NFL Monday Night Football: Philadelphia Eagles at Chicago Bears
Monday Night Football ends Week 2 of NFL action with a downright strange, hard to figure matchup between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles:
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL:
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES AT CHICAGO BEARS:
So many question marks in this less than spectacular Monday Night Football matchup. In one corner, we’ve got second year head coach John Fox and his Chicago Bears. One thing we do know is that Fox can coach. He may have ‘overstayed his welcome’ in Carolina but his unceremonious dismissal in Denver–immediately after taking the team to the Super Bowl–made up for that. Fox landed on his feet after being given the ‘bum’s rush’ by the Broncos (even though it was called ‘mutual agreement’) and took the Chicago Bears job after they’d sent CFL refugee Marc Trestman packing after two seasons.
Fox will be given plenty of time to turn this team around. If Chicago gave Trestman two full seasons they’ll give Fox all the time in the world. Even so, the Bears’ performance in Fox’s first season has to be considered a disappointment. The Bears were 5-11 in Trestman’s final season but only improved by one game–to 6-10–in Fox’s first year. Of particular note was Chicago’s pitiful home record of 1-7 SU/2-6 ATS. In all fairness, it’s not always easy to clean up a dumpster fire. Jimmie Johnson went 1-15 in his first year as Dallas Cowboys’ head coach and didn’t produce a winning record until his third season en route to a dynasty. Looking at Fox’s resume you see an interesting pattern–in his first years with Carolina and Denver he went 16-18 SU. In the second years with both franchises he put up a combined record of 27-10.
The Bears have upgraded their roster to some extent–particularly their defensive front–but the offense is still a mess. Jay Cutler is still the starting quarterback for better or worse. Their only other option is backup Brian Hoyer who was the ‘odd man out’ when the Houston Texans made Brock Osweiler their franchise quarterback. The deal with Cutler–he’s a capable quarterback when he has protection and time to throw. Of course that also necessitates a competent rushing game to ‘keep the defense honest’. Right now all of Chicago’s rushing eggs are in Jeremy Langford’s basket. Langford was generally underwhelming as a rookie and was a non factor in Chicago’s opening game loss to Houston. 57 yards on 17 carries isn’t going to get it done. Don’t be surprised if Ka’Deem Carey or rookie Jordan Howard is the starting running back before long.
The Philadelphia Eagles are a bigger question mark–and possibly a bigger grease fire–that the Bears. Philadelphia fired Chip Kelly after two successful seasons and one 7-9 season and did a complete 180, hiring Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson as their new head coach. Pederson is a ‘known quantity’, having been on the coaching staff twice before and played quarterback for the Eagles in 1999. More interestingly, he’s about as diametric of an opposite to Kelly in terms of offensive philosophy as you could find. It’s not like the Chiefs have had a particularly innovative offense. It does suggest several questions–can a power running game win in the NFL which has clearly become a ‘passing league’ in the past decade? And what about personnel? Clay Matthews and Darren Sproles are capable running backs but not sure that either fit into the Jamaal Charles ‘punishing running back’ mold. The Eagles don’t really have the line play to make this work. Quarterback is also an issue–Carson Wentz looked decent in Philadelphia’s opening week win against the Cleveland Browns. He’s got a much tougher challenge here.
To the extent that Fox is under some pressure this year it’s likely to improve the team’s performance at home. That makes this an important game and there’s likely no way that the Bears can play as poorly on offense as they did last week.
BET CHICAGO BEARS -3 OVER PHILADELPHIA EAGLES