The defense was supposed to carry the team until the offense was ready. Guess what. Turns out the defense isn’t ready either.
“We’ve just gotta be better in all of the aspects,” Jonathan Greenard said. “In the run game, pass game, everything.”
The Bears put a hurting on the Vic Fangio defense Monday night, and they did it with an emergency 38-year-old 3rd-string quarterback who hadn’t played a snap since 2023. Case Keenum threw more touchdown passes vs. the Eagles than he had since 2021, and the Bears humiliated the Eagles 27-7 at Soldier Field.
That’s the most points the Eagles have allowed in their last 15 games – since the 34-17 loss to the Giants last October – and the 5th-most points they’ve allowed in 42 games under Fangio.
“They had a hell of a game plan, came out the gate swinging,” Greenard said after his first game as an Eagle. “We just need to be on our P’s and Q’s. Obviously, the worst time to not be on your P’s and Q’s on Monday night, prior time, but here it is.
“We just got a lot of things to clean up. We got to get clean up in the rush game. Clean up as a whole, not just on defense, offense, like the whole team. We just got to clean it up. They were fired up, and we just got to be better, man”
Unlike last year, when the Bears ran up and down the field on the Eagles for nearly 300 yards, this time they shredded the Eagles with the passing game, despite starting 38-year Case Keenum, who had won four of 12 starts since 2019.
Keenum got rid of the ball quickly, threw accurately, spread the ball around and found the open man on nearly every snap. In his first appearance since 2023, he was 24-for-34 for 247 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
His 110.8 passer rating is his highest in seven years, since a 117.6 rating against the Eagles at the Linc in 2019 in a game the Eagles won 32-27.
The Eagles had no answers.
Bears coach and play caller Ben Johnson called a masterpiece against Fangio, mixing up the run and pass, changing up formations and personnel and keeping the Eagles’ defense off-balance with all kinds of motions and movement.
It seemed like the Bears’ offense was just moving at a faster speed than the Eagles’ defense. They played at a tempo the Eagles couldn’t keep up with.
“Get the ball out quick, stick to their run game, and try to mix up a lot,” Greenard said. “They had tons of toss, crack, reverses, stretch, you know, wham. They threw the whole book at us, but it was just a well executed game plan. We didn’t get enough negative plays to get them off track, so they were on rhythm pretty much the entire night.
“And it just can’t happen. We know that. We know what the standard is, we know we got to be better. And we will be better, so I’m not worried. We can go look at his tape and clean up and all. The tape and clean up in all aspects. So everybody understands it, and we’re just ready to take on that challenge next week.”
The same things the Eagles got away with the first two weeks – escaping with wins despite no takeaways, minimal pass pressure, leaky run defense and poor tackling – showed up again. This time the Eagles didn’t get away with any of it.
For the first time in franchise history, the Eagles haven’t forced a turnover in their first three games of a season. Their vaunted defensive line has two sacks in three games, none on Monday night.
For only the second time since 1973, they’ve allowed four touchdowns both rushing and receiving through three games.
They haven’t done anything well.
“We gotta do a better job of forcing more takeaways,” Jihaad Campbell said. “We work at it in practice every day, and we’re gonna continue to work at it and then at some point, it’s gonna go our way. So we just gotta stay patient, it’s gonna happen.”
The tackling is as big of an issue facing the Eagles’ defense right now as anything. It’s something Nick Sirianni harps on constantly, but they’ve just been a terrible tackling team so far this year. And Monday night was embarrassing.
“Fundamentals,” Greenard said. “Wrapping up and driving the legs. They had a lot of leaky yardage. We made contact in that game (and they’d get) an extra three or four yards. It changes the game. You go from potentially 2nd-and-8 to 2nd-and-6, those two yards matter. We know that. We just got to be better overall.”