DeVonta Smith, Four Others Under My Microscope in 25-20 Win over Bears

Here are four players who played a big role in the win, and one who is still waiting to return

CHICAGO – The Eagles moved to 13-1 after beating the Chicago Bears, 25-20, at Soldier Field on Sunday, and just how dominant is that?

There isn’t another team with fewer than three losses, and there are just three of those 3-loss teams: The Chiefs, Bills, and Vikings.

It’s not always easy to win week in and week out, yet the Eagles have managed to avoid most pratfalls.

“Yeah, man, the NFL is any given Sunday, you never know what team you’re going to get, if you’re going to get their best or their low game,” said Eagles WR DeVonta Smith. “You never know. You gotta go out there and execute and do the things that you’ve been doing throughout the week and trust your training.”

Here are five players under my microscope from Sunday:

BOSTON SCOTT

The running back has been a revelation as a kickoff returner. His 58-yard return coming out of the halftime locker room gave the Eagles a short field and led to a touchdown that opened up a 17-6 lead. The Eagles needed just six plays to score after Scott’s return.

Since being inserted just a few games ago to return kicks, he entered Sunday with a 27.2-yard average on nine returns. Against the Bears, he averaged 30.7 yards on three kickoff returns.

Last week, he averaged 39.0 yards per kickoff return against the Giants and his 66-yard return was a huge lift, coming after New York cut the Eagles’ lead to 21-7 and led to a field goal right before halftime.

HAASON REDDICK

There’s an outside chance that the Eagles' pass rusher could lead the league in sacks.

After his two sacks on Sunday, he has 12, which puts him fourth in the league.

Ahead of him are Micah Parsons with 13, Myles Garrett with 13.5, and Nick Bosa with 15.5.

Bosa might be tough to catch, especially if the Eagles wrap up the No. 1 seed in the playoffs by beating the Cowboys on Saturday, and the Eagles begin playing their starters sparingly in the final two games.

Still, Reddick has turned his game up a few notches and he has at least a half-sack in each of the Eagles’ last six games.

DEVONTA SMITH

The Eagles WR has 901 yards on the season after putting up 126 on Sunday, 15 away from tying what he had in his rookie season last year.

He had receptions of 45 and 38 yards.

His 38-yarder was one of the top plays of the game, coming on the Eagles’ TD drive that closed the first half and allowed them to take a 10-6 lead into the locker room.

The catch came on third-and-three from the Eagles' 38 to Chicago’s 24. Three plays later, Jalen Hurts ran untouched up the middle for a 22-yard touchdown on third-and-eight.

K’VON WALLACE

The safety made his first start of the season, played 41 snaps (69%), and finished with eight tackles. 

His most memorable play came early with the Chicago Bears threatening to become just the fourth team to score points on their first drive against the Eagles’ defense this season.

Chicago had reached Philly’s 30 and faced a third-and-one.

QB Justin Fields tried to sweep left, but Wallace tracked him down and pushed him out-of-bounds for a 2-yard loss.

On fourth down, Avonte Maddox, who played all 59 defensive snaps, broke up a pass to give the ball to the Eagles’ offense.

DALLAS GOEDERT

Obviously, the tight end didn’t play against the Bears.

The thinking here is that the Eagles let Goedert take one more game to heal and be ready to play the Cowboys because he sure appeared on track to be activated for Sunday’s game against the Bears.

“He's getting there. He's getting there. We'll see obviously. But he had a good week of practice, the things that he did. We felt like he wasn't quite ready yet and when he's ready, he'll go.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.