Missed Opportunities Prove Costly For Eagles: Bears 24 Eagles 20

     A valiant hard fought game it was, but once again the Eagles and their fans are dealt a crushing agonizing defeat. Once again, it was the inability to capitalize on four Bears turnovers that led to the Eagles demise, leaving them in the cellar of the NFC East again.

     It was a tale of two halves on Sunday night on both sides of the ball on Sunday. In the first half, both the Bears and Eagles offense had success moving the football and the defenses looked sloppy. After forcing an Eagles three and out, Kyle Orton hit on two consecutive passes to Rasheed Davis (34 yards) Matt Forte (5 yards) and finally finishing off the three play drive with a 19 yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Olsen who made a great catch in the corner of the end zone. But the Eagles were quick to reply with a methodical eight play 74 yard scoring drive ending with DeSean Jackson's first NFL touchdown in the back of the end zone for 22 yards over the outstretched hands of Brian Urlacher. Each team went scoreless to end the first quarter at 7-7, but that's when things got crazy.

     The Bears went three and out to start the second quarter, but when DeSean Jackson went to field the punt, it bounced off of his hands and it was recovered by Chicago, two plays later, Orton found Marty Booker for a 23 yard scoring strike to give the Bears a 14-7 lead. But again the Eagles were quick to reply, with a five play 67 yard drive ending with Correll Buckhalter plunging into the end zone off left tackle to tie the game. On the ensuing drive, Kyle Orton was hit by Juqua Parker as he was throwing, the ball flipped in the air and into the waiting arms of Darren Howard for an interception. The Eagles drive would stall and David Akers would hook a 50 yard field goal attempt wide right, keeping the score tied. The Bears were quick to take advantage of the Eagles miscue and embarked on a nine play 60 yard drive ending with Kyle Orton's third touchdown pass of the half to Devin Hester, giving the Bears another lead at 21-14, not to sound like a homer right here but it looked clear that Hester bumped Asante Samuel off stride extending his arm to create separation. Neither team would score again to end the half. But this was just the beginning of a sloppy and confusing game.

     For the Eagles, the second half was about missed opportunities. In the first half they failed to capitalize off a Darren Howard interception with a missed field goal from David Akers. After shutting down the Bears offense on the opening possession of the half, the McNabb and company began to move into Bears territory, but poor communication between McNabb and DeSean Jackson led to an interception by Kevin Payne, who would return the ball inside the Eagles 10 yard line. Two plays later Kyle Orton would be pressured into another mistake, firing an interception to Quintin Mikell in the end zone. Philly was unable to convert that turnover into points moving only four yards in three play forcing another Sav Rocca punt. Rocca's punt to Devin Hester was a great one, Hester tried to make a big play but the Eagles return coverage bottled Hester in, forcing him out of bounds at his own three yard line. Chicago went three and out again forcing a punt, the Eagles drove back into field goal range, but came up short again as Akers bounced a 47 yard kick off the right upright, again the Eagles were unable to take advantage of Bears miscues. Two drives later, a Trent Cole sack led to an Orton fumble, which was recovered by Omar Gaither who returned it six yards to the Bears 28 yard line. This time Philly turned the turnover into points, Akers finally connected on a 24 yard field goal, cutting the deficit to four points at 21-17.

     In the fourth quarter the Bears continued to hand the Eagles points that were never scored. At the end of the third quarter, a botched hand off led to another Bears turnover giving the Eagles another shot at taking the lead. Again McNabb and company were unable to put the ball in the end zone as the drive gain ended in a David Akers field goal, cutting the lead to 21-20. On the ensuing kickoff, a pooch kick gave Chicago great field position at their own 40 yard line, that came back to haunt the Eagles after Robbie Gould hit on a field goal to finish the drive, giving the Bears a 24-20 lead. So down by four, Donovan McNabb rallied the troops and led the Eagles on a 75 yard drive to the Bears one yard line, the drive was highlighted by four punishing rushes by Correll Buckhalter. Buck would move the ball to the one yard line with a three yard run, on the following play tony Hunt had an apparent hole off right tackle but continued to the outside where he was stuffed by three Bears, on third and goal Buckhalter tried to leap over the pile but was caught in mid air and brought down inches short of the end zone, after a time out Andy Reid opted to go for the win and instead of sneaking the ball with his 240 pound quarterback he gave the ball to Buckhalter who was stopped short, it was a very close play which probably should have been challenged. Matt Forte who had been shut down all game by the Eagles defense put the game away on third and four, breaking the tackle of Quintin Mikell and picking up the winning first down.

     Missed opportunities and poor play calling doomed the Eagles against the Bears, dropping their record to 2-2 and placing them in the cellar of the NFC East. Reggie Brown made his biggest contribuion of the season during the gamem, hauling in 6 catches for 78 yards. The Bears pretty much handed the Eagles the game with how careless they were with the football. The Bears stumbled out of the game with a win and move to 2-2 on the season. You can't take away the performance of the Bears defense in the second half, they were handed some very bad situations and kept the Eagles to only six points without star defensive lineman Tommie Harris. The Eagles will battle the Washington Redskins next Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. If the Eagles don't win, it could spell trouble for their playoff hopes.