Eagles' D falls short vs. Bears
The Eagles' defense struggled all game against the Bears in the Birds' 31-26 loss.
In the previous three weeks, the Eagles had intercepted Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb and Eli Manning a total of eight times.
But against a quarterback that led the league with 26 picks last year and had 10 coming into today, the defense failed to create a turnover and left Chicago with a 31-26 loss.
Jay Cutler gashed the Birds' defense, completing 14 of 20 passes for 247 yards and four touchdowns, tying a career high. The Bears got it done on the ground also as Matt Forte carried 14 times for 117 yards.
The Bears had five scoring drives, and on each one, they had a play of at least 25 yards:
* Forte scampered for 61 yards on the first scoring drive.
* Next was a 39-yard catch by Devin Hester.
* Then there was the 30-yard completion to Earl Bennett.
* A 34-yard completion to Hester.
* And finally, a 28-yard Forte run.
Rookie cornerback Trevard Lindley struggled as he saw extensive playing time with Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs out. But he wasn't alone. The rest of the secondary and the linebackers had poor showings as well.
All four of Cutler's touchdown passes went to the right side, the side that Samuel generally covers.
Entering the game, opponents had converted more than 76 percent of their red-zone trips into touchdowns against the Eagles, a league-worst.
The Bears were 3-for-4 in the red zone tonight.
Offensively, Michael Vick chose a bad time for his first interception of the season. With the Eagles down, 14-13, in the second quarter, Vick was picked off in the end zone. The Bearsscored on the ensuing drive to go up 21-13 heading into halftime.
The Eagles converted just one of four red-zone trips into a touchdown.
The loss is the Eagles' first all season in a game that Vick started and finished.
The Birds fall to 7-4 on the season and back into a first-place tie in the NFC East wth the Giants, who beat the Jaguars.
The Eagles don't get a lot of time to think about this one as they take on the Texans at the Linc on Thursday night.
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