Local Sports

Bears in Philly Sunday

The Chicago Bears meet the Philadelphia Eagles for the first time since a double doink ended their season and they still haven't solved their kicking woes.

 

The Bears lost 16-15 to the Eagles at home in the playoffs last January when Cody Parkey's 43-yard field goal in the closing seconds was tipped at the line of scrimmage and bounced off an upright and the crossbar.

 

Rookie Eddy Pineiro won a wide-open kicking competition in training camp and booted a 53-yard field goal as time expired to beat Denver in Week 2. But Pineiro missed a 41-yarder in the final seconds in a 17-16 loss to the Chargers last week.

 

Afterward, Bears coach Matt Nagy was criticized for having quarterback Mitchell Trubisky take a knee on first-and-10 from the 21 with 43 seconds remaining and one timeout remaining. Then Pineiro made things worse by saying he would have preferred having the ball placed in the middle of the field rather than the left hash on his game-ending miss.

 

After setting a franchise low with seven rushing attempts against New Orleans, the Bears committed to the run last week. They had some success out of the I-formation and rookie David Montgomery had a career-high 135 yards.

 

The Bears looked more like their old dominant selves on defense against the Chargers last week after getting pushed around by Oakland in London and New Orleans at home. They went from giving up a season-high 424 yards against the Saints to holding Los Angeles to 231. They kept Philip Rivers to a season-low 201 yards passing and shut down the run game after getting gashed in back-to-back outings. Chicago gave up just 36 yards on 12 attempts after letting Oakland (169 yards) and New Orleans (151 yards) run at will.

 

Both teams need a win Sunday when the Eagles (4-4) begin a stretch of three consecutive home games after three straight on the road, including a pair of lopsided losses at Minnesota and Dallas. They rebounded with a 31-13 win at Buffalo.

 

The Bears (3-4) have lost three in a row.

Townhall Top of the Hour News

Local Weather - Sponsored By:

CLINTON WEATHER

Local News

DeWittDN on Facebook