Philadelphia came in thin. Dallas Goedert, Hollywood Brown and tackle Fred Johnson were all inactive, and AJ Epenesa sat too. Then things got worse for the Eagles during the game: Jalen Hurts left to be evaluated for a concussion. He was cleared to return, but the Philadelphia passing game never got going with or without him. The Eagles were the road favorite, and the Bears won outright by 20.
The first half was the only part of this that looked like a game. Chicago scored the only points of the 1st quarter, and Philadelphia's only touchdown came on a Hurts quarterback sneak as time expired in the 2nd. That sent it to halftime 10-7 Bears. Everything after that went Chicago's way.
Chicago scored 10 in the 3rd, and then T.J. Edwards intercepted Hurts late in the quarter. That was exactly the mistake the preview said the Eagles couldn't afford against a backup quarterback. Hurts came in having thrown 2 picks in the win at Tennessee, and this time the turnover came right as the game was slipping away. The Eagles got shut out over the final 2 quarters.
Keenum's drive to put it away was the best thing he did all night. Chicago went 13 plays and took more than 8 minutes off the clock, and he finished it himself on a 1-yard plunge with 7:19 left. It was his first rushing touchdown since 2019. The preview asked whether Keenum could keep drives going with just 1 week of first-team reps. He could, and he did it in the 4th quarter with the lead.
The box score search didn't return lines for most of the other players the preview built paragraphs around: Saquon Barkley after the stinger, Dontayvion Wicks and Darius Cooper with Goedert and Brown out, D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai in the Chicago backfield. The shape of the game still says plenty. Philadelphia got 7 points out of all of them combined. Chicago didn't need Swift to carry Keenum, because Keenum carried the offense. The defense that held Minnesota to 9 held Philadelphia to 7, even without safety Anthony Johnson Jr.
That makes it back-to-back weeks the Bears defense has kept an offense in single digits. The offense that managed 3 points against the Vikings put up 27 with its QB3. Chicago is 2-1 and Philadelphia is 2-1. The Eagles' 2 close wins looked shakier than their record, and on Monday night that finally showed on the scoreboard. The question in Chicago now is how long Williams is out, and for the first time this month that's not a panic question.