So let me take the time to share that this game was absolutely embarrassing. Not the most embarrassing game on the planet (I have experiences losses against Joe Webb, Jamarcus Russell, Bruce Gradkowski and John Skelton), but this was probably the most embarrassing loss within the last ten years. This game not only exposed the lack of cohesiveness that exists on the Eagles but really comes as a reminder that this team might no longer be apart of a championship window. For about a half it might have seemed like the game was close, but at no point did I ever truly feel like the Eagles had a chance to win the game despite not only playing against a third string quarterback, but also with a team with far superior talent. It just appears that a lot of players and coaches are just collecting paychecks and not really caring about putting wins on the board.
I am not going to make this recap the same as the other two because there is not much I need to discuss in terms of what happened when in the game, moreover, this will more or less be discussing players and coaches for things that I see are wrong so that we can just clear the air. If you want an abridged recap I will put out that Ben Johnson is the Eagles' daddy. He owns us. He went to the store, purchased us for cheap and straight up abused the Eagles. You cannot tell me that Case Keenum is good, there is no way that anyone can fathom a 3rd string quarterback being as good as he was Monday Night. It is the system that he played that allowed him to force the Eagles defense to lay a complete stinker. Bears defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen also straight up abused not only the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line, but also almost every aspect of the Philadelphia Eagles. Not only did the Eagles only score 7 points, but the Eagles also turned the ball over 3 times, which unless you're the Buffalo Bills and you are playing the Chargers, you will probably never do.
So in no particular order, here are the people I have to blame for this loss and why I blame them outside of the fact that Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears whipped out their belts and destroyed the Eagles down their Madden Cover athlete quarterback, Caleb Williams, who sustained a strained MCL during a 9-3 loss against the Minnesota Vikings:
Vic Fangio:
Throughout the last 2 years, Vic Fangio has been one of the greatest defensive minds in the game when it comes to making the Eagles a better defense. It was a breath of fresh air bringing him into the organization after years of Jonathan Gannon, Sean Desai, and Matt Patricia, three guys whom if you took 3 brain cells to rub together, would still be better defensive coaches than those three. The Eagles were a top 5 unit in 2024 and a top 10 unit in 2025 where the Eagles held some of the best offenses to minimal points and yards. During the 2026 offseason there were reports that he was flirting with retirement and probably just should have. The defense looks dead and uninterested. They are a direct reflection of the coach. There are maybe three to five players on the entire defense that look like they actually care. Zach Baun is one, Quinyon Mitchell is another, Jalyx Hunt is another, and Jalen Carter might be another. Suffice to say there is absolutely no excuse to show up against a third string quarterback and allow 3 total touchdowns to him. They got the ball out of Case Keenum's hands in under 2 seconds and for whatever reason, the Eagles continued to play off on defense and hope the line got home. The line actually played really well in this game and got constant pressure on Keenum, the defensive backfield looked bad and confused. Andrew Makuba is terrible, I have no idea how he was so successful in college, he is a bum in the NFL. Jihaad Campbell is not an inside linebacker. He cannot stop the run and he is always completely out of position on passes. Jihaad Campbell is an edge rusher, that is all. For whatever reason, Vic Fangio doesn't see this or he just doesn't care to change it. He looks completely out of it as it has been the 3rd week of the season and the Eagles have 0 turnovers. It isn't without trying because there were chances for interceptions, but no one capitalized on them. Vic Fangio has been an utter disappointment and with the fact that the game plan for the game was terrible, I have huge concerns that the team doesn't actually watch film.
Andy Dalton:
My gosh, I loath his gentleman (in a football way). Not only does he always beat the Eagles when they play against him (twice as a Bengal in 2012 and 2016), once as a Cowboy in 2020, and once as a Saint in 2022, but as an Eagles backup quarterback, he does nothing but flop. I have seen him nicknamed the "Ginger Ninja" or "Red Rocket", but I have a new nickname "Garbage". The Eagles have the ball at the 2, they feed it to Saquon twice (up the middle no less) and then on third down, he throws a pass with no pressure in his face to Dontayvion Wicks on a drive where Jalen Hurts got down the field and you have a chance to tie the game up and the pass is intercepted by Dillon Thieneman. This was inexcusable, not only because it swings the game, but also because this man is your backup quarterback. He is a heartbeat away from being your starting if Jalen Hurts goes down. If Case Keenum played like Joe Montana, Andy Dalton played like Nathan Peterman. I don't even know why you trade him for even a 7th round draft pick because he is worth less than a bowl of peanuts. Tanner McKee should be the backup, why? Because you cannot be much worth than that. This isn't a ringing endorsement of Tanner McKee, it is merely me saying "I called that Andy Dalton was bad, but the coaches just don't see it" oh well, he probably has pictures of Sirianni, or Howie or Lurie in a compromising situation. I'm sorry, but I am being brutally honest, if Andy Dalton is your quarterback for any length of time, you aren't winning a single game.
