PHILADELPHIA – Whenever Walton Payton gets mentioned in regards to the running game, the result is not going to be good for the opposing defense.
That was the case on Black Friday in Philadelphia during a 24-15 Eagles’ loss to Chicago, a setback that dropped the 8-4 Philadelphia behind the Bears (9-3) in the NFC table and drew Nick Sirianni’s team perilously close to the suddenly streaking Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East.
There was a lot not to like from the Eagles’ Black Friday sale of physicality, which was a discount former Eagles’ running back D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai happily took advantage of.
Dynamic Duo
Nov 28, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Chicago Bears running back Kyle Monangai (25) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter of the game at Lincoln Financial Field. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
When the dust settled, the Bears rushed for 281 yards, the worst performance in the Vic Fangio era of defense in Philadelphia by over 100 yards. Monangai edged his teammate with 130 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, while Swift had 125 and another score over18 carries.
That was the first time a Bears’ backfield duo each rushed for 100-or-more yards in a game in 40 yards when Payton (107) and his fullback Matt Shuey (102) did it on Nov. 10, 1985 against the Detroit Lions.
Time and time again Darnell Wright and the left side of the powerful Bears offensive line caved in the Eagles defensive front, opening up outside-zone runs with massive cutback lanes.
“It’s a lot of different things,” Sirianni said when asked about the running game. “You’re going to look and say, ‘First of all, did we do the things we needed to do as coaches to help put them in positions?’ and then it’s going to be about block destruction, tackling, how we get off the blocks, how we tackle, have to look at that.”
Sirianni did credit his former Pro Bowl starter in 2023.
“Swift had a couple opportunities or had a couple plays that got some extra yards with some yards after making some guys miss,” the coach noted. “He’s an electric back, but again, I’ll have to look at
exactly what all went down, but I know that when you’re giving up that many yards, everybody has a hand in that with where we are as far as where we are putting guys on defense, but then also how we block destruct and how we take on blocks and how we tackle.”
The bottom line, however, is that the Eagles were the less physical team on Black Friday something that hasn’t happened often under Sirianni’s watch and is a sharp deviation from his “tough, detailed, together” mindset.
:[The Bears] did a really good job of how they attacked and executing it,” said Sirianni. “Hats off to them, but obviously we’ve won a lot of football games being on the other end of that. We’ve just got to get back to playing and coaching Eagles football.”
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