It was a blowout, and it left a lot of questions. The Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Bears Monday night at Soldier Field featured an offense that fizzled, a defense that folded, and a coaching staff that looked outmatched. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Jeff Neiburg provide a postmortem of the defense’s disappointing start to the season, critique of offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s approach, and assessment of how some of general manager Howie Roseman’s moves have panned out so far.
00:00 The defense has been a major disappointment
16:12 Sean Mannion’s offense has yet to impress
34:17 Scrutinizing Howie Roseman’s roster construction
unCovering the Birds is a co-production of KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts and The Philadelphia Inquirer, hosted by award-winning Inquirer reporter Jeff McLane. Look for new episodes throughout the season.
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Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter has a hairline fracture in his right wrist, NFL sources told The Inquirer.
Carter suffered the injury in the Week 1 win over the Washington Commanders and has played with a soft cast in the last two games.
He was an estimated full participant in Wednesday’s walkthrough ahead of Sunday’s game vs. the Rams.
Carter’s playing time has decreased since the injury. He played 66 snaps in the opener (94%), 41 snaps vs. the Titans in Week 2 (77%), and 51 snaps (71%) in Monday night’s 27-7 loss at the Bears.
The 25-year-old declined to go into detail about his wrist injury when it first popped up on the injury report two weeks ago.
While he has made a few splash plays in the last two games, Carter hasn’t been as productive as usual. He has yet to record a sack and has just one quarterback hit. The Eagles defense, as a whole, has just three sacks and has yet to force a turnover.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was asked how effective Carter can be playing with the injury on Wednesday.
“It’s a negative,” Fangio said. “There’s no way it can’t be, but to be honest with you, he’s done better than I thought he would with it.”
Carter played through shoulder injuries last season. He struggled in last November’s loss to the Bears and underwent procedures on both shoulders and missed four of the next five games.
The former first-round draft pick signed a four-year, $152 million extension in July ahead of training camp that made him the highest-paid interior defensive lineman in the NFL.
The Eagles fell to 2-1 Monday night after a disappointing 27-7 loss in Chicago, one that raised many questions about the state of the team through three games.
Here are a few of the big picture issues to consider: Is Vic Fangio’s defense much worse than we originally thought? Is Sean Mannion comfortable calling and sequencing games yet? Does the offense have an identity?
The answers need clarity fast, and maybe they’ll come as soon as Sunday, when the Los Angeles Rams come to town for a 1 p.m. game at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles are entering the meat of their schedule. Next is a Rams team that has Super Bowl aspirations, and after them is a trip to London to face a Jaguars team that just beat the defending AFC champions by almost 30 points.
Here’s a look at some numbers to know ahead of a highly anticipated Eagles-Rams game:
32.9%
Brandon Graham, now away from football and in the podcasting world, got some traction last week after the Eagles’ Week 2 win when he said he thought Jalen Hurts was playing freely and not having to force the ball to certain players.
Maybe he meant the way the offense is designed gives Hurts more answers, or maybe he was referring to Hurts not having to force the ball to A.J. Brown.
Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Because DeVonta Smith is seeing a lot … a lot … of action.
Through three games, 32.9% of Eagles pass attempts have gone toward Smith, the second-highest rate in the NFL behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba (37.9%).
If Smith’s target share number holds up, he would have the highest single-season target share of any Eagles player since at least 2000, according to Next Gen Stats.
There’s some context and curiosity to unpack here. The new Eagles offense asks Hurts to go through pure progression reads rather than the previous iteration that had him diagnose coverages before the snap.
Is Hurts not getting to his second read often enough? Dontayvion Wicks has better separation metrics than Smith through three games, but his 14 targets lag way behind Smith’s 27. Makai Lemon, meanwhile, has nine targets. Dallas Goedert’s injury also eliminated a trusted pass catcher from the equation.
Hurts’ pass protection has been shaky, but he’s also not yet been able to spread the ball around effectively.
Eagles linebackers Zack Baun (left) and Jihaad Campbell tackle Bears tight end Colston Loveland on Monday night.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
15
That’s how many intermediate level throws the Eagles have allowed through three games, according to Next Gen, which classifies an intermediate throw as one that travels 10-to-19 air yards. Five per game doesn’t sound like a lot, but they’re already almost a third of the way to the 49 intermediate throws they allowed in all of 2025.
Then there’s this from Next Gen: their completion percentage allowed in that area is at 65.2%, seventh-highest in the NFL and nearly 20 percentage points higher than their league-low rate of 42.6% in 2025.
What’s going on?
