Monday Night Football, the stars were lining up for a certified trap game for the Philadelphia Eagles.
After watching one of the weirder weekends of NFL football fans will remember, from Marcus Mariota ending the Seattle Seahawks' losing streak to the Las Vegas Raiders starting the season 3-0, to the New England Patriots looking like the worst team in the AFC East in a brutal beating by the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Eagles found themselves facing a QB3 with seemingly the entire world betting on them to win.
Unfortunately, faced with a task unlike any he's faced as a professional play-caller thus far, Ben Johnson seemingly made it his mission to secure the win in Chicago and pulled just about every trick out of his bag to get it done.
From play-action to trick plays, and an extensive opportunity to change play at the line, depending on what Vic Fangio showed, the Eagles quickly found themselves behind and struggled to get back into things for one reason or another. Jalen Hurts was knocked out of action by a late hit on the sidelines, leaving Andy Dalton to run a red zone drill that ended in an interception, made up for it with a buzzer-beater tush push but just never got comfortable in the pocket during the second half, and was routinely chased around without the ability to fully go through his reads.
And on the defensive side of the ball? Well, the Eagles might have actually been worse, with Fangio's unit doing a good job of slowing down the run – allowing just 3.7 yards per carry – but getting absolutely cooked through the air to the tune of 247 yards and two touchdowns. Riq Woolen looked human for the first time in his Eagles career, especially on a very ineffective corner blitz attempt, and the team's safeties let them down over and over again, from tackling issues to coverage lapses, to one particularly egregious holding penalty by Andrew Mukuba that played a sizeable role in the final score.
After surviving for two weeks in a row with less than their best stuff thanks to some incredible drives by Hurts against non-playoff-caliber opponents, the Eagles faced off against a Bears team down their top-2 quarterbacks and still looked like the worse team, in large part because of their inability to match personnel with scheme.
The Eagles still can't run the ball… or attack the middle of the field
On paper, the Eagles' rushing attack was actually better than the Bears' on Monday Night Football, averaging more yards per carry, 5.6 versus 3.7, while having two runs – a 17-yarder by Barkley and a 20-yard run by Hurts – that outearned any by Chicago.
But in the second half? Against a Bears team that has allowed an average of 122 rushing yards per game so far this season? The Eagles called just six runs for 33 yards, 20 of which came on the aforementioned Hurts scramble.
Arguably the most consistent part of the Eagles' offense since Nick Sirianni came to town, right up there with throwing out routes and screen passes that go nowhere, the run game has been Philadelphia's bread and butter ever since Doug Pederson was handed his walking papers, with everyone from Miles Sanders to D'Andre Swift and now Barkley earning at least 1,000 yards from scrimmage as RB1. Being unable to pick up easy chunk yards on the ground, especially with this new, outside-zone-centric Sean Mannion rushing attack, has allowed teams to blitz more and blanket the outside hash marks with defenders, knowing they won't be gashed up the middle by a 20-yard dagger.
This wouldn't be a disaster if Hurts was okay with throwing across the middle of the field, but unfortunately, that remains an issue, even if he's had some success doing so in 2026. On Monday Night Football, Hurts connected on a pass to Dontayvion Wicks that would have been a touchdown had he played the ball better – it was instead bobbled on the catch and ruled a drop – and an early pass to Makai Lemon led to a positive play too, even if Mannion never went back to it.
Right now, the Eagles are surviving on a diet of 50-50 balls down the field, out routes for six yards, and the occasional 15-yard Hurts run on third down to get new yardage, plus a tush push cherry on top. While that strategy worked against the Washington Commanders and Tennessee Titans, a Williams-less Bears proved that won't fly against a playoff-caliber squad.
The Eagles have some tough questions to ask at safety and linebacker
While Mukuba's fourth-quarter penalty will unquestionably get the most play on social media, there were about a dozen other defensive faux pas where Keenum was able to pick apart the Birds' defense in zone or man because someone didn't quite pick up their end of the bargain.
From Marcus Epps's missed tackles to Jihaad Campbell, who was praised frequently as a rookie for his coverage skills, consistently struggling to execute his assignment, Mukuba's lowlight play was a symptom of a larger issue as the Eagles look to replace long-term starters like Nakobe Dean and Reed Blankenship with younger, cheaper options.
And the worst part? The Eagles' lack of a consistent pass rush is only making that worse, which isn't great, considering they now have three pass rushers on 10-figure-per-year contracts.
Maybe the Eagles thought that, between their strong front five and their elite trio of cornerbacks, they'd be able to have Zack Baun and friend hold things down in the middle of the field. But when a quarterback who hasn't played in over 1,000 days can pick apart one of the premier defenses in football without having to worry about being hit or picked off, it's clear there are a few shorts in the Eagles' defensive circuit that are preventing it from working as expected. While giving Jeremiah Trotter Jr. some – or even all – of the snaps at linebacker next to Baun could help to fix one of those issues, it's clear the Eagles' only truly talented safety spends most of the game in the slot, and Howie Roseman may have to remedy that with a trade for a starting-caliber option – maybe even Blankenship, who is struggling in Houston – before the deadline.