Game day on a Friday is a bit different. But it\u2019s a huge battle between two 8-3 teams with a lot to prove.<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Eagles, as Super Bowl defending champs, are trying to prove they can put it all together offensively and defensively to make a run for a second-straight title.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been held up offensively by a run game that hasn\u2019t worked like it did in 2024 and a passing game that just can\u2019t seem to get going at all.<\/p>\n
The Chicago Bears, on the other hand, can\u2019t shake the knock that they haven\u2019t beaten any good teams. And their margin of victory over these bad teams has been incredibly tight.<\/p>\n
And while their offense is working, they haven\u2019t been dominant, at least enough to shut down the Caleb Williams naysayers. And their defense has struggled, but has also been missing significant pieces all season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s sure to be a tough game for the Bears, but if they can keep it close, anything can happen. That\u2019s the beauty of the NFL.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what our crew thinks will unlock a Bears victory.<\/p>\n
Sam:<\/strong> The Eagles might be the most inconsistent 8-win reigning Super Bowl Champ ever? The Bears\u2019 defense needs all hands on deck to avoid Saquon and the Eagles\u2019 receivers from going off. Philly\u2019s offense has struggled more often than not, but remains dangerous. The OL has to hold up against Vic Fangio\u2019s disguises and Caleb has to protect the ball and take what\u2019s there.<\/p>\n Josh: <\/strong>Caleb needs to cut down on the unforced errors and the offense needs to take the easy yards. On defense, Dennis Allen needs to keep working his miracles. If the Bears can just make Hurts play outside himself, fault lines will appear.<\/p>\n Gary:<\/strong> It\u2019s a tall task for our pass rush, but not letting Jalen Hurts have an easy time behind center is a major key. He generally makes good decisions with the ball but at a very slow rate, if we can force him off his spot or force him to speed up his internal clock, the Eagles become a very one-dimensional team. It\u2019s been a \u201cit takes a village\u201d mentality all year, and this week won\u2019t be any different. We will need some contributors who\u2019s numbers haven\u2019t been called a lot to step up, especially on the defensive side.<\/p>\n Jack R Salo: <\/strong>For the Bears on offense, this is a game they have to control the time of possession. The Eagles have won that battle in 6 of their 8 wins, and lost it in 2 of their 3 losses. They\u2019ll have some long drives of double-digit plays, so make sure you do too. Then, on defense, force incompletions. Not everything needs to be an interception. If the Eagles can inch their way to 3rd\/4th and 1, they\u2019re going to convert, so don\u2019t let them get to that point.<\/p>\n What do you think it\u2019s going to take for Chicago to get the win? Can they pull off the upset?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game day on a Friday is a bit different. But it\u2019s a huge battle between two 8-3 teams…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":409895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,37272,192894,5386,1818,12641],"class_list":{"0":"post-409894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-bears-news","10":"tag-from-the-desk-of","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-notes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115625526851001488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}