Philadelphia 24, Bears 20
In recent games, Jay Cutler and the Bears defense have been taking turns tripping over their shoelaces.
So the expectation was that either Cutler would be on his game and the defense would be giving up acres at a time, or the defense would be solid and Cutler would have more completions to Eagles than Bears.
This time, it was a little of both in a 24-20 loss.
Cutler, as he often has after dark, misfired frequently. And the defense allowed too many big plays to win.
Cutler’s interception with 45 seconds remaining sealed the verdict.
The defense performed poorly early, allowing the Eagles (6-4) to convert a third-and-1 with a 35-yard run by Michael Vick. The play set up a David Akers field goal that gave Philly a 3-0 lead.
Twenty penalty yards by the defense helped set up their next score, this one a 13-yard screen pass from Donovan McNabb to Jason Avant. The Eagles somehow got four offensive linemen out in front of Avant on the play.
Cutler didn’t help the cause much early either. At the start of the second quarter, he missed Greg Olsen and Devin Hester on consecutive deep balls from the Eagles’ 27. Both were open in the end zone, and Cutler overthrew both players.
The Bears (4-6) did salvage three points out of the drive thanks to a 45-yard Robbie Gould field goal.
The play of the first half for the Bears’ offense, though, was a 72-yard run by Kahlil Bell. The running back was taking his first NFL handoff. He got a little lucky, as the Bears caught the Eagles in an all-out blitz. But Bell, who was brought up from the practice squad Friday, knew what to do with the daylight.
He brought it all the way to the Eagles’ 10, but the Bears still couldn’t get a touchdown out of the deal. They had a 1-yard completion, a Matt Forte run for minus-1 yard and an incompletion before they settled for a 28-yard Gould field goal.
Cutler was lucky his incompletion wasn’t an interception. It was yet another red-zone force, this one into double coverage to Olsen over the middle. Eagles corner Macho Harris got his hands on the ball.
The next time in the red zone, Cutler was smarter. He backpedaled away from pressure and threw the ball to a spot in the back of the end zone where no one could have caught it.
Gould’s third field goal, a 28-yarder, pulled the Bears to within 10-9 with 13 seconds left in the first half.
The points were set up by a takeaway by Charles Tillman. He stripped DeSean Jackson of the ball, and Anthony Adams recovered on the Bears’ 33. It was the Bears’ second takeaway of the game, as Zack Bowman also came up with an interception on the previous Philadelphia possession.
Tillman came up with another forced fumble in the fourth quarter, poking the ball out of the arms of LeSean McCoy. Al Afalava recovered, setting up a 48-yard Gould field-goal attempt that was blocked.
After falling behind 10-0, the Bears scored a dozen straight, with the final three coming on Gould’s 49-yard field goal with 10:26 remaining in the third quarter.
Then the Eagles struck with a big play. McNabb hit Jackson on a 48-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the seam in the Cover-2 defense. The play began with play action, which appeared to cause free safety Danieal Manning to pause. Then Jackson ran by strong safety Afalava for the catch near the goal line.
