The Chicago Bears suffered a narrow 25-20 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles, where Chicago kept things competitive with a top-seeded Philadelphia team looking to make a Super Bowl run.
The Bears defense held their own against one of the best offenses in the NFL, which featured some standout performances by cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon. Justin Fields set the Bears’ single-season rushing record by a quarterback, while also eclipsing 1,000 rushing yards on the season.
After the game, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus shared his thoughts, including on Fields’ 1000-yard rushing performance, Teven Jenkins’ neck injury, Velus Jones Jr.’s latest fumble and seeing progress beyond wins and losses.
Here is everything Eberflus had to say:
Opening remarks
Okay, first thing, my hat’s off to Philadelphia. Played a good game. Congratulations to them. But overall I thought that our guys did a good job of battling, but we have to learn how to finish better. We have to learn how to finish. That’s one of the things we need to get done here in the next few games. That’s the biggest thing, biggest takeaway for me as the head football coach.
I do think there was a lot of good things out there. Defensively we had three takeaways. I thought that was outstanding. That’s what we’re more used to. Also think that we stopped them on downs on a fourth and six, which is excellent. They had that long drive, ended up missing the field goal. It was banged off the side of the goalpost.
I thought the guys had passion, had energy. I thought we tackled well overall as a group. I was pleased with that for sure.
Looking at the third downs is where we need to be better. The third down battle, they won that battle, which is sustaining drives, making critical plays when you need to. For example, that last third down. They end up throwing the slant to Brown. That was a critical down for us there.
Overall for us we sustained some injuries today, which is unfortunate. I know it was announced, but we’ll take these things day by day. EQ (Equanimeous St. Brown) had the concussion. Teven (Jenkins) had his neck, he’s out, but everything looks positive there. Just so everybody knows that. That’s encouraging. 57 (Jack Sanborn), we’ll look at, the ankle and MRI that, get a situation with that. 33, Jaylon (Johnson) with the ribs. Again, we’ll see where that is. Tomorrow we’ll get more information. Then Justin (Fields). He really just had cramps. He had to come in for an IV. He’s all set, ready to go.
Again, I was also encouraged by the last drive the offense that. That’s a two-minute situation. We were hurry up on the ball. We end up scoring a touchdown, which was outstanding by the offense. We’re certainly excited to see that going forward.
On Teven Jenkins' neck injury
He was responsive. We could see him moving his hands out there. Again, I don’t know much more than that. They just told me it’s encouraging. That’s all I got from the medical staff right now.
On any semblance of a moral victory after a narrow defeat to Eagles
Yeah, we don’t look at it that way. We really don’t. We focus on one game at a time, preparing to play our opponent and beat our opponent. We didn’t get that done.
It’s more about us. It’s always going to be about us, how we do things. Our execution in the critical moments needs to be better. Like I said, third down, in the red area. When we get takeaways, the one thing we need to do better on offense is when we do get takeaways in a short field, we got to punch it in. In one situation, we ended up fourth and 27 I want to say it is. We decided to take the delay there because we were out of kick range.
Cairo (Santos)’s kick range today was the 27 yard line. We were at the 31. I believe Philadelphia did the same thing. They were at the 33. They elected to punt and pin, too, or go for it I believe. That’s the way the wind was out there today. It was tough sledding out there in the kicking game.
Again, in the kicking game we need to do a better job. We had that big kick return to start the second half. I wasn’t excited about that. We need to do a better job covering there on the left side of our kick cover team.
Again, the rest of the day they did a nice job. I thought Trent had a couple good nice punting pins. He had a couple nice punts. It’s unfortunate that Cairo missed another extra point. That was unfortunate. We got to get the operation there squared away. Have to look at the tape, see where that is.
Overall, again, like I said, we just got to be better in critical moments.
On Jalen Hurts' touchdown run
You’ll see it when we watch it again. We had two guys in the same gap. Safety is supposed to be in the other gap. We should have had that. That’s unfortunate that that happened. I think Alan called a great pressure there in that situation. That’s what it was.
On goals for the remainder of the season
Yeah, I would just say championship habits. I put that in front of the guys every week. Doesn’t matter win, lose or draw, we want to see championship habits from the individual.
That means the minute you come into the building you are laser focused on the job at hand till the minute you leave, and afterwards you’re studying to make sure you’re going to perform at a high level.
Each guy we challenge to play at an A-plus game every week. It is based on practice and how you play in the game. Guys are rotated in and out based on that production. We challenge those guys every single week. As a football team we want to play complementary football.
We want to be able to finish the games, have the competitive instincts at the end to make sure we are focused and finishing the games the right way.
We’re getting better. I think we’re getting better as you watch it. It’s important for us. Every one of these plays, every one of these games is real important to us going forward to look at everybody and really also the morale of our team, how we’re competitive as a football team.
On Velus Jones Jr.'s fumble
I don’t like that. I don’t like it. I don’t like when guys lose the football. It’s not good. Guys have to do a better job securing the ball.