Cooper DeJean hasn’t looked like the All-Pro he was last season, Jihaad Campbell has had some struggles, and the safeties aren’t playing well enough. DeJean and Zack Baun have already been charged with allowing four intermediate catches this year, according to Next Gen, after allowing eight and three, respectively, all of last season.
It’s not going to get much easier. Here comes Puka Nacua (potentially), who has topped 100 receiving yards in each of his last two regular season matchups vs. the Eagles.
Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell could be charged again with slowing Puka Nacua on Sunday, if Nacua returns from injury. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
6.1
Rams coach Sean McVay sounded optimistic Nacua would return this week from his groin injury.
It would be a big boost to a 1-2 Rams team that is much better with him on the field than off it.
According to Next Gen, entering Week 3 and dating back to 2023 when Nacua was drafted, the Rams have averaged a full yard per play more with him on the field (6.1) than with him on the sideline (5.1).
Will better success on first down lead to more play action for the Eagles?Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
4
What if we told you three weeks ago, before the season started, that the Eagles would be averaging four under center play action plays per game?
After all the talk about the new dynamic offense Mannion was going to bring to the Eagles, one that would put Hurts under center and marry the run and pass games, you’d think we were crazy, right?
That’s where they are right now. Their 15 total play action passes are the fewest in the NFL, and they’re not very good when they’re running play action, ranking in the bottom six in the NFL in expected points added (EPA) per play.
What gives? It’s hard to threaten to run the ball when you’re so often behind the sticks. It’s hard to get into favorable play action situations when you’re struggling to run the ball.
The Eagles need to stop taking penalties and getting negative plays, and they need to build on the first-half running performance from Monday in Chicago.
Nick Sirianni (center) and Sean McVay (left) have both won Super Bowls, but McVay has yet to beat Sirianni. David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
4-0
Nick Sirianni has never lost to McVay. He’s 4-0 against the Rams coach, including a postseason victory.
In the aftermath of Monday night’s loss to the Chicago Bears, Jalen Hurts said he posed a question to the Eagles.
“‘Who are we?’” Hurts recalled on Wednesday. “‘Ask yourself that question because that’s a choice you can make, and being deliberate and intentional on how we move forward, so we can continue to improve.’”
The Eagles showed in their first loss of the season that they’re still figuring out their identity. The offense took strides in the run game in the first half — especially on their outside zone runs — but that progress dissipated in the second as they got behind the sticks with negative plays and penalties.
Chicago held them scoreless in the second half, part of a larger trend that is becoming a burgeoning concern for the Eagles offense. They’ve scored 20 of their 55 points this season in the second half. The Eagles have averaged 4.27 yards per play in the second half, which ranks 30th in the NFL.
Still, the Eagles offense is just three games into the season under new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. Hurts seemed to express an understanding that the growing pains are part of learning a new offense.
“We want to win, and I think us onboarding new things and us learning new things, a lot of that is just part of the process of us becoming who we are,” Hurts said. “So I’ve talked about continuity and building that continuity, building that chemistry. Us coming together, staying together, and finding our flow, finding out what this team this year is going to be.”
To Hurts, losing provides an opportunity to learn, even if it stings momentarily.
“I hate it more than anything in this world,” Jalen Hurts said on Wednesday.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“I hate it more than anything in this world,” Hurts said. “At the same time, we need it, and it’s something that is natural and a part of the process of winning. To win, you have to lose. You have to build resilience and character within that, reflecting on it, choosing to learn from it.”
The Eagles have plenty to learn from their loss, but they don’t have much time to dwell on the past. Coming off a Monday night game, they have a short week to prepare for their next opponent: The 1-2 Los Angeles Rams, whose record doesn’t reflect their talent.
It’s still early in the season, but the Eagles have just 14 more guaranteed opportunities in the form of regular-season games to establish an identity. While Hurts acknowledged that the teaching moments are part of the process, he also voiced a sense of urgency as they seek to collectively answer the question he posed to the team.
“I would like it to come as soon as possible,” Hurts said. “Competitively, it’s like, let’s do [it] by any means necessary. Let’s find a way to win. At the same time, it’s a process, and you know it’s not just one individual. I think it’s a team.
“It’s a team, and I think expectations are sometimes surrounding one thing when in reality, all these are moving parts, and we’ve all got to work collectively to find the results that we want.”
Against the Bears, Hurts said the Eagles put a collective emphasis on establishing the run, especially given its struggles in the first two games of the season.
The run game showed flashes, as Saquon Barkley amassed 73 yards on 11 carries in the first half alone. Against the Washington Commanders and the Tennessee Titans, the passing game had its moments, highlighted by the explosive and clutch plays orchestrated by Hurts.
