Jalen Hurts Has Finishing Touch

Bears quarterback Justin Fields had the big run and a milestone.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ran where it counted most—to the end zone.

Hurts scored three rushing touchdowns and a two-point conversion and the Eagles held off another bold effort by the Bears and Fields 25-20.

Fields ran 15 times for 95 yards to hit 1,000 yards for the year exactly, letting him join Lamar Jackson and Michael Vick as the only quarterbacks ever to reach that level.

"I don't plan on rushing for a thousand yards every year," Fields said.

Since he's there, he's taking aim at Jackson's NFL record of 1,206 for quarterbacks.

"I mean, yeah, I'm already deep into this year," Fields said. "Might as well just try to go get that record. I think need, what, 206? Three games left. That's 70 yards a game. We'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see."

However, Fields didn't get in the end zone on a 39-yard run but did set up one of two David Montgomery touchdowns. Fields also scrambled and threw a 35-yard TD pass to wide-open Byron Pringle as the Bears were in desperation mode, down 25-13.

"I thought the guys had passion, had energy," coach Matt Eberflus said. "I thought we tackled well overall as a group. I was pleased with that for sure.

Looking at the third downs is where we need to be better. The third down battle, they won that battle, which is sustaining drives, making critical plays when you need to."

The Bears gave up 9-of-15 on third downs (56.3%) while converting 38.5% (5 of 13).

Two, in particular, were problems. A slant pass thrown to A.J. Brown by Hurts let the Eagles convert the last third down of the game and kill the clock off to avoid a final Bears drive for the win.

Earlier, the Bears led for the last time just before halftime after a 9-yard David Montgomery second-quarter TD run.

But Hurts broke the line of scrimmage running up the middle on third-and-8 when the Bears were blitzing everyone. He had no one left to beat on a 22-yard TD run up the middle that was possible because safety Jaquan Brisker got caught up inside in the blocking.

"If you want to execute in the critical moments, which that might have been a critical moment, third-and-(8), you have to get that done," Eberflus said. "We expect our players to do that. We challenge them to do that."

Montgomery's 9-yard TD run had given the Bears a 6-3 lead in the second quarter but Cairo Santos missed an extra point for the fifth time, and later called it a "glitch."

After Hurts' long TD run, the Eagles started the second half by driving 42 yards following a 58-yard kick return by Josiah Scott. Hurts, who ran for 61 yards on 17 attempts, went over from the 1 after Brown beat Jaylon Johnson for 29 yards on deep sideline ball to the 2.

The Bears were down 17-6 then and made a game of it but never totally recovered.

"Offensively I just felt like we had a lot of mistakes throughout the game, us players did," tight end Cole Kmet said. "So we've just got to make sure we sure that up but I think that was a game that we could have definitely won barring a few mistakes."

Fields threw for 152 yards on 14 of 21 without an interception. His first TD pass was a quick flip to Montgomery for 10 yards to beat the rush in the third quarter and get the Bears back within 17-13. Santos managed to make the extra point.

The Bears stayed in the game because a fumble recovery and interception by Kyler Gordon and an interception by DeAndre Houston-Carson. However, they didn't score after the two interceptions despite excellent field position.

"Of course, Kyler with the pick, that was huge," Fields said. "The fumble recovery, it was huge.

"Anytime we can get those takeaways, it's going to be great for our offense. Create short fields."

Hurts finished with 315 yards passing on 22 of 37 and the Eagles put the game away with a 75-yard drive to his 1-yard TD run for a 25-13 lead with 4:20 remaining. The Bears lost for the seventh straight time, one short of the team record.

"Everybody has to go through this," Eberflus said. "We're in the process of doing that right now. To me, it's more about the work habits of each guy and the work habits of the units, having that championship work habits.

"That to me is the most important thing. That's what you can stand on. You can stand on that along with our HITS principle. That's the foundation that will last time. It's always going to be there."

Right now, it seems like the losing streak will last an eternity. It's been forever since they beat New England 33-14 in October for their last win.

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