There was a time when the Philadelphia Eagles' defense was carrying this team to wins over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions after back-to-back games with their offenses being held under 10 points. Those days seem to be long gone.
After Dak Prescott threw for over 350 yards in the Dallas Cowboys' 24-21 improbable win over the Eagles in Week 12, Philly's defense followed that up with a hideous 281 yards rushing allowed in the 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears. This has arguably been the worst stretch of games on defense the Eagles have seen all season.
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio got honest in his press conference about how the defense struggled against the run. Fangio took accountability for the preparation and shared what went wrong for the Birds.
"Biggest issues were, one, they run the ball very well. I didn't do a good enough job of preparing our squad for the quality and the diversity of their run game. We didn't play the run and the blocks the way we had been playing."
Vic Fangio on the run defense vs. CHI: "Biggest issues were, one, they run the ball very well. I didn't do a good enough job of preparing our squad for the quality and the diversity of their run game. We didn't play the run and the blocks the way we had been playing."
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) December 4, 2025
It was about as bad of a game as it gets for the Eagles' defense
This has been a weird stretch of games for the Eagles on defense, as they are usually dependable. While allowing 24 points in each of the last two games isn't horrible, the yardage they have allowed has crushed them.
Chicago had their way with this defense with multiple five to seven-yard runs from Kyle Monangai and former Eagle D'Andre Swift. The worst part was how the Bears' offensive line bullied the Eagles' defensive line throughout the game.
There were moments found in the game when the Bears' offensive line would be pushing Jalen Carter back five yards and leaving open gaps for Chicago's backs to run through. The problem there would be that there would be no linebackers in the area to cover the backside pursuit, so that the Bears would pick up chunk yards.
Read more: Kevin Patullo was every Eagles fan after missed golden opportunity against Bears
Fangio and his defense have a lot of cleaning up to do if they want any shot at beating the 8-4 Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14, with potentially Justin Herbert playing, depending on his hand injury. With how this Eagles defense is playing, that might not hold back Herbert from having himself a good game against Philly.