Can the Eagles put together a well-rounded showing in both facets of the offense, all while protecting the football and staying disciplined?
“As we continue to put an emphasis on different streams of our game, we’ve got to be able to put it all together, right?” Hurts said. “We’ve been a team that protects the ball traditionally. None of that should change. Protecting the ball has a lot to do with understanding, our thinking, everything being second nature, just going out there and flowing.”
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense have 20 second-half points this season.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
At the same time, though, Hurts said he doesn’t care how the Eagles look, so long as the team wins. The opportunities have been there. He said the Eagles need to stop leaving “meat on the bone,” especially in the second halves of games.
Ultimately, for Hurts, the Eagles’ progress is about looking inward and focusing on nailing down the aspects of the offense that are within their control.
“Not worried about anybody else necessarily,” Hurts said. “Just us trying to master our stuff, coming together and do things the way we want to do them, and have some confidence in that.”
Vic Fangio didn’t want to point a finger at any one player for the third-quarter Chicago Bears touchdown Monday night that put the Eagles in a two-score hole during their eventual 27-7 defeat, but he did take the blame for the overall effort.
“I thought our guys were ready to play mentally and physically,” Fangio said Wednesday. “Our details were off a little bit, especially when they were throwing it quick, so that’s on me. Didn’t have them ready to execute better.”
The Eagles weren’t beat up on the ground the way they were vs. Chicago in Week 13 last season, but they didn’t have enough answers to limit 38-year-old third-string quarterback Case Keenum from causing damage in the passing game. The Bears dialed up quick throws and used play action to their advantage, as Keenum threw for 247 yards and two touchdowns while running in for another.
Keenum’s 41-yard touchdown throw to Kalif Raymond was a backbreaker. Raymond was open in the middle of the field with no Eagles defender within 10 yards of him. Cooper DeJean followed Luther Burden III, who motioned to Raymond’s side of the field where Riq Woolen was also lined up. DeJean stayed with Burden and Woolen did not cover Raymond.
“It was between Cooper and Riq, had a miscommunication on that,” Fangio said.
Chicago Bears wide receiver Kalif Raymond’s 41-yard touchdown Monday as a backbreaker.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The coordinator said the fix is correcting it and to “make sure they understand it, which we thought they did,” he said. “That wasn’t an uncommon motion from that team.” Asked what was supposed to happen on the play, Fangio said: “Well, those two guys have to sort it out. I’m not going to point blame.”
DeJean and Zack Baun both mentioned communication being an issue in the locker room after Monday’s game. Asked if there were overarching issues there, Fangio said he thought the players were just talking about that specific play.
But shortly after Fangio spoke in the auditorium at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, DeJean talked to reporters at his locker stall and elaborated a bit.
“I would say our biggest thing right now is there’s not enough talking on the field — between everybody, myself included,” DeJean said. “To the corners, to the safeties, linebackers, everybody just needs to communicate a little bit more so we’re all on the same page. We made too many mistakes that were unforced that shouldn’t happen, that are easy things that we’ve repped many times.
“In this defense, communication is key. There’s a lot of moving parts.”
The Eagles will continue the rotation they used at safety on Monday night, Fangio said Wednesday.
Marcus Epps started the game at safety in the non-base packages next to Andrew Mukuba, but he appeared to be benched after the first Chicago drive for Michael Carter II. Fangio said the plan was to rotate the players, which they did in practice last week.
“Those two guys are still going to man it,” Fangio said.
Is there any rhyme or reason to who is out there and when?
“We’re just kind of rotating them,” Fangio said. “It’s not so much situationally as it is rotating them.”
Eagles safety Marcus Epps has struggled with tackling in the past few games.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The goal, Fangio said, would be for one player to emerge as the obvious starter.
There’s a new body in the defensive backfield in Kenny Moore II, who was signed to the active roster from the practice squad on Tuesday. Moore has primarily been a nickel corner throughout his long NFL career, but the Eagles could try him at safety.
“He’s a down the line possibility maybe,” Fangio said. “He’s really never played safety in his career so that’ll be some heavy lifting for him.”
Fangio did reiterate that there’s no current plan to move DeJean to safety full time.
The first injury report of the week had a bit of news Wednesday night.
The Eagles held a walkthrough on Wednesday that was not open to media. Had they held a regular practice, Baun would have missed it because he is in the concussion protocol. Baun was not on the field for the final Bears drive, but spoke in the locker room after the game.
