Bear Digest

No more doubt as Bears humiliate world champion Eagles 24-15

The running game and stingy, opportunistic defense dominated Philadelphia before Caleb Williams sealed a win with a TD pass to Cole Kmet.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kyle Monangai burrows into the end zone for a 4-yard TD in the Bears' victory over the Eagles.
Kyle Monangai burrows into the end zone for a 4-yard TD in the Bears' victory over the Eagles. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

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A league skeptical and constantly doubting what the Bears have become got a big dose of reality.

NFL, welcome to 2025 and Ben Johnson's Chicago Bears, a team that dominated the world champions for four quarters on their own field.

The Bears' running game overpowered the Eagles in an old-time show of force like Mike Ditka himself could appreciate. Their defense kept turning away the Eagles offense with regularity and registered two big takeaways from a team that rarely turns it over.

They came away with a 24-15 win and now the naysayers who doubted their schedule and kept denying it was really happening can deal with the inevitable conclusion.

The Bears really are back. In one season, Ben Johnson has resurrected an entire franchise.

They did it with Caleb Williams throwing for only 154 yards on 17 of 36 and with their defense still missing the top three linebackers.

  • It started with a 78-play march in 11 plays to 4-yard D'Andre Swift TD run. Swift finished with 125 yards on 18 carries.
  • Kyle Monangai scored on another 4-yad run in the third quarter to end an 87-yard drive for 17-9 Bears lead. Monangai ran for 130 yards on 22 carries.
  • Then Williams made a comeback all but impossible with a play-action 28-yard fourth-quarter TD pass to Cole Kmet.
  • They outrushed the Eagles 281 yards to 87, doubled their first-down total with 28 first downs and piled up 39:18 of possession time to 20:42.
  • Along the way, former Eagle Kevin Byard snuffed out a drive with an interception of Jalen Hurts, Nahshon Wright solved the tush push by taking the ball out of Hurts' hands at the Bears' 13-yard line.

It wasn't as close as the final score indicated as the Bears led 24-9 but a two-point pass failed with 3:10 remaining after the Eagles finally found a way to move the ball. They needed a deuce because Jake  Elliott had missed a conversion kick. The onside kick failed after the last Eagles' TD, as Rome Odunze recovered it

The Bears danced off and the Philly fans who once booed Santa weren’t even left at the final gun to boo their world champions. They had all left by then. Even Santa himself was spotted going out the exit with the Eagles.

The new era of Bears football has officially arrived with nine wins in 10 games. They are currently the second seed in the NFC at 9-3 and go to Green Bay to try and retain their NFC North lead.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.