Eagles defense searching for answers after being run over by the Bears: ‘That’s not our standard’
“We have to be better. I was saying on the field that comes from all 11 of us. We have to do something different. If you want different results, you have to do something different," said Jordan Davis.
The interior linemen of the Chicago Bears were quick on their feet, Jordan Davis said. They are “savvy players” who attacked the Eagles, who are supposed to have a bruising defensive front, early and often Friday afternoon.
The Bears brought one of the better rushing attacks in the NFL to Lincoln Financial Field. One cut after another, D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai used the space created by Chicago’s front and made the Eagles pay. Swift, a Philly native and former Eagle, had nearly seven yards per carry on his way to 125 yards. Monangai, a rookie seventh-round pick, carried 22 times for 130 yards in the 24-15 win.
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The Bears controlled the game and the clock with their two backs. As a team, they racked up 281 yards on 47 rushes, good for 6.1 yards per carry. It was the most rushing yards the Eagles have given up since 2015, and it was the first time since 1960 that two opposing rushers topped 100 yards during an Eagles home game.
“We knew we had to stop the run and then have fun and we just weren’t able to stop the run today,” linebacker Nakobe Dean said.
There was little fun for the Eagles’ defense, which was forced to defend 85 plays partially because of its inability to stop the run and because the Eagles’ offense struggled once again to sustain drives. The margin for error that offense has provided the defense in recent weeks is slim. And when it cracks the way it did Friday, the Eagles never really had a chance.
Jalen Carter likened the Bears’ rushing plan to what the Eagles faced in Week 2 last season vs. Atlanta, when they allowed 152 yards on 28 carries. Bears center Drew Dalman was on the Falcons last season. The Bears showed a lot of “sideways action,” Davis said.
The Eagles took too long to adjust, if they ever did at all. To Dean, they didn’t do a good enough job striking blocks, making reads, or playing off each other. Not being able to stop the run took some of the Eagles’ energy away, Dean said.
“By the time you know it, end of the first quarter, they already had damn near 100 yards rushing,” Davis said.
“We can’t take that long to figure out a remedy for that.”
It mostly was an uncharacteristic performance from the Eagles’ defense. Sure, Dallas roared back in its win Sunday, but that mostly was the Cowboys attacking a banged-up secondary. The Eagles have had occasional problems against the run this season, but not particularly lately. The Bears, however, rarely needed to throw. They won the battle at every level almost every time. They drove the Eagles off the line of scrimmage, got to the second level, and made the Eagles pay for taking poor angles.
Carter took ownership for some of the struggles.
“I blame myself on that,” he said. “There was some runs out there I got drove back or I wasn’t making an effect on the play. We kind of made an adjustment if you started seeing who was playing the first and second downs and then third down.”
What he meant by that was he found himself on the sidelines. The Eagles’ top interior lineman had to come off the field at times on obvious running downs.
“It’s my problems to deal with,” he said. “I ain’t fitting to tell y’all what I’m going through.”
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What the defense is going through as a whole is a look-in-the-mirror moment.
Against Dallas, the Eagles allowed 473 total yards, the most in the Fangio era. On Friday, they surrendered 425 total yards and got destroyed trying to stop the run. They had just two tackles for loss.
“Things are going to happen,” cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said. “I always say the sky is not falling. Obviously you want to go out there and be perfect, make every tackle, shed every block, make every PBU, get the picks. Sometimes the game goes this way.”
Davis said he knows the negativity is going to come “from all angles at this point.”
“The reason why this s— stings, it hurts so much for us, is because we know that’s not our standard," Davis said. “We have to be better. I was saying on the field that comes from all 11 of us. We have to do something different. If you want different results, you have to do something different. Whether that’s a little extra time in the meeting room, extra time in practice, playing blocks better, seeing blocks, we have to do better as individuals to become a better collective.
“We can’t do s— about what we put on the field now. We have to get back in the lab. We have a little bit longer week going into the Chargers game, and we just have to make sure that we get those problems fixed because it’s a copycat league. Everybody sees it; everybody knows that this could be a potential way to attack it. We just can’t let that happen."
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What happens next?
“This game is just going to be a launch pad for us to either get better or we can just stay the same and nothing changes,” Davis said. “I expect the guys on the defense to understand and answer that call.”