First and foremost: it’s September football. Sure, the 2026 season is three weeks old, but this part of the season is a de facto preseason for teams that don’t play their starters in the actual preseason … The Philadelphia Eagles are one of those teams. Now that that’s out of the way: Good lord, the Eagles were an absolute mess on Monday night. The offense was kind of a disaster, and the defense was as bad as we’ve ever seen under Vic Fangio. When it’s that kind of a disaster-piece, there’s a lot of blame to go around.
It’s a little therapeutic to know who to point your finger at, so these are the five guys to look at for the amalgamation of pain we all had to see.
Nick Sirianni Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
We already know the value that Nick Sirianni adds to the Eagles isn’t something that we can see. We’ve known that for a few years now.
That’s why it is immensely frustrating when he does some bozo things that significantly hurt the team.
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On Monday, that was his decision at the end of the third quarter: on a fourth-and-one from his own 49-yard line, he took a delay of game and punted.
At that point, the Eagles were down 20-7, the defense was getting bled, and the offense had to do something to get back in the game … And Sirianni decided not to trust his players. It was as dumb as it was pathetic, especially because he decided to go for it on a fourth-and-5 from the same area of the field three minutes later. But it’s not just that. As soon as the Bears went down the field on their first drive, you could see that the Eagles were up for this game … and then the penalties started rolling. The official count was 10, but it was more like eight. One was a Drew Kendall false start that turned a first-and-10 into a first-and-11, and another one was Sirianni’s delay of game … But they still had eight penalties for 55 yards other than that.
They were unprepared, undisciplined, and played like a team that deserved to lose to a terrible defense and a third-string quarterback.
That falls on Nick Sirianni. Vic Fangio Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Simply put: Ben Johnson has Vic Fangio’s number. The Fangio scheme is built to limit explosive plays with a defensive backfield and linebacker group that functions as a hivemind to pass off coverages. It’s a scheme that gives almost every single offensive scheme a whole lot of issues … but it certainly doesn’t affect what Ben Johnson and the Bears want to do. The Eagles were great against the run. The Bears’ running backs carried the ball 30 times for 115 yards; it was mostly ineffective.
But everything that they did looked like they were just spamming the easy button. When it looks like there’s an easy button, you have to put that on the defensive coordinator.
It’s easy to say that Jihaad Campbell, Drew Mukuba, and Cooper DeJean were getting picked on, and to be fair, they didn’t play their best games … But that’s not really what Johnson’s offense does. Instead, it picks on zones, and if those zones aren’t there to throw at, he does an awesome job putting guys in conflict and ripping those zones open. That’s exactly what happened, and that’s what led to Case Keenum having a 70% completion rate, throwing for 14 first downs and two touchdowns.
Fangio is one of the best defensive coordinators in the league, but this is two straight games against the Bears where his defense got embarrassed.
Last year it was on the ground, and this year it was through the air.
The whole defensive line Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
If there was going to be a way for Fangio’s defense to be effective against the Bears, it was going to have to be with the defensive line knocking Case Keenum off his spot. That seems like it should be a really easy thing to do … because it was Case freaking Keenum. That didn’t happen, and that’s super scary.
The Bears have a good offensive line, but the Eagles’ defensive line is being paid to be dominant. Jalen Carter is getting paid $38 million per year, Jordan Davis is getting paid $26 million per year, and Jonathan Greenard is getting paid $24 million per year.
Maybe you can give Greenard a little bit of slack because this was his first game of the season, but that’s still a bunch of money getting dumped into a group of guys who have not been able to touch quarterbacks. Per NFL Pro, Keenum had the fifth-lowest average time to throw of any quarterback this season (2.41 seconds), and the Eagles had the second-slowest average pass rush get-off time of any defense this season … So the stats match exactly what you saw.
It was a complete failure, and it started up front.
Sean Mannion Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
If Fangio gets the blame for the Eagles’ defense looking bad, Sean Mannion gets all the blame for the Eagles’ offense looking bad. That sucks for him because this is the third game that he’s ever called, but that’s how it is with this team.
It’s weird because there were times that the Eagles offense was humming. During that 95-yard drive, Saquon was churning, Hurts was dealing, and his receivers were making plays … Until Mannion let Andy Dalton make a back-breaking mistake.
Then, during the drive to end the first half, he called some really good stuff. He was getting his receivers open, and in eight plays, Hurts got the offense 65 yards down the field and went into the locker room down only 10-7. Then the second half started … and the Eagles’ first three drives were three-and-outs. There were negative plays on second downs, then third downs came and it was only pain.
Everyone in the world knew they were going to throw the ball, but the plays weren’t giving Hurts answers. That all compounded with a mediocre pass rush and pressure plan that really got into Hurts’ head, and he started to feel a pass rush that wasn’t always there.
There were extreme highs and lows, and Mannion does get credit for those highs … But the lows are what cost the Eagles the game.
Andy Dalton Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Andy Dalton | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Maybe Andy Dalton shouldn’t be on this list … It’s not his fault that he’s QB2. It’s not his fault that he didn’t get as many QB2 reps in training camp. It’s not his fault that Jalen Hurts had to get tested for a concussion. It’s not his fault that Saquon didn’t score on first- and/or second-and-goal. It’s not his fault that the play call on third down was a pass.
But it absolutely is his fault that he threw a cupcake to a safety who wasn’t moving, and it ruined a 95-yard would-be touchdown drive. What are we even doing here?
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