The full injury report from Wednesday is below:
Did not participate
LB Zack Baun (concussion)
WR Hollywood Brown (ankle)
TE Dallas Goedert (knee)
T Fred Johnson (knee)
RB Will Shipley (foot)
WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring)
Limited participant
LB Jihaad Campbell (knee)
DT Jordan Davis (calf)
DT Moro Ojomo (calf/elbow)
Full participant
RB Tank Bigsby (abdomen)
DT Jalen Carter (wrist)
WR Darius Cooper (knee)
OLB Jonathan Greenard (pectoral)
DT Byron Young (toe)
Jalen Carter’s injury is a hairline fracture
Carter’s wrist injury is a hairline fracture, sources told The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane. Carter has been able to play through the injury with a cast on his right hand, but the injury and having to wear the cast may be limiting his effectiveness.
“Well, it’s a negative,” Fangio said. “There’s no way it can’t be, but to be honest with you, he’s done better than I thought he would with it.”
Jalen Carter has been playing with a hairline fracture in his wrist, sources tell Jeff McLane.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Jason and his brother, Travis, recapped Week 3 of the NFL on their New Heights podcast. Jason shared why he’s not too concerned by the Eagles’ loss, before the brothers finished Wednesday’s episode by interviewing actor Jamie Foxx.
Jason said it was a frustrating game to watch for Eagles fans, especially with how Vic Fangio’s defense played, but he’s not too worried. The former Eagles center pointed to outlier games like this in the past, including against the Bears on Black Friday last season and against the Buccaneers two seasons ago.
“I have confidence that they’ll get this rectified,” Jason said. “They have one of the best [defensive] coordinators and defensive minds in football over the last 30, 40 years, however long Vic Fangio has been coaching. But it was a bad performance on Monday night against a really, really good Chicago Bears offense.”
With what Jason called “one of the best offensive lines in football,” featuring Jonah Jackson and Darnell Wright, and confidence from his head coach Ben Johnson, Jason said Keenum could execute the scheme “flawlessly.”
“The scheme is something that, when you’re 38 years old, you’re in the league for a long time,” Jason said. “A lot of the reasons you’re still there is because you know that stuff in and out mentally. So there’s no question that he’s going to be able to execute what Ben Johnson’s going to ask him to do.”
Along with defending the Eagles defense, Jason also defended his outfit choice after wearing a jeff cap for his Monday Night Countdown appearance as a studio analyst.
Despite the comparison to Peaky Blinders characters online and from his brother, Jason stood by the choice.
“Anytime you wear a jeff cap, now you’re impersonating a 1910s person,” Jason said. “People still wear jeff caps. Like, people are aware of this, right? Still a piece of attire.”
Vintage Travis Kelce
The Chiefs improved to 3-0 with a 24-10 win over the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday. And outside of the Florida heat and the struggle to put away the Dolphins in the second half, there wasn’t much else to discuss.
Instead, Jason took the opportunity to acknowledge Travis’ start to the season. Jason said many are wondering if it’s “one of the best starts” of his younger brother’s 14-year career. He included a statistic from Patrick Brennan that said Travis was off to the best start by any receiver his age in NFL history.
He’s also recorded 55 or more receiving yards in each of his first three games of the season for the first time since 2021.
“I’m the best geezer to ever play the game,” Travis said jokingly.
In a brand-new segment called “Heights & Order,” San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk made an appearance on the show to discuss his $14,926 fine for “engaging in offensive demonstrations,” during a celebration.
Juszczyk, who was accused of imitating chugging a beer, has gone by the nickname “juice” for years and has a juice box on his thigh pad, said he was imitating drinking juice.
Jason defended Juszczyk, even if it was a beer celebration, because of the league’s promotion of beer in commercials and partnerships. And while Juszczyk has a hearing scheduled to appeal the fine, it seems the repercussions, including a new nickname to replace “juice,” are going to stick around no matter the outcome.
“It’s been incredible,” Juszczyk said. “I’ve got the chefs in the cafeteria calling me ‘Beer.’ The janitors are, ‘Hey, Beer.’ … They love it. ‘Juice’ is out the window.”
The rest of the Kelces’ conversations with Juszczyk revolved around the fullback position in the NFL, but even after he left, the topic of the rules kept coming up.
When discussing the Eagles game, Jason brought up the unnecessary roughness call on D’Marco Jackson against Jalen Hurts that sent Hurts into the tent for concussion protocol testing. During that time, backup QB Andy Dalton threw an interception in the end zone.
The unnecessary roughness call was offset by a holding penalty by Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. And Jason had thoughts.
“The fact that a holding call is offsetting with what happened to Jalen on the sideline is pretty crazy to me. Those two shouldn’t be offsetting,” Jason said. “That’s like the equivalent of like, ‘Hey, you got a jaywalking ticket and you’re being charged with aggravated assault. Those offset each other.’”
