Sloppy Football

The Eagles made clutch plays in their win over the Bears. But they also made a lot of mistakes. They were able to get away with that in Chicago, but must play smarter football from here on out if they want to keep advancing.

Let’s take a look at some of the problems.

Offside on punt return – LaRoy Reynolds was called offside on a Bears punt. Not a big deal, just five yards right? Wrong. The ball had gone into the endzone, meaning the Eagles would get the ball at the 20-yard line. The Bears punted again and this was downed at the 1.

Ugh.

The Bears had the top defense in the league. This was one team you didn’t want to be backed up against. The Eagles went 3 and out. The defense then got a 3 & out of their own. The ensuing punt also pinned the Eagles deep.

Field position is critical in a defensive struggle. Jumping offside to rush a punt is just dumb.

Not fielding a punt – Darren Sproles didn’t help matters when he failed to catch a punt. I’m not sure if he lost it in the lights or what, but he hesitated and then just let it hit. That cost the Eagles about 10 yards.

Catch the friggin’ ball – I’m not going to complain about receivers dropping passes or DBs not making spectacular sideline grabs. But Tre Sullivan had a ball thrown right to him in the endzone. He dropped it. The Bears got a FG on that drive.

Sullivan’s drop could have been the difference in the game. When QBs make a mistake and throw the ball right to you, catch it. You must make them pay.

Don’t throw it to them –  Nick Foles has been great recently, but he threw a couple of bad picks. The first was a short pass to Wendell Smallwood. Bears LB Roquan Smith read the route and went for the ball. Smallwood was trying to catch it when Smith stole the ball away. Foles needed to put the ball more to the outside, away from the LB.

The second pick was just terrible. Foles got pressure and rolled right. Instead of throwing the ball away, he forced it into heavy coverage in the endzone. There was one Eagle and half the Bears.

To make matters worse, both picks came in scoring territory. You can’t give away points against a team like the Bears.

Don’t be an idiot – Michael Bennett has been terrific for the Eagles this year. He is very disruptive and has made some big plays. He made a costly mistake on Sunday. The Eagles had gotten a third down stop when Bennett got baited by an OL. They got into a shoving match and Bennett is the one who got called for the penalty.

Ugh.

I was screaming at the TV “That is so Seattle.” The Seahawks were undisciplined and always seemed to be in dumb little shoving matches. Bennett hasn’t done that stuff in Philly. Until Sunday.

The penalty kept a drive alive and it ended up with a Chicago FG. Three-point mistake.

Gotta get ’em – Daeshon Hall had a chance to tackle Tarik Cohen on the KOR at the end of the game. Great effort by Hall, but Cohen got away. That almost turned out to be a crushing mistake.

The brick wall – Doug Pederson called too many run plays. The Eagles weren’t getting any movement in the run game. Akiem Hicks and Eddie Goldman were a brick wall. You don’t want to give up the run completely, but Pederson admitted he probably should have run less on first downs.

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I’m sure some of you have questions about coverage mistakes. It can be tough to know who to blame on some of those.

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The Eagles were too sloppy, but they still found a way to win. That says a lot about this team.

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