Again, I’ll look at the tape. But when you’re in traffic, you have to have five points of pressure on the ball and put your (indiscernible) over the other hand. That’s an important piece to it. Like I said, we’ll look at it and see where it is.
On Jones' fumbles being a recurring issue
The other two, you have two muffed punts because it’s different, not when you have the ball secured. We’ll look at it.
Again, he’s got to stay encouraged. He’s got to keep working and do the right things. I know he can do it right. We’ll coach him to do it that way.
On Jaylon Johnson's battle with A.J. Brown
We had him travel today. He was traveling to Brown the whole day. If he was outside, he was covering. If he was inside, we let Gordon cover him. That’s going to be a tough matchup for any corner. That’s one of the top receivers in the league. He’s got a big body. He’s very competitive, very strong. I think he caught two big fade balls today, and also Smith, No. 6, caught one also.
But those guys are dynamic players, some of the best in the league. But we got to rise up there. Really we got to finish. Those are plays that we got to finish. You’re never out of it as a defensive back. Even if you’re out the position a little bit, you can still strain to make the plays at the very end.
Jaylon did a really good job. A lot of other plays where the balls with overthrown, made a lot of competitive plays where he knocked the ball off No. 11 today. There was a lot of plays, too. He was very competitive against them at the end of the day.
On Justin Fields rushing for 1,000 yards this season
It’s great. It’s a franchise record for quarterback, goes over a thousand yards. One of three quarterbacks in the history of the league with Lamar (Jackson) and (Michael) Vick. That’s pretty special. He’s a special guy.
The run he made down there, it’s just phenomenal. He’s doing an excellent job. He’s doing a really good job of leading our football team. I think it’s where he’s growing the most over the second half of the season. He’s just getting more and more confident as he goes.
On not being able to take advantage of takeaways
Yeah, it’s called sudden change. It happens on both sides of the ball. When we take the ball into that plus field, inside that 30, 35 yard line, special teams or taking the ball away, which we did, the offense has got to score touchdowns. That’s how you put guys away. You create momentum that way.
I think that’s something we have to learn to do as a football team. Conversely, when it happens to the defense, you have to hold them to a field goal. A return comes into that situation, an interception, you’re right there, need to bow up and make them kick field goals.
On Cairo Santos' struggles
I think it’s just execution. You look at the details of where everything is. The snap, the hold, the plant foot, all those things that we look at with detail. Just look at it that way.
It’s just like anything else, any other skill that you’re trying to do, it’s about the details of it. Just got to look hard at that. We’re going to continue to coach him up and Cairo is going to be fine.
On the decision to punt from Philadelphia's 31-yard line
(Santos’) kick line was 27 yards with the wind today. When it was there at the 31, we were out of our kick line there. We were going to take a delay, punt and pin. Did a pretty good job of punting and pinning today. He did a pretty good job.
On injuries to N'Keal Harry, Chase Claypool
No, it’s just day to day. (Harry) just wasn’t ready. He’s the back. Clay has the knee. We’re hopeful for those guys coming up. Hopefully it looks good for tomorrow. We’ll know more information then.
On how they handled the Eagles' stunting
Obviously it’s not good enough because we gave up too many sacks. A lot of time that’s getting ready of the ball, handling the stunts as the offensive line versus that defensive line. They do it well. They’re aggressive. They’re violent. They have talent, a lot of talent up there.
You could see from Haason (Reddick), to (Josh) Sweat, (Javon) Hargrave, all the guys in there, they throw it in there with violence. Hard to pick up, especially when you have those five-man stunts. Pretty effective. They did a nice job.
On Fields' impressive 39-yard run
Just special. I mean, I was on the far side, moving my head, trying to figure out what he was doing. He stayed inbounds and kept going. Exciting player to watch.
On seeing progress beyond wins and losses
I think you got to have perspective. I think you have to have perspective. Again, when you’re in the game, when we’re in the game, I think that obviously it’s 100% get after it by any means necessary.
After the game, you have to evaluate the performance. It goes back to what we said, the game is the game. If you win by five or lose by five, you have to have that perspective, how do we get better next week, each individual and unit.
On trusting the process that things are going the right way
Yeah, I mean, you can look at a lot of things. You look at different teams in the past. Everybody has to go through this. We’re in the process of doing that right now.
To me, it’s more about the work habits of each guy and the work habits of the units, having that championship work habits. That to me is the most important thing. That’s what you can stand on. You can stand on that along with our hits principle. That’s the foundation that will last time. It’s always going to be there. It’s never going anywhere, okay?
As you start executing better, okay, finishing games better, wins will start to stack. That to me, you always have to have that. If you don’t have that, it’s not going to work, but we do have that. We have it. Our guys are working their tails off. We have that foundation that we’re building right now.
On believing things are going the right way despite the 3-11 record
By the tape. Watch the tape. To me, you watch the tape, sometimes the results aren’t there. But I see what I see in practice and in the games. We’re heading the right direction.