It was a blowout, and it left a lot of questions. The Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Bears Monday night at Soldier Field featured an offense that fizzled, a defense that folded, and a coaching staff that looked outmatched. On the latest episode of unCovering the Birds, The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Jeff Neiburg provided a postmortem of the defense’s disappointing start to the season, critique of offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s approach, and assessment of how some of general manager Howie Roseman’s moves have panned out so far.
Jeff McLane: What do you think are the biggest issues? Big picture when we’re looking at the defense, not just this game. What could be the problems going forward that the Eagles have to find a way around?
Jeff Neiburg: To hear multiple players use the phrases like ‘we’re not … on the same page’ or miscommunications, those are the worrisome things to me, right? Like, of course, you know, Ben Johnson might be Vic Fangio’s boogeyman at this point, right? It’s only a two-game sample size, but boy, the data is there at this point. and Ben Johnson’s offense creates a lot of chaos. It causes miscommunications because there’s so much motion, there’s lots of things going on, there’s funky formations.
I’m with you in the sense that some of this stuff is just isolated to this game, I think. but there are worrisome trends. Not being able to communicate correctly.
I think it was Zack Baun who mentioned after the game, he said it comes down to communication, whether that’s hearing the call, playing the right thing, knowing the assignment. Those are the things [the Eagles] got to get better at.
McLane: I think it is concerning that it wasn’t really just this game. Like the defense was underwhelming in the first two weeks. Now, they kind of kept the scores down.
I thought they were pretty much good enough against Washington, kind of folded late. It felt a little bit like last year when the offense wasn’t getting the job done to close out games and the defense had to do it or that, you know, they suffered under the weight of how ineffective the offense was. Last week, 12 missed tackles. I think they had 11 this week. Vic [Fangio] kind of did what he normally doesn’t do, which is he stacked the box. He kind of sold out to stop the run based upon what the Bears had done to them last year, 281 yards on the ground, and so you can’t fault him in that regard.
Video: unCovering the Birds: Unpacking Nick Sirianni’s rough night in Chicago
And you know, look, make Case Keenum — 38-year-old Case Keenum who hasn’t started in nearly three years, and when he did start a few years ago was dreadful — make him beat you. The way they beat the Eagles was they just got the ball out of his hand quick. They schemed up one, or two plays. I’m not saying Keenum didn’t play well. There were times where he had to kind of make some really sharp and quick decisions and maybe sidestep a rusher here or there. But they forced the Eagles to tackle. And this is clearly now an issue. And I think if you’re looking at those guys in the middle of the field, specifically the safeties and you know, the linebackers, like they’re just not getting it done. And miscommunication should be [viewed as] an issue.
Third year in Vic Fangio[’s] scheme and the majority of the guys are back. You know, I mean I know Riq Woolen is new, but the rest of guys really aren’t, in that back seven. So that is concerning.
Neiburg: An interesting part too, I don’t think we’ve touched on with the defense yet. What’s your level of concern with the lack of impact the vaunted interior trio (Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Moro Ojomo) has made on games so far?
McLane: Jalen Carter’s getting paid to be like a Jeffrey Simmons-type defensive tackle and it just hasn’t been there. He makes these splash plays when … he’s a smart football player, he can kind of diagnose something or whatever. I just don’t see him winning a lot at the point of attack. I mean, he gets held a bunch, but it’s like there’s just not a push in the pocket where he’s in the quarterback’s face even. There’s not him, just like kind of winning. One-on-ones he’s not even really kind of pushing the pocket. And this was a center that quite frankly, is maybe one of the worst pass blocking centers in the NFL. Now I haven’t looked I haven’t looked at the film.
Eagles defensive tackle’s Jordan Davis (left) and Jalen Carter go after Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift on Monday. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Neiburg: I’ve seen a couple clips out there. I got to really look at it a little more to see what happened. My feeling from it was that the pass rush wasn’t horrible. The ball was coming out quick, and it was really more a problem with the back seven.
But you know, Jordan Davis you are paying all this money and [is a] good run defender, although I don’t think he had his best game, even though the numbers are pretty good. But he’s not out there a lot on pass rushes because that’s just not his thing. And it’s just like, can you afford to pay someone [like that] that amount of money? [Carter and Davis are] not a big contributor on passing downs. Like they’re both good players. I’m not saying they can’t even become great players, but they’re paying them to be dominant players. And right now, I just don’t see it.
Four plays. That’s how long it took Eagles backup quarterback Andy Dalton to throw an interception after he briefly replaced Jalen Hurts on Monday.
This turnover, a major turning point in the Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Bears, shined a national spotlight on the team’s messy backup quarterback situation.
