2025 Game Review – CHI 24, PHI 15

The Eagles were coming off a loss. They were playing a team that was missing their top three linebackers. The Eagles were at home. This was a very winnable game. This was a game that needed to be won.

CHI 24
PHI 15

Ugh.

This loss doesn’t mean gloom and doom, but it sure didn’t do anything to relax the natives. Fans wanted Nick Sirianni fired and Kevin Patullo waterboarded. Or the other way around. As long as there was suffering.

What this loss does mean is that the Eagles need some help to get the top seed and the NFC East remains an open race. The Eagles had a chance to help themselves and instead they helped the Bears and Cowboys. This is the season of giving, but I’d have preferred Sirianni and his guys to be selfish. No socks for grandma, but a win for the Birds.

Chicago came into the game with the #2 rushing offense in the league. I hoped that Vic Fangio would have good solutions for shutting them down. That did not happen. The Eagles barely slowed them down. Chicago ran for 281 yards. A lot of this was due to smart designs that stressed the Eagles defense (are you paying attention Sirianni/Patullo/Stoutland?). Cutback runs killed the Eagles all game long.

The defense made enough timely plays that the score heading into the fourth quarter was just 10-9. The offense did not do their part to help the situation, turning the ball over when they had a chance to take the lead. The offense had too many short drives and the defense finally broke in the fourth quarter and that allowed the Bears to build a multi-possession lead.

If a handful of plays went differently, the Eagles could have easily won this game. Unfortunately those plays went the wrong way and the team lost. This isn’t the time of year to play sloppy football. Especially not against good teams, and the Bears are a good team.

If you saw the Bears locker room after the game, I think that is another indicator of how tough this season is. Chicago celebrated like they won the Super Bowl. Dallas was the same way the week before. Teams use the Eagles as a measuring stick. Beating them means something. Teams are doing whatever it takes to beat the Eagles. I’m not sure if the Eagles fully grasp that. They might logically understand it, but I don’t know if they understand it in practical terms. They haven’t been playing with the same intensity as the opponents over the past two weeks.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni was at home on a short week. He was going up against a rookie coach and a second year QB. Which team looked better prepared? Which team played better? This was just one game, but it wasn’t a great look for Sirianni.

He challenged a first down call and got that overturned. That came on a fourth down and gave the ball back to the Eagles. There weren’t any fourth down attempts in this game. Think how crazy that is. Sirianni went for 2 while down 24-15. Analytics people said this was 100 percent the right call. I didn’t like it. The Eagles didn’t convert the attempt and were down 2 possessions with 3 minutes left. That is tough. It also took pressure off the Bears. If you kick the extra point and go down 8, that’s a one-possession game and it puts more pressure on them.

Kevin Patullo had some good sequences, but the overall plan was disappointing. The Bears were missing their LBs and it didn’t feel like the Eagles were able to take advantage of that. If you watch the 2-point try, the players are doing different things. Some seemed to think it was a run, others a pass. The offense sure didn’t look coordinated.

Vic Fangio said he didn’t do a good enough job of preparing his guys for the Bears rushing attack. They did seem to be caught off guard by all the cutback runs. Chicago had gaping holes to run through.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts didn’t have his best game. Hurts threw a bad INT. He forced a ball into traffic. Hurts fumbled on the Tush Push with the offense in scoring position and just down 10-9. That was a killer moment. Hurts had DeVonta open for a TD and missed him. Turns out Hurts thought DeVonta would stop so it was miscommunication. I just don’t know why you’d want him to stop on that route in that situation.

Hurts made a terrific throw to AJ for a TD. He had a good throw to DeVonta for a gain of 30. Good touch on that. He had some good short/intermediate throws to AJ. Hurts had a good run on the team’s first TD drive.

Saquon was 13-56 as a runner. I don’t think they used him enough.

AJ was 10-132-1 and played mostly well. He did have a couple of penalties. The OPI call was questionable. We see receivers push off all the time. This didn’t seem to be excessive. DeVonta finished 5-48.

If you wanted to summarize this game in one play…Goedert and Calcaterra doubled a DE on a run play to their side. The DE shed the “blocks” and made the tackle. Ugh.

The OL was inconsistent. Hurts wasn’t sacked. He was only hit once. But the OL still was sloppier than you would like. This was another erratic game from Fred Johnson. His pad level was too high and he was slow off the ball at times.

DEFENSE

This is complicated. The defense gave up 281 rushing yards, but only 24 points. They were on the field for 85 plays. They did everything possible to keep the game close, but couldn’t do that for four quarters.

Byron Young made a fourth down stop on the initial drive. He had some good moments. Jalen Carter got a sack and had a TFL. There were too many plays when he guessed and got into the wrong gaps. He did have 2 pass deflections. Jordan Davis had 9 tackles and a couple of splash plays, but the Bears ran away from him a lot.

Jalyx Hunt had a good game. He had 3 tackles, 2 QB hits and an impressive INT.

The Eagles lost but I don’t want to lose sight of Jalyx Hunt’s impressive performance.

Hunt recorded four total pressures, including two quarterback hits in Week 13.

Hunt also pulled off an impressive interception that the offense couldn’t capitalize on. pic.twitter.com/iRWJLqDy3c

— Anthony DiBona (@DiBonaNFL) November 30, 2025

Jaelan Phillips flashed a few times. He deflected a pass. He used a hard inside move to get quick pressure on Williams and force an incompletion. Nolan Smith got the pressure that led to Carter’s sack. He had a couple of QB hits and battled blockers in the run game.

The Eagles LBs stunk. I love Zack Baun, but he had a bad game. He was credited with 8 tackles, but he really struggled against the run. He shot gaps and got out of position. He ran around blocks and got out of position. It wasn’t pretty. Nakobe Dean is supposed to be the run stuffer, but he struggled as well. Dean was credited with 12 tackles, but the tape wasn’t pretty for him either. Give Ben Johnson credit. He used formations and motion to get the defense into some bad looks and the RBs then took advantage.

Reed Blankenship made a bunch of tackles, but couldn’t make key plays. Chicago’s rookie TE got the best of him a few times. Sydney Brown struggled. He was beaten badly in the end zone twice, but both passes were wildly off target. They should have been easy TDs. Brown was inconsistent against the run.

Caleb Williams was only 17-36 as a passer so the CBs weren’t tested too much. WRs only caught 10 of those passes. Adoree Jackson had good coverage on one play where I thought he got a hand on the pass, but didn’t get credit for a PD. He made several tackles against the run. Cooper and Q were good in coverage.

ST

Jake Elliott missed an XP that caused problems. It forced the Eagles to go for 2 and kept it from being a one-possession game. He missed a FG at the end of the game. That would have made it close, but with only seconds left.

Braden Mann had a solid game.

The coverage units were good. Britain Covey made his debut. He looked a bit rusty on the first punt return, but wind may have made that harder than normal.

_