2026 Week 3: Chicago Bears 27, Philadelphia Eagles 7

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: October 4, 2026

Does this look like the face of a man who had one of the best performances of his career on national TV after not starting a game in almost three full years? No, it does not. But it is. [Photo: ESPN]

Player grades can be found at the Qwality Sports Substack.

What’s with Keenum’s grade? Do you work for PFF?

Look, Keenum did a great job running the offense, but there were several throws behind receivers that would’ve been bigger gains had the ball been placed where it should have. Some of those ended up at +.5s instead of +1s and a couple were bad enough misses that they went down as -.5s even though they were completed. In addition, there were some bad decisions, including two passes that would have been 6 the other way had they been caught and a really dangerous one deep in the Bears’ own territory.

After the game, Erik Lambert wondered on Twitter what Keenum’s career would’ve been like if he had a coach like Ben Johnson his whole career. The answer is Brock Purdy. There’s nothing particularly physically impressive, but he can run an offense. Purdy does not suck and Keenum deserves credit for the way he ran the offense on Monday night, the lion’s share of the credit (or former Lion’s as it were) belings to Ben Johnson. Dude straight-up ate Vic Fangio’s lunch. The Eagles came out committed to not let the Bears run all over them like they did last year and Ben had the answers to get guys open and make things easy for Keenum.

Lastly, on the topic, after watching the tape, I see why the Bears are going with Bagent on Sunday against the Jets and really, it shouldn’t have even been a question. Keenum certainly has the mental side of things down, but his limited athleticism creates issues. If he’s late on a read, he’s in trouble and there’s no clear way out of it. A few times it happened where he was slightly late going through his progression and where Caleb or Bagent could extend a play or create something with their legs, Bagent was just kind of stuck and a bad decision followed.

You said the defense would give up 30 to anyone with a pulse. Is the defense actually good?

Jaylon Johnson had his best game of the young season outside of a major bust where nobody covered Dontayvion Wicks.

The Eagles run DeVonta Smith off a switch release into a mesh concept to generate a lot of traffic for Muhammad to navigate and pick up an easy first down on 3rd and 1. It’s unfortunate that Wicks is wide open for a touchdown off of a blown coverage, but that isn’t where this one is designed to go. It would be cool if Hurts noticed it, but his first look is Saquon fast to the flat and then the mesh over the middle.

I would guess you will see screen shots of this one circulating on Twitter though.

— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) September 29, 2026

The Eagles stack DeVonta Smith behind Wicks. It’s a mesh concept with Smith and EJ Jenkins on drags, Johnny Mundt sitting behind them, and Wicks on a corner route. Both Jaylon Johnson and Malik Muhammad cover Smith. Why Jaylon thought he should do that, I have no idea. Instinct says it’s the rookie who screwed up, but I can’t come up with a good reason why that would be Jaylon’s guy unless this is just some Dennis Allen coaching point I’m not aware of. If that is the case, I’ll take away the -2 I gave him. The Bears were fortunate that neither guy covered Smith particularly well and that he was open because had Hurts had to go past his first read on the play, he may have noticed that the nearest defender to Wicks was in Peoria.

Jaylon’s performance overall was a big deal and a big boost to a secondary that needed one. Thieneman was excellent again and while nobody else was great in coverage, nobody was awful. The run defense got better when Booker or Sweat was the one responsible for setting the edge while Lynch was constantly getting blown out of plays.

That said, there were also some missed opportunities by the Eagles. The aforementioned play where nobody covered Wicks, the pick in the endzone, multiple occasions where D’Marco Jackson did not pay adequate attention to Saquon Barkley and had Hurts been able to get Barkley the ball, he would have gone for a big gain. The Bears played well, but the Eagles did have a bunch of chances that, had they made the most of them, would’ve made this a very different game.

What does this mean for Sunday against the Jets?

Not having Breece Hall is going to hurt the Jets. The players I have a particular eye on for Chicago are Jaylon Johnson, Devin Bush, and Malik Muhammad. If the Bears can contain Garrett Wilson and Kenyon Sadiq, you should feel good about this one. I don’t think the Jets are truly dreadful, but after blowing out a Titans team that is truly dreadful in week 1, they gagged away a game against the Packers and saw a comeback attempt against the Lions fall short. You shouldn’t take them lightly, but I don’t exactly see a playoff contender. Keep an eye out for a boneheaded clock management decision from Aaron Glenn.

Monsters

Burden, Raymond, Loveland, Wright, Thuney, Braxton Jones before he got hurt, Edwards, Woods, Thieneman

Chipmunks

Lynch

Four Stars of the Game

Joe Thuney