Naturally, Nick Sirianni was asked a direct question about it in his press conference on Wednesday: “Do you feel like Andy Dalton is your backup quarterback?”
Sirianni gave a minute-long response — though he didn’t exactly answer the question.
“You know, I have a lot of faith in both of those guys,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, you know what happened in the game. We don’t want turnovers by anybody. Whether it was that [play], whether it was Jalen’s interception, whether it was Tank [Bigsby’s] fumble, that has not been our winning formula. We can’t turn the ball over. And we did in a situation and lost points from it.
“I still have faith in that entire [quarterback room]. With Tanner [McKee], I still have faith in Andy, I still like the way that Cole [Payton] is developing. And so, yeah, I still love that room.”
Minutes later, another reporter followed up: “You didn’t really answer [The Inquirer’s] question. Is there a chance Tanner might be No. 2?”
Sirianni responded, “Like I said, I answered how I wanted to … I’ve got a lot of faith in that everybody in that room.”
Sirianni is likely deflecting to keep confidence high in the quarterback room, but he didn’t exactly give Dalton a ringing endorsement.
This comes weeks after the Eagles decided to keep four quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster. Dalton and McKee alternately struggled at times during their preseason quarterback competition, which left the Eagles in a tough spot — they didn’t have a great backup or an attractive enough trade target.
After a bad preseason showing and even worse debut, Sirianni might have no choice but to shake up the depth chart and put McKee ahead of Dalton. The 26-year-old McKee — who was once viewed as a promising prospect — threw for 263 yards, one touchdown and one interception in three preseason games.
Makai Lemon had the longest reception of his young career on Monday night. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Is Makai Lemon improving?
Rookie first-round pick Makai Lemon has not had the best start to his NFL career. He has 38 yards on seven receptions and he’s been targeted nine times.
He’s shown glimpses — like when he snagged a career-best 19-yard catch on the Eagles’ opening drive on Monday — but he hasn’t lit up the stat sheet the way he’d like to.
Sirianni still isn’t panicking. In fact, the Eagles head coach said the 22-year-old has given him an increased comfort level.
“Makai gives you confidence as he’s getting more and more touches,” Sirianni said. “The trust has to build, obviously, in a different way. It’s got to build through practice, but it’s got to build also through the things that he consistently does on the field without the ball in his hands.
“And I think that’s what’s been good with Makai. He gives you a lot of faith that he knows what he’s doing in all situations. And when the ball starts to come to him, more chances will come to him because he consistently does his job with other factors, without the ball on his hands. And I think he’s scrappy. He is consistently on the same page and, he blocked his butt off the other day in that game and played a solid game.”
Lemon was one of college football’s top receivers in 2025, becoming the second Southern Cal player ever to win the Biletnikoff Award for most outstanding receiver in college football. He caught 79 passes for 1,156 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in his final collegiate season.
The Eagles took him the 20th pick of the NFL draft in April, dealing with the rival Cowboys in order to move up and do so.
Kira Coviello grabbed her accordion, strapped on her 18-pound backpack foot drum that was slightly leaning off the edge of the kitchen counter, slowly — and carefully — grabbed the straps hanging from the drum and placed them under the heel of her clogs. Then, the 42-year-old grabbed her kazoo and placed it around her neck.
“Look at me, an independent woman,” Coviello said as her husband, Noah Sullum, and her dog, Winnie, watched.
In a sparkly green Eagles jacket, a striped green dress, and a pair of green polka dot socks, the Doylestown native began to play the Eagles fight song with all of the instruments: her left foot controlling the tambourine, her right foot controlling the foot drum, her right hand controlling the snare drum with a baton twirling at the same time, and her left hand controlling the accordion.
This has become part of Coviello’s gameday tradition as she includes herself in one of her husband’s favorite pastimes: football Sundays.
“I’m a supporter of sports teams,” Coviello said. “I like all the hype around it. I really like the Eagles’ fight song. I like how happy it makes everyone around here. I don’t pretend to understand sports that well. I’m what you might call artsy-fartsy. My husband and I are very different people in every way. He likes the Eagles, and I have found a new way to involve myself with his enjoyment of watching the games. It seems like a new way to connect.”
Coviello, the one-woman band, has been posting consistently on her Instagram page, honest2betsy, for the last three years, growing her platform to about 440,000 followers.
When asked how she would describe her account to someone new, she responded: “nostalgic humor.”
“So, Betsy, the character I created, is kind of a repressed housewife who keeps discovering music, and, unfortunately for her, a lot of that music winds up being very raunchy, or it’s satire, and she doesn’t realize that it’s satire,” Coviello said. “It’s kind of like a silent movie with music. So I do a lot of acting with my face and creating little scenes. So that’s how the page started and blew up. And now it’s turned into a bunch of other silly, whimsical things that happen.”
