Right now, the Chicago Bears are underdogs for Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles. Quarterback Caleb Williams isn’t looking likely to play with a hamstring injury. The same goes for backup Tyson Bagent, who has a concussion. The Eagles are 2-0 and have one of the better-coached defenses in the league. Things aren’t lining up to offer much optimism. Then again, it feels like not enough people are talking about Philadelphia’s injury situation. One that feels pretty notable.
We’ll start with the obvious one. Tight end Dallas Goedert, one of their best offensive weapons, is out for the next several weeks with an MCL injury. He leads the team in touchdown catches and has been a steady, dependable blocker as well. That alone is a tough blow. The other to watch is running back Saquon Barkley. He exited last week’s game with a neck stinger and didn’t return. Philadelphia only ranks 14th in rushing so far this year, and that’s with him in the lineup.
If he can’t go, it falls to Tank Bigsby, who is averaging 2.8 yards per carry.
The Chicago Bears should not turn down any advantage.
As successful as the Eagles have been to start the season, their offense hasn’t been good enough to make one think they can shrug off losses of this magnitude. They’ve scored 24 points in each of their first two games. Nothing special. It was against two opponents, the Washington Commanders and Tennessee Titans, who boast below-average defenses. That is not to say the Bears’ defense is anything special, but it showed last week that it can be a strong unit when everybody’s on the same page.
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The last thing Philadelphia needs is options taken away. If Goedert and Barkley are both out, the Chicago Bears can focus on stopping the two primary drivers of the offense. Those are receivers, DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks. They’ve already shown they can contain Smith, holding him to just 48 yards in last year’s meeting. As for Wicks, he is quite familiar with the Bears from his time in Green Bay. He has 7 catches for 61 yards across the last four games he has played them.
All this to say, Chicago isn’t the only team hurting.
The Eagles are still a good football team, but this isn’t the one that stampeded its way to the Super Bowl two years ago. There are vulnerabilities. Enough to pull an upset? This is the NFL—any given Sunday, as they say. We know for certain that Goedert will not play. That is a big loss on its own. If Barkley can’t go, that completely changes the outlook of the game. Suddenly, the Bears would go from likely having to score 24-27 points to have a good shot at winning to maybe 20-23. That is a huge difference.
It doesn’t make Philadelphia’s defense any less difficult to deal with. The Bears must navigate that minefield without any help. Yet sometimes you have to overcome challenges like this if you want to be a champion. Head coach Ben Johnson won’t make any excuses. This team should’ve won last week and paid the price for too many mistakes. If they can play cleaner football on Monday night, they can win.
