No Williams, no worries for Bears as Eagles fail to fire

Monday Night Football took place in Chicago as the Bears hosted the Philadelphia Eagles, who came in at 2-0 but only with a pair of unconvincing wins against the Washington Commanders and Tennessee Titans, not dissimilar to what most of the 2025 season looked like for the visitors.

The Bears’ franchise quarterback Caleb Williams was officially ruled out during the week after needing to be carted off with a hamstring injury last week, although there was a silver lining for the home fans in finding out the injury’s severity was less than initially expected.

Case Keenum made his first appearance since 2023 in place of Williams, and looked to have not skipped a beat on the team’s opening drive. He completed 5 passes for 45 yards, including the first touchdown of the night to Luther Burden III, who withstood contact to find the end zone.

The Eagles’ offense were slow out of the blocks, showing no improvement from their first fortnight of play. A first drive punt was shortly followed by a Tank Bigsby fumble on Philadelphia’s 15-yard line, which Xavier Woods dove on to give Chicago a golden opportunity to extend the lead.

Colston Loveland appeared to have done just that, but replay assist ruled him inches short. After a wide-open drop by Rome Odunze took a would-be touchdown off the board, a failed 4th down attempt meant the Bears somehow came away empty-handed.

Riding the momentum generated by a defensive stand, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ offense compiled a strong drive into the red zone, although a late hit by D’Marco Jackson saw Hurts head to the blue tent for a concussion evaluation, leaving Andy Dalton to complete the drive.

He was unable to do so, throwing an interception right down the throat of Dillon Thieneman on his first pass attempt as an Eagle.

Back-to-back throws by Keenum to Burden III and Odunze, respectively, resulted in explosive plays for Chicago, although Philadelphia’s elite red zone defense held strong once again, limiting the Bears to a field goal and keeping themselves in the game, trailing just 10-0.

Hurts returned to the game as his team regained possession with under 2 minutes remaining in the half. Unwilling to be shutout at halftime, he executed a perfect 2-minute drill, hooking up frequently with DeVonta Smith. Disaster loomed as Smith went down inbounds, inches short of the goal line with 10 seconds on the clock and Philadelphia out of timeouts, but the savvy Hurts assembled the patented tush push with a second to spare, propelling himself into the end zone as time expired to cut the Bears’ halftime lead to 3 points.

Chicago put up the first points of the second half through a Cairo Santos field goal, and their defense responded immensely, forcing the Eagles to go 3-and-out on their first 3 drives of the half.

Keenum’s first start in 1,009 days got even better when he couldn’t help but find a wide-open Kalif Raymond in stride for a 41-yard score, with a 13-point margin looking almost unassailable, despite there still being 5 minutes to play in the third quarter, given how uninspiring Philadelphia’s offense had looked.

The result was sealed when Hurts threw an interception of his own straight to TJ Edwards, as Nick Sirianni’s team had no choice but to go for it on 4th and 5. Ben Johnson continued his stronghold over the Eagles’ defense, picking them apart once again, this time primarily through the run game, as the clock continued to wind down.

It was only fitting that the result was sealed by an unlikely touchdown to Keenum himself, who surged across the goal line with a sneak play of his own, putting emphasis on a surprisingly dominant 27-7 primetime victory for Chicago.

Despite being favourites for tonight’s game, this has been coming for the Eagles. They don’t appear to have made many changes to the offense that was pathetic for most of last season, and ultimately wilted when it mattered most in the playoffs. A difficult October looms as their judgement month, and drastic changes are needed if they are to return to the Super Bowl-winning form of 2024.

Touchdowns
Philadelphia: Hurts
Chicago: Burden III, Raymond, Keenum

Top Performers
Philadelphia: Mitchell, Smith, Barkley, Baun
Chicago: Keenum, Raymond, Burden III, Edwards, Thieneman

Injuries
Philadelphia: N/A
Chicago: Jones (knee)

Crowd: TBC at Soldier Field