I truly don't even know if he is actually the offensive coordinator of the team. I see him calling plays, however I also see the Eagles doing very similar things to what they did last year, especially in this game. There is no imagination with this offense. I see it with the Bears, they are running some super crazy plays in confident fashion. The Eagles don't do this. I swear to god, if I see Makai Lemon in the backfield, running in motion to the right and Jalen Hurts throwing a swing pass that gets blown up in the backfield, I am going to go crazy. This play does NOT work. They have tried it 4 or 5 times and it hasn't worked. The definition of insanity is doing things that fail over and over again expecting a different result. We cannot run this play. So stop running it. Why are plays like this damaging? Well, because they kill drives. Oh look, we got a 19 yard gain, lets run this fail son of a play. Oh, look, Saquon Barkley is successfully running to the sides, let us run it up the middle into 7 man boxes, what could go wrong? These two things kill drives and we have absolutely no counter for it, it is what gets the Eagles into 3rd and 12 situations and maybe you can convert against the Titans, you cannot convert against a better defense. I am not going to go as far as to call Sean a bum because I don't even know if he can run his own playbook or if he can even call his own plays, but often times he calls horrific plays that don't work and just keeps trying to call them.
The Eagles still do not scheme receivers open. They run a guy in motion and then just have him stand there and set. I see other teams having receivers running around behind the line and then snapping the ball as they run the complete opposite direct and beat man defense, badly. This is what I thought we were going to see more of in the Shanahan offense, but we are not seeing this. We are seeing swing passes that don't work, running backs running into heavy boxes and 3rd and long situations, which stall out drives. This isn't sustainable, the reason it worked against the Titans and Commanders is because those teams quite frankly aren't that good.
The question constantly on my mind is, "what does he even do?" And I know that people will come to me saying "well what an insane question, he is a Super Bowl winning head coach!" He was brought in to be an innovative play caller and the only innovation is the tush push. When it comes to play calling, he is garbage, when it comes to building a coaching tree, he is garbage, the teams wins, but only because of innovative minds at offensive and defense coordinator and because of immense talent, but outside of the motivation factor, he is essentially the Weeb Ewbank of the current era. If you think that Jalen Hurts was carried to two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl victory, then Nick Sirriani was instantly transported to the event without really doing anything. Nick Sirianni is such a bad play caller that every time he touches a play sheet, it immediately turns into garbage. I don't even know if I can fairly criticize first year offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion because that wide receiver swing pass to Makai Lemon has Nick Sirianni written all over it. He has to be the only offensive minded Super Bowl winning head coach in NFL history to not even know how to call an offense. Like how is it that over the span of 5 years that this guy has never attended an offensive play calling for dummies course.
And look, I know I am "just a fan" what do I know? I can't call an offense. I don't understand all of the intricacies of play calling and line movements, shifts, blocks, motions, and routes, but I can tell you when a play doesn't work. And to be honest, that play doesn't work. It is a drive killer. I am tired of Saquon Barkley running into full boxes hoping he is going to do something different or someone is going to miss a tackle. The offensive line is one of the worst in the NFL and had something like 3 holding calls in the game, which heavily costed the team. And look, if he isn't qualified to be a play caller, fine, I just wish I wasn't gaslit by people who think the world of him and that he is so great, he isn't. He is one of the reasons why Jalen Hurts has specific limitations because there have only been two guys over the span of 5 years who have ever worked on those things with him.
One thing that I swore I would never do is say that a person cannot do any wrong and that person is Howie Roseman. The last two drafts for Howie Roseman, coming off a very successful 2023 and 2024 drafts have been complete trash. Let us start with last year's draft with Jihaad Campbell, who once again isn't an inside linebacker, he is straight up an edge rusher. He cannot cover, he looks totally confused and not only this, he struggles to tackle and is a liability. Then there is Andrew Makuba, a guy lauded as being the next CJ Gardner Johnson out of Texas. If Andrew Makuba is CJ Garnder Johnson, then I'm Adam Sandler. CJ Gardner Johnson was the embodiment of an Eagle, through and through. A guy that despite getting injured every training camp is a full blown winner. He is an intimidator, the guy that is willing to put his entire body, mind and strength into everything. Sure he has a big mouth that often gets him into trouble, but he wins. Every time the Eagles get rid of CJ, their defense and team heavily suffers. He was the heart and soul of the entire defense. Without him, the team is not as good.