Kira Coviello demonstrates her one-woman band for Eagles games.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
She created the character in 2023 after leaving her job at a theatre school. What started as a few video clips getting sent into the group chat with her friends turned into an online persona.
“I actually thought I was going to use it to maybe sell some of the things I was crocheting,” Coviello said. “Like, I was crocheting at one point a giant uterus to support Planned Parenthood. So I thought maybe I’ll do this housewife thing, and I’ll sell some of my crochet products. I haven’t crocheted since I started doing these videos now because the ADHD took me in a different direction.”
Coviello has acted at the Walnut Street Theater. She also plays multiple instruments, including the violin, cello, accordion, a Swedish instrument called the nyckelharpa — and, most recently, the backpack foot drum — which she purchased from Farmer Foot Drum in August.
Video: Meet the one-woman band performing the Eagles fight song on game days
With her musical and theater background, she has created a new series titled “Helping my husband watch the Eagles games.”
“[The foot drum] is a new toy,” Coviello said. “I just got it very recently and haven’t perfected playing yet, but I think that adds to the comedy of it.”
But Sullum and their three kids, Eloise, 15, Esme, 13, and Tallulah, 11, have gotten used to Coviello’s antics.
“She doesn’t do much to shock me anymore,” Sullum said. “I think I’ve seen it all. Our dog is used to the noise, used to the instruments, used to the singing. There’s got to be 15-20 instruments in the house at least it would seem. So, yeah. It’s noisy.”
Inside the house, there’s a room for all the instruments. Stringed instruments hang on the wall, including guitars and banjos, a piano sits toward the center of the room, and instruments like a washboard and a nyckelharpa stand out.
Kira Coviello started her online persona in 2009.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
Coviello has been teaching herself how to play the foot drum through instructional videos. And as an Eagles fan, it was only fitting for her to learn how to play the Eagles fight song.
“I think that just comes with living in the Philadelphia area for over 20 years,” Coviello said. “It’s just in all of us. And I play instruments by ear, so that just comes out in my blood now.”
Since posting the “Helping my husband watch the Eagles games” series, both videos have accumulated over 14,000 likes, and Eagles receiver/return specialist Britain Covey commented, “I think we need you at the next team meeting [to be honest].”
“As long as they keep winning, I have to do that, because I’ve fallen into the trap of superstitions,” Coviello said. “So now if they win, it’s thanks to me playing my foot drums and helping my husband. And if they lose, perhaps then I’ll have to stop or take a break, or find a new way to help him watch the game. Just add another instrument.”
And with the Eagles suffering their first loss of the season to the Chicago Bears, Coviello is thinking of new ways to add more whimsy — perhaps tap dancing?
“I never know what I’m going to get,” Sullum said. “But, I think she has an upward trajectory for sure.”
When asked where she should perform next, he said “[Eagles] halftime show, where else?”
But in the meantime, Coviello will continue to play at her upcoming honest2betsy live shows at The Birdhouse in Lambertville (Dec. 11), Soul Joel’s in Pottstown (Dec. 18), and Cary’s Music Room in New Hope (Jan. 9).
The Eagles are no strangers to getting walloped by the Ben Johnson-coached Chicago Bears. But Monday night’s beatdown seemed more ominous than the Week 13 loss last season.
The offense, hindered by penalties, turnovers, and negative plays, was largely inefficient throughout the game. Seven points scored by the Eagles marked their fewest in a contest since a 13-7 loss to the New York Giants in 2021, which was Nick Sirianni’s first season as head coach.
Monday night’s loss ended the Eagles’ streak of 75 straight regular season games of scoring at least 10 points, according to Next Gen Stats, which was the longest in franchise history.
The bigger surprise through three games, though, is that the Eagles defense has been a shell of itself compared to past iterations under Vic Fangio. Missed tackles, more penalties, and busted coverages marred their performance against the Bears, as Johnson got the better of Fangio once again.
Was Monday a preview of how the Eagles will fare against a slew of tough upcoming opponents, particularly the 1-2 Los Angeles Rams on Sunday? Here’s what we know (and what we don’t) about the Eagles heading into Week 4:
Will we see more play action from Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the rest of the Eagles’ offense?Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Blurred vision
Since joining the Eagles as offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion has laid out aspects of his vision for the offense and the West Coast flavor it would adopt.
Part of that vision included the marriage of the run and the pass, as the wide-zone run game would help set up the under-center play-action passing game. The Eagles largely hadn’t majored in the run action, especially from under center, since Sirianni took over as head coach.
