Most people expect the Philadelphia Eagles to take care of business against the Chicago Bears on Friday. It makes sense. They're the defending champions. They have the more complete roster, good coaching, and home-field advantage. The Bears have the coaching, but their roster is depleted due to injuries in several areas. Unless Philadelphia completely falls asleep, they should win this game. However, former Bears and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles has serious misgivings about the team he won a Super Bowl for.
While the Eagles might be 8-3, they've had a serious identity crisis on offense all season. Despite a wealth of talent, they ranked 24th overall and 17th in scoring. Their league-leading rushing attack from last season has dropped to 21st. People can't understand what the problem is. Foles believes it falls at the feed of offensive Kevin Patullo. He's demonstrated a lack of creativity in any form as a play caller all season. As a result, the Eagles have gone through extended dry spells on offense.
That problem could rear its head on Friday, even against Chicago's banged-up defense.
Nick Foles knows the truth.
The Bears don't have to stop the Eagles. If they can do enough to at least frustrate them, the Eagles will probably stop themselves. It's been like that for the past three weeks. They managed just 10 points in Green Bay, 16 against Detroit, and 21 against Dallas' supposedly awful defense. This offense is a shadow of what it was last year, and the only major change was the play caller. If that weren't bad enough, the Eagles are already without star tackle Lane Johnson and probably won't have leading receiver DeVonta Smith as well.
You can overcome an average play caller when the talent is elite across the board. Once that talent starts getting stripped away, it becomes almost impossible. Nick Foles understands that better than anybody. It is why he seems concerned about Philadelphia's future. They still might have enough to take care of the Bears, but it would be unwise to take them lightly.
