The rain on Sunday has not stopped (figuratively) pouring down on the Chicago Bears, as entering Wednesday it would seem that their top two QBs, Caleb Williams and Tyson Bagent, could potentially be unavailable when they play host to the Eagles on Monday night.
This means a few things — the Bears rushing attack is going to be as potent as ever…and the Eagles rushing defense is going to do everything in their power to stop it.
Entering week 3, Ben Johnson’s rushing attack leads the NFL with 212.5 yards
per game, nearly 30 yards more than the next best team. Meanwhile, Vic Fangio’s unit is not where it wants to be at 24th in the league while giving up 127 yards of rushing per game.
While the season is still young, it paints a familiar picture of a Bears rushing attack that ranked 3rd in 2025, and an Eagles rushing defense that ranked 21st last season. You don’t even need to look at the entire 2025 season to see what the Bears game plan ought to be on Monday night. All you need to do is look back to the performance they put on in Philly last November.
In that game, the Bears had a whopping 281 rushing yards, with both Swift and Monangai tallying more than 125 yards each. While Caleb’s legs always provided a threat, he had a relatively quiet day with 13 yards rushing. He also had a pretty quiet and inefficient day passing, throwing 17/36 for 154 yards and a 57 rating. This is the blueprint for the Bears to get back on track in week 3.
Still, it won’t be easy to replicate a performance like that, especially with the talent Philly boasts up front. The Eagles DL remains one of the best in the league, boasting two bona fide studs in Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter. While Carter works from the end, Davis is going to be heavily relied upon to plug up the middle of the line and slow the Bears rushing attack.
Here is a series of clips from last year’s matchup showing:
- Drew Dalman and Joe Thuney immediately pushing Davis off the point of attack leading to an 18 yard pickup for Monangai.
- A huge gain by Swift where Davis wasn’t on the field.
- A 3 yard touchdown run by Swift where Thuney stymies Davis at the line.
- Drew Dalman beats Davis one on one while Jackson and Wright open up a massive hole on the right side to break Swift out for an 18 yard gain.
- Davis is once again missing while swift breaks off another chunk play.
- Thuney stands Davis up at the line and keeps him from moving laterally to stop Monangai, leading to a 30+ yard gain.
- Dalman and Jackson get a strong push left against Davis to open up a gap for a 5 yard touchdown for Kyle Monangai.
While the Bears no longer have Dalman, and Garrett Bradbury has not yet proven to be a perfect replacement, the duo of Jackson and Thuney in the middle should go a long way to help open up holes in the middle of the line. In looking at Davis’ snap count last season, he found himself on about 66% of snaps in most games, including the Bears. So far this season he is hovering around 50%, so I would expect the Bears to test his conditioning in the middle early and often with a power running attack.
If the Bears can wear down Davis in the middle, we could see another big day from the rushing attack. If Monangai and Swift are unable to break loose — it’s going to be a long day at the office for Keenum.