I don't know why Howie Roseman got rid of him and traded him for peanuts, but the guy wanted to be a lifelong Eagle and unless there is something I am missing and he committed a horrendous crime, the team should have never gotten rid of him. Then there is this draft, you can clearly see Makai Lemon is getting open, but Jalen Hurts isn't finding him. For whatever reason the Eagles keep running those motion behind the back, swing pass that gets blown up because our tight ends don't block, but the man flashes in the open field, he just isn't getting the opportunities. Then there is Eli Stowers, who apparently has been so bad and is so undersized that he is on Injured Reserve and not on an active roster. All of this despite the fact that Emmanuel McNeil-Warren is a freaking monster and Howie didn't touch him with a ten foot pole. So excuse me for questioning the fact that the team is extremely lacking in talent at safety and at tight end, purely because you completely botched the draft at two positions. It is very clear that in 2024, Howie merely made the gosh obvious selections that anyone could have made and was successful for it. Now he let it get to his head and is making some very poor draft decisions. At the end of the day, Howie Roseman did for the Eagles something that all of us never dreamed he would do... Masterfully get two world championships to the people of Philadelphia, but maybe we are at the point where the team is on the decline and it is time to start over again. Again, Howie is on a much looser leash because of his success, but it appears that the success has gone to his head because he isn't doing anything to make the team better now.
Second Half Jalen Hurts:
Now first half Jalen Hurts cannot really be criticized. Outside of the 1st drive where he hit Makai Lemon for a big gain and then the drive stalled, Tank Bisby fumbled deep in Eagles territory, then Jalen Hurts got the snot rocked out of him along the sidelines, then Andy Dalton threw one of the worst interceptions I have ever seen in my life, and finally he got the team down the field and with 1 second left on the clock ran it in (without the tush push) for a touchdown to put the team down 3 at halftime. However, 2nd half Jalen Hurts was really nothing short of bad and it truly appears that normal football mentality goes completely out the window sometimes. Like he forgets that he can throw the ball while running for a 2 yard loss instead of throwing the ball out of bounds and you can get back to the line of scrimmage. He leaves pockets to the side instead of step up running where there is nobody in a 15 yard radius of the first down marker. His throws sometimes are erratic, he is not playactioning, he plays from under center sometimes, but he isn't as successful when he is under center. He wins, I know, but that Bears defense isn't good and he got straight up taken to school. Guys are open, he doesn't throw to them. Devonta Smith is really the only receiver he trusts. He will throw the ball to Dontayvion Wicks, but not as much anyone else, even when they are open. I know that everyone misses receivers, but in this game, he missed them bad.
To a certain extent, I trust Jalen Hurts to win most games, but you can tell when he is going to be in a lul. You can tell when he is just out of it. Sometimes he can motivate his guys to come back, like he did against the Titans in week 2, but when the entire offense is failing, there is such a small chance that he will even be effective. I cannot tell you how embarrassing that 4th down interception was where T.J. Edwards was literally listening to the play, just yards away from the line of scrimmage, Jalen targeted Devonta Smith the whole time and Edwards picked the ball off. How are you going to let a guy listen to your plays and then lose it on a turnover. Again, Jalen Hurts was dealing in the 1st half, but when the second half hit and he was stalling out on his drives and going 3 and out, it does a lot of damage to the team's chances of coming back. You could say "very few quarterbacks could have won a game where the other team was money and the ball was bouncing their way in almost every way, but you're a Super Bowl MVP quarterback, you cannot afford to make those kinds of mistakes and unfortunately we have seen all of this before.
Devonta Smith, Quinyon Mitchell and Braden Mann. I know I have been saying these three guy's names the last 3 weeks, but they are truly the MVPs on the team. Devonta Smith is so reliable. You throw the ball up on a 50/50 play, there is an 80% chance he is going to come down with the ball. The man is so mentally tough and has such this will to win. There is very little I think he needs to improve on when it comes to his game. He did disappear in the 2nd half, but I blame the offense, Jalen Hurts, the play calling and the offensive line more for that than anything. Quinyon Mitchell IS going to get his first regular season interception barring injury, he is so close. When the Eagles needed a guy on the outside that was going to stop a passing play, he stepped up. He he not swatted those passes away, the Eagles allow way more points and all of those failed conversions occurred on 3rd and 4th down, so he did extremely well on that basis. Finally, Braden Mann is playing like an All Pro punter. His punts have been on target, inside the 20, with minimal chances for the return team to recover. He is such a professional and does his job very well.
