Short week. Plenty to work on. A game to win. That's the landscape for the Philadelphia Eagles as they prepare for a Friday game against the Chicago Bears, one of the surprise teams in the NFL this season. The Bears come to town believing in second-year quarterback Caleb Williams, in a young group of offensive playmakers, in a defense that takes the football away more than any team (24 total), and a coaching staff that has instilled confidence.
Chicago leads the NFC North. Chicago is a team that expects to contend.
For the Eagles, this is not a time for anything other than preparing to play a great football game on Black Friday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. And that is the focus inside the walls of the NovaCare Complex.
The buzz inside is bouncing back after a tough loss on Sunday at Dallas, preparing the next men up at certain positions, and recovering from a physical standpoint.
"Get up. We've just got to get up," head coach Nick Sirianni told his team after the game. "We've got a short week. We didn't do two things quite well enough tonight. Give them (Cowboys) credit and then get up and get back to work."
If you think players and coaches mope after a loss – or even gloat after a win – then you haven't listened to players and coaches through the years. A short week? That just means every bit of the recovery has to be on point.
"It's just a matter of staying consistent. Being resilient. Having endurance and just pushing forward. Today wasn't our day," quarterback Jalen Hurts said on Sunday following the 24-21 loss to the Cowboys. "And, I look at myself in the mirror and I say, I have to do more. I have to dig, and muster things out and try to figure it out. For all of us. But, you know, that is the type of character that you like everyone to have. We just have to have the right type of synergy. The right type of energy. And come together and push forward like I know we are capable of. We'll be just fine."
The team landed back in Philadelphia in the early hours of Monday morning, and by lunch the flushing process had been completed, and it was on to the Bears. The Eagles have some injury situations to address, particularly in the defensive secondary with safety Andrew Mukuba who, according to Sirianni, will "miss a little bit of time here." They have to look at what went wrong against Dallas and address those points of emphasis.
This is no different than after any loss, or during any short week. The Eagles have been in this position before – the bounce back is always the key point: You have to be resilient in this league.
"It's about how you respond to it," Hurts said. "It's an opportunity for us to come together. Eliminate the things that don't matter and focus on the things we can control and go out there and play together and move forward."
To do so, the Eagles must play a far cleaner game on Friday than they did against Dallas. Philadelphia committed 14 costly penalties in the loss, gave the football away twice, and failed to take advantage of opportunities to win the football game.
Sometimes, the sting of a loss pays off if treated the right way.
"Take it one day at a time," wide receiver A.J. Brown said. "We have a short week. Gotta come in and watch the film and try to dissect it as quickly as possible. And then we have to move on."
That, they've done. They've done the right things to take care of their bodies. The practices will be more of a walkthrough nature during the week to allow the players to recover physically. Film study will be especially intense given the lack of practice time on the field.
The magnitude of Friday's game cannot be understated: It is yet another huge spot for a team that sees them every week.
"I'm saying it's never just one thing. We can't say that this is the ultimate team game when things are going [well], and then when they're not going good after a loss, it's on one person," Sirianni said on Monday. "It's an ultimate team game. I mean, that's the nature of this game. That's why I love this game and I'm so passionate about this game because I love being a part of a team and I love just the camaraderie of a team. That's what I want you to take away from this the most: when it's going [well] and it's all about the team, that doesn't switch when it's not going as planned and we assign blame to one person. It's always still all about the team."
