ClutchPoints
The Philadelphia Eagles are 8-3.
They’ve lost to three teams with a combined record of 16-17-1 through Week 12, have had games where they can’t run and/or throw the ball, and have seemingly forgotten how to play football for entire halves of games, many of which they somehow won.
Saquon Barkley looks like a player who wore much of the tread off of his tires in 2024, a side-effect of having the single most productive season in NFL history. And yet, his offensive coordinator, Kevin Patullo, refuses to commit to a true committee to ease the burden on his game, to the point where Jalen Hurts is averaging more attempts per game than AJ Dillon, Tank Bigsby, and Will Shipley combined.
Are the Eagles the most stressful 8-3 team in the NFL right now? Yes, Philly fans will attest to that, and frankly, they have every right to feel that way.
Fortunately, the next time the Eagles take the field, it will be on Black Friday, mere hours removed from a day dedicated to focusing on the good and coming together around what makes everyone alike, not different. Do the Eagles have problems? Yes, more so than seemingly any 8-3 team should, but in the NFL, winning cures all, especially when AJ Brown is getting the ball up to his standards. A victory at home tastes twice as good as a Thanksgiving meal without the pesky tryptophan, and securing said victory over a team like the Chicago Bears, who are also 8-3 and vying for the top seed in the NFC, would be a perfect way to close out November for a team desperately looking for some galvanizing momentum to bring their troops together.
While the Eagles’ rushing offense has severely underperformed versus expectations in 2025, with the team having somehow amassed the 21st most rushing yards in the NFL on the eighth most attempts, the Bears’ rushing defense has been almost as bad, with all but two of their opponents recording at least 115 rushing yards so far this season.
The Bears’ defensive line has been woefully porous, with only Montez Sweat recording an average run defense grade from Pro Football Focus, and while their linebackers have been solid, they just aren’t available, with Tremaine Edmunds on IR and old pal TJ Edwards missing practice on Wednesday with multiple injuries.
As the Eagles prepare for a world without DeVonta Smith on Black Friday, as he missed Wednesday’s practice with multiple injuries, Barkley and Landon Dickerson are both limited but could still take the field in Week 13. Considering the Bears are likely to activate Jaylon Johnson for Week 13, at least according to other old pal CJ Gardner-Johnson, getting yards through the air against the 21st-ranked passing defense might be harder than initially expected. But running against a defense that has allowed 1519 yards on the season so far, the fifth-worst mark in the NFL, without...
