Game Preview – CHI at PHI

There are two ways to look at Sunday. Here come the Bears, losers of three straight. Their coach and QB are under fire. Their offense is bad. They just lost another game due to a missed field goal. And they’re coming to play the Eagles who are home for the first time in almost a month. Easy win for the Birds.

Or…the Bears are desperate. Their season is on the line. All the outside scrutiny will bring them closer together and help them to play with a real sense of urgency. The Bears are 2-1 on the road and playing away from Chicago might actually be the best thing for them. Be scared, be very scared.

Desperate teams do make me nervous. That said, Mitchell Trubisky is still their QB.

The Bears are 29th in the NFL in yards gained. They have only scored more than 21 points in a game twice all season, and both games involved non-offensive TDs. This team really struggles to move the ball and score points.

RB Tarik Cohen was a really dangerous weapon the last couple of years. In 2018, he averaged 4.5 yards per rush and more than 10 yards per catch. He scored 8 offensive TDs. This year Cohen has 24 carries for 56 yards. That’s nuts. A guy with his talent has no business with 56 yards in November. I don’t know what is going on. Cohen is still dangerous as a receiver, but he’s not making as many big plays in the passing game. Miles Sanders is having a much better year. Maybe Jordan Howard is the key. Whoever he plays with thrives.

Rookie David Montgomery did run for 135 last week. The problem is that he did that against a Chargers team that struggles to stop the run. Chicago should struggle to run the ball on the Eagles defense. That means Trubisky has to make plays.

Trubisky had 5 TD passes this year. He averages 5.4 yards per pass attempt. The Bears play small ball and aren’t even all that great at it. They are 26th in the league at converting on third downs.

Expect the Eagles to load up the line of scrimmage and dare them to throw it. This could be a very similar gameplan to last week, with one big difference. Trubisky has only run for 31 yards this year. If the Eagles can get pressure on him, they should have a much easier time getting him to the ground. Josh Allen is huge, strong and very athletic. Trubisky isn’t exactly a statue, but he’s no Allen.

Chicago used double-moves effectively last year in the playoff game. I can easily see them trying more of those this year.

The Bears will try to feed the ball to Montgomery. The rookie is tough as nails and is very tough to tackle. Eagles defenders must rally to the ball and gang-tackle. If they go after him 1-on-1, there will be some missed tackles.

The Bears can study tape of the Eagles young DTs. It will be interesting to see if they found anything to attack. With Bruce Hector not added to the roster this week, it feels like Tim Jernigan is going to play. Or the Eagles have something interesting up their sleeve.

We’ll get to see the debut of DE Genard Avery. My official prediction, 8 sacks…the new NFL record.

The Eagles offense and Bears defense are more evenly matched, but the Bears are the better unit. They have only allowed two opponents to score more than 17 points in a game this year. Check out this crazy stat.

(I checked, double-checked and triple-checked this and I am still not sure I believe it . . . )

>>> The Bears have not allowed a touchdown from outside the Red Zone in their last 11 games (including the playoff loss to the Eagles last season) . . .

— Bob Vetrone Jr. (@BoopStats) November 2, 2019

Wow. That is amazing.

Andre Dillard will make another start at LT. It will be interesting to see if the Bears move Khalil Mack to his size to try to take advantage of the rookie. Doug Pederson will have help built into the gameplan so that Dillard isn’t out there all alone all game long. There will be double-teams. Chips by RBs and TEs. Maybe even WRs. There will be screens and draws.

The Eagles expect to get DeSean Jackson back so that will offer a boost to the passing game. Carson Wentz will need good protection so he has time to get the ball to his weapon. It also gives the Eagles a chance to score a long TD. They got two of them in the opener.

This would be an ideal week to get off to a fast start. The Bears aren’t great at playing from behind. I think you can also mess with their heads. If they get down 10-0 or 14-0, they could start pressing and making mistakes. The Eagles aren’t known for fast starts so I don’t know how likely this is.

It will be interesting to see how both teams respond to Sunday’s opportunity. The Eagles want to build momentum. The Bears want to save their season. One of the teams is going to take advantage of the opportunity. The other will be under .500 and hurtin’ for certain.

If the Eagles are a good team, this is the kind of game they should win.

If…

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