The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles are in free-fall. It seemed as if after every single failed offensive drive, they were met with a serenade of boos and vulgar chants, as what is highly regarded as the worst fanbase in football expressed their feelings of discontent.
The Chicago Bears came into Philadelphia and out-muscled the Eagles in a 24-15 victory that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. It truly rained black on the Eagles on Black Friday as they accrued their fourth loss of the season, not only putting the 6-5-1 Cowboys in position to overtake them in the division, but also losing ground in the race for the NFC’s number one seed.
Chicago outgained the Eagles by almost 200 yards on the ground, giving up a season-high of 281 yards rushing to 87. The Bears ran 85 plays to the Eagles’ 51, and almost doubled the Eagles in time of possession, 39:18 to 20:42. To the naked eye, this may seem insignificant, but this looks as lopsided as a matchup between two contenders in late November could be.
All things considered, the Eagles sit at 8-4 and can still win the NFC with some help from other NFC teams. There was a consensus that this year would be the first year since 2004 that the NFC East had a repeat champion, and it still very well can be the case, but the Eagles face a tough schedule coming up in December.
It is a consensus opinion that the Eagles must defeat one of the playoff contenders or sweep the three bottom feeders that they face for the rest of the season to win the division and get at least one home playoff game at the Linc. Perhaps the best thing for the Eagles is to be a first-round exit and look inwards once again for a team that’s been to two of the last three Super Bowls.
