Jalen Carter Takes Blame For Bad Run Defense, But There's Plenty To Go Around

PHILADELPHIA – Jalen Carter took accountability for the Eagles’ failure to stop the run on Friday in a 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears, and he alluded to something about himself personally, though didn’t go into detail.

“I blame myself on that,” said the defensive tackle. “There were some runs out there I got drove back and wasn’t able to have an effect on the play. It’s my problem to deal with. I won’t tell you what I’m going through.”

Carter’s stats don’t look bad. He made four tackles, including two for loss, with a sack, two quarterback hits, and a pass defended. Still, he was on the bench for extended stretches of the first half, with Byron Young getting his most playing time of the season with 38 snaps (44 percent). Carter played 61 (70 percent).

Any time a defense gets gashed for 281 yards on the ground, though, there is no such thing as a good game, though it needs to be pointed out that safety Reed Blankenship made a career-high 14 tackles, breaking his previous best of 11 done three times.

Defensive tackle Jordan Davis also set a career-high with nine tackles, shattering his previous best of six set in the season-opening win over the Cowboys.

Plenty Of Blame To Go Around On Eagles Defense

Nov 28, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Chicago Bears running back Kyle Monangai (25) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter of the game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

“You should never hear a defensive player whose defense just gave up over 200 rushing yards say it’s not frustrating,” said linebacker Nakobe Dean, who made 12 tackles on a season-high 82 snaps (94 percent).

“It’s definitely frustrating to give up that many yards, definitely knowing it’s not us, it’s not what we usually do, so we’ll get better from it, and, yeah, we damn sure got a bad taste in our mouth right now.”

There’s no way for one person to take all the blame for what happened against Chicago, like Carter tried to do. There was plenty of it to go around and rightfully so after both Bears running backs – D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai - went over 100 yards each for the first time in the same game since Walter Payton and Matt Suhey did it 40 years ago.

“A lot of players can shy away from (accountability and what coaches are saying) or they can embrace it and get better,” said Davis. “That really just falls on the individual. Me personally, I hear them and they expect better of us, and we have to do that. No excuses. I’m not going to sit here and mope around, be like ‘woe is me.’ We have to get the issues fixed. Next week we have a chance to get it fixed and we’ll do that.”

The Eagles’ offensive line was often asked last year how demoralizing and deflating it was for opposing defenses when Saquon Barkley ran wild on them, with 11 games of 100 yards and his 2,504 yards rushing in the season.

The answer those linemen inevitably gave was “very.” Against the Bears, the Eagles’ defense found out exactly how it felt.

“I don’t know if deflating is the word because we are still confident in ourselves and we didn’t let that crush us or get us down, but it’s definitely unacceptable,’ said Jaelan Phillips. “So, we’re going to definitely take that on the chin and make improvements from there and move on.”

More NFL: Nick Sirianni Continues Standing By Playcaller Despite Struggling Offense