Philadelphia Eagles: Ski Mask Season Continues…
Philadelphia Eagles games are not for the faint of heart. They really enjoy walking the tightrope between victory and defeat until the very last minute.
But for at least one night, the football gods looked upon the team in green and smiled. But of course, that smile was well earned.
This game was a heavyweight fight full of body blows and haymakers. The Chicago Bears came into the game with the NFL’s number one defense and lived up to their ranking with two defensive takeaways off of Eagles’ mistakes. But the Philadelphia defense was not in a mood to be outdone, harassing Mitch Trubisky all day long.
Part of that harassment came from Fletcher Cox who continuously disrupts the middle. He saw plenty of double teams, and his stats for the game don’t jump out, but there were plenty of snaps that he forced an early throw or an inaccurate pass from Mitch Trubisky.
Also playing a huge role was Linebacker Nigel Bradham. He served as a spy for the defense, keeping an eye on Mitchell Trubisky to limit his mobility out of the pocket. That job became much easier when Trubisky pulled a hamstring in the first half. His mobility was limited for the rest of the game.
Rookie Cornerback Avonte Maddox continued his stellar play but also showed his age. The Bears used his youthful aggressiveness against him by trapping him with double moves over and over again. Despite some coverage errors he still had more than one sure interception bounce off his hands. The feeling is that going forward he makes those plays.
On offense, they took what the defense gave them, which wasn’t much. It only took one snap to figure out the Bears defense was too fast for rookie RB Josh Adams, he sat for the rest of the game. There wasn’t much room to run for Darren Sproles and Wendell Smallwood either.
The offensive line did a stellar job in pass protection. All-Pro pass rusher Khalil Mack was a non-factor. Standout DT Akeim Hicks made plays in the running game but didn’t do much to bother Nick Foles.
In a tight defensive struggle like this, minor weaknesses are exploited to a higher degree. That one weakness came in the form of the Bears secondary. All-Pro Safety Eddie Jackson missed the game with an injury as well as the Slot CB. In the slot is where the Eagles attacked. Usually, the Eagles favor 2 TE sets to feature their talented players Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert, but for this game, recognizing where the weakness was, the Eagles went to 3-WR sets and targeted Golden Tate which resulted in much success.
The Legend of “Big Dick” Nick Foles continues to grow, even though he didn’t have his best game. Errant passes and lousy decision making plagued him throughout the day. But one thing you can say is that he persevered and delivered when the game was on the line.
So Ski Mask Season continues…next stop New Orleans.