The team that was good enough last season to beat eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay for the NFC North title and advance to the conference championship game is off to a puzzling start.
The Chicago Bears (4-3) at least have that much in common with the Eagles (3-4), their opponent this Monday night in a nationally televised game that could make or break each team's season.
The Bears were sitting at 2-3 before crushing Minnesota 39-10 and then going to London to hand Tampa Bay a 24-18 setback. Against the Eagles, they're coming off a bye, which could make them even more difficult to solve, considering head coach Lovie Smith's 4-1 record following byes since 2006.
Beyond that, the Bears have a much different personality, driven by their defense and explosive return game provided by Devin Hester, considered by many in the game — including all the Eagles' personnel we polled Friday — to be the best in the history of the sport.
Hester, who already has been named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week twice this season, recorded his 11th career punt return for a touchdown in a tight, Week 4 victory over Carolina and returned a kickoff 98 yards for a TD to help beat the Vikings.
"He's better than good, maybe the greatest returner of all time," Eagles special teams coordinator Bobby April marveled. "His records certainly show that. Anytime he gets his hands on the ball, you know he can make anything happen, even when you're in position to make the play. He has the ability to make the play and keep the other guy from making the play."
Defensively, the Bears aren't nearly as spectacular but just as effective, playing mostly a soft Cover 2 that usually keeps even the quickest opponents from getting behind them. They make you beat them with 12-play drives, not quick strikes, which remain an Eagles' specialty even though they've featured a dominant, ball-control offense with the top running game in the NFL.
Although the Bears are ranked 23rd in the league in yards allowed, they have the quickness and toughness on the back end to keep teams out of the end zone.
Still, they'd like to get more consistent play from their front four of ends Julius Peppers and Israel Idonije and tackles Henry Melton and Matt Toeaina.
"We love our defensive line," Smith said. "I know they're excited about playing an offense like [the Eagles'.]. ... They've made a lot of improvements.
"We'll have to get good pressure on [quarterback Michael Vick]. But Philadelphia is also the No. 1 rushing team in the league, so the defensive line will have a big say in that."
Added Vick: "They play a nice, tight, sound, disciplined scheme, and it's something that they've always been good at. And it's a bend-but-don't-break mentality, and they find ways to get it done. In the past, that's happened."
The Bears' style also makes them very difficult to conquer once they get a lead, thanks in large part to a strong running game in which lead back Matt Forte has proved extremely difficult to take down.
Forte, much like Eagles counterpart LeSean McCoy, is on pace to rush for more than 1,500 yards in what has so far been a career season. Forte is averaging 96 yards per game and 5.4 yards per carry. That's the highest average per carry on this team since Walter Payton's 5.5 in 1977.
"They do this one play, kind of like a G play [in which a guard pulls and gets out in front of an off-tackle run]," Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo explained. "Kind of a like an outside zone, but it's a man play that that they do a great job with and they feature that play."
At quarterback is the enigmatic Jay Cutler, who can be anything from deadly to the opposition to deadly to his own squad, depending on his mood, protection, game plan and a host of other things.
Against the Eagles alone, he went from spectacularly awful (24-for-43, 171 yards) in a 24-20 loss in 2009 to nearly perfect in a 31-26 win last season, in which he tossed a career-high four TD passes while going 14-for-21.
Which Cutler will show?
That's one of the things that should make Monday night's matchup so intriguing.