Three games into the season, and the Eagles still haven’t. The offense has attempted 15 play-action passes (12 from under center), according to Next Gen Stats, which is the lowest total in the league. They have a minus-.17 expected points added per play-action pass, which ranks in the bottom six.
Jalen Hurts had four play-action pass attempts on Monday — three from under center, one from the pistol. He completed just one of them, a 19-yarder to Makai Lemon on a crossing route halfway through the first quarter.
The Bears sniffed out the others. Their solution to the illusion of the run was to blitz a linebacker, who on two of the three plays would go mostly untouched and get in Hurts’ face to force an incomplete pass or, in one case, an intentional grounding. The Eagles quarterback still ended up under pressure on the third, as the protection didn’t hold up, so he scrambled away and threw an incomplete pass to DeVonta Smith.
It’s too early to say for sure, but the Eagles offense is threatening to follow a similar trajectory as it did in 2024, minus its dominant rushing attack that carried the entire unit to the Super Bowl. That season, the hiring of Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator offered promise of a revamped, dynamic offensive scheme. It quickly reverted to more of the same from past Eagles offenses under Sirianni.
Can the Eagles implement and execute the scheme that Mannion was hired to install? Or will the ideal of a wholesale change only amount to something half-baked?
Davante Adams was dominant against the Broncos on Sunday night but the Rams fell in a thriller. Jack Dempsey
Reeling Rams
The Eagles must rebound against a ticked-off, yet talented, Rams team if they want to avoid dropping to 2-2.
A questionable defensive pass interference call against the Rams late in the fourth quarter wiped off an interception and got in the way of a prospective victory on Sunday night against the Denver Broncos. Instead, the penalty prolonged the eventual game-winning scoring drive orchestrated by Broncos quarterback Bo Nix.
Now, the Rams are 1-2, an underwhelming start to the season for a team considered Super Bowl favorites before it began.
They still could be, especially considering their personnel on paper, from 2025 MVP Matthew Stafford to their vaunted defensive front headlined by the recently unretired Aaron Donald.
But no player is without their flaws, especially Stafford. The 38-year-old quarterback tossed his 33rd career pick-six in the loss to the Broncos, a new all-time league high (Brett Favre had 32 from 1991-2010). Stafford has thrown four total interceptions through three games, tied for second-most in the league.
It’s worth noting that Stafford didn’t face much pressure on any of his four interceptions. If the Eagles are sound in coverage — even if the pass rush doesn’t get home, which has become a recurring theme again this season — perhaps they can force Stafford into making some ill-advised decisions.
But the Eagles are coming off a defensive performance that included some confusion in the secondary, leading to open receivers and explosive gains for the Bears passing attack. Whether or not that leads to personnel changes this week, especially at safety, the Eagles must iron out the kinks against a Rams passing offense that ranks second in the league in passing yards per game (284).
Puka Nacua has been sidelined by a groin injury. Scott Barbour
Nacua’s return?
That Rams passing offense only stands to improve if Puka Nacua makes his return after missing the last two games of the season with a groin injury.
Head coach Sean McVay said on Monday that he is “hopeful” Nacua will make his season debut against the Eagles depending on his progress this week.
The 25-year-old receiver had an All-Pro 2025 season in which he led the league in receptions (129), receiving first downs (80), and receiving yards per game (107.2). His Week 3 outing against the Eagles was one of six in which he eclipsed 100 receiving yards, as he finished with 112 on 11 receptions.
Davante Adams has stepped up in the passing game in Nacua’s absence. Adams, 33, was a clone of his younger self in the Rams’ 28-6 dismantling of the Giants in Week 2. He finished that contest with 194 yards and two touchdowns on eight receptions, and he followed it up in Week 3 with 137 yards on seven receptions.
Still, the Rams offense is more prolific when Nacua is on the field. Going into Week 3 and dating back to 2023 when Nacua was drafted, the Rams have averaged a full yard per play more with him on the field (6.1) than with him on the sideline (5.1), according to Next Gen Stats.
Their explosive play rate had decreased from 14.9% to 11.9% when Nacua had been out. The Rams even run the ball better with him on the field — they had gained 4.6 yards per carry and picked up first downs on 26.5% of plays with Nacua, while they had amassed 3.9 yards per carry and posted a 24.7% first-down rate without him.
The Rams leverage Nacua’s versatility by lining him up just about anywhere. The Eagles know this well, as he caught his 11 receptions last year against seven different defenders, per Pro Football Focus.
If he is healthy enough to play on Sunday, whether he is on a snap count or not, it will take the entire Eagles defense to keep him at bay.
