Over the last two years, the Eagles have lost to the Bears twice and as of late, lost their last two games. Looking at those stats you could imagine that not a lot of confidence would surround this game but as usual with the Eagles, stranger things have happened.
As most Eagle fans know, you can tell how the team will preform by the first five minutes of the game or the first two drives (whichever comes first, usually). However this wasn't the case Sunday night in Chicago. The Birds started off the game by driving down the field and characteristically stalling in the red zone, settling for a field goal. Following an erratic first drive for Jay Cutler the Bears punted back to the Eagles. They had the same production as their first attempt, but this time they scored inside the 20-yard line - a 13-yard Jason Avant touchdown. The first ended with the Birds up 10-0, but their offense became anemic in the second.
It was as if the two teams had switched jerseys as the next fifteen began. During the quarter, the Bears kicker Robbie Gould put three through the uprights while the Eagles seemed to do nothing but turn over the ball. Donovan McNabb was intercepted by Zach Bowman and DeSean Jackson fumbled the ball during drives where they had the potential to strengthen their lead. If Jay Cutler was on point with his passes this game may have been a lot different. With Philly just trying to stop the bleeding, the two teams went into the locker room with the Eagles winning, 10-9.
The third quarter wasn't much better for the Birds as Sav Rocca - who has become a glaring problem at punter - kicked the ball 16 YARDS and gave the Bears great field position. Culter was his same irrational self, overthrowing receivers left and right, but Sheldon Brown saved a touchdown with an amazing one-handed play and Chicago settled for another field goal... this time, taking the lead. Tonight though the Eagles wouldn't give up. On their third drive of the quarter, they took three plays and scored a touchdown on a 48-yard pass from McNabb to Jackson (which coincidentally is D-Jack's shortest score of the season to date). The big-play birds were back in action. The Bears offense finally woke up toward the end of the quarter as Culter threw a touchdown to backup tight end Kellen Davis, but there was a feeling that this time the Eagles wouldn't take it lying down.
About five minutes into the fourth, LeSean McCoy turned the ball over and stalled what was surely a scoring drive. But unlike past occurrences, on the very next drive they went right back to McCoy without hesitation. This was the smartest thing the Eagles did all night. Not only did it show that they had confidence in their young runner, but it helped him instill confidence in himself. And because of that McCoy helped the offense move down the field and the rookie scored the game-winning touchdown on a 10-yard run. For once, the Eagles were ones making the decisive plays. The Bears has some solid chances to regain the lead, but Cutler was far too sporadic and the Birds ultimately won, 24-20.
So there IS some fight left in these old wings. This game was a huge lift for a sliding football team and should give them plenty of hope going into the coming weeks. Even More importantly though the Eagles showed they in fact could score in the red zone and eat up clock. Both of which will be important keys to winning in the twilight of the season.
Next up is the Redskins. On Sunday they struggled to score at all in Dallas and lost in the most boring game ever, 7-6. Nothing they tried worked, so expect a repeat of the Eagles first meeting with them.
