Bears vs. Eagles — What to Watch 4

KEY MATCHUP

Bears linebacker Khalil Mack vs. Eagles left tackle Jason Peters was a battle royal in the wild-card playoff game last year. Peters won the battle — Mack had no sacks, six tackles, one tackle-for-loss and two quarterback hits in the 16-15 loss.

Peters won’t be there this time — he’ll miss his third consecutive game with a knee injury he suffered in a loss to the Vikings in Week 6. That leaves Mack to battle rookie Andre Dillard on Sunday.

The 6-5, 315-pound Dillard, a first-round draft pick from Washington State, played 46 snaps against the Vikings and started the past two games in place of Peters. He’s looked like he belonged, and played particularly well against the Bills last week in a 31-13 victory at New Era Field. He’ll be starting at home for the first time after playing in Peters’ place on the road in the three previous games.

“He’s a good player,” Mack said of Dillard. “I know he was a great player in college. He can do some good things for them. It’s going to be cool, man.”

TRENDING

After rushing for a combined 59 yards in losses to the Raiders and Saints, the Bears rushed for 162 yards and a touchdown against the Chargers last week. Rookie David Montgomery had 27 rushes for 135 yards and a touchdown.

Sustaining that success against the Eagles will be a test of the progress the Bears feel they made last week, even in defeat. The Eagles rank eighth in the NFL in rushing defense and yards per carry.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky made more plays and more mistakes in his second game back from a shoulder injury against the Chargers last week. He feels like he is trending in the right direction and just needs to eliminate the mistakes and sustain the playmaking ability and he’s all set.

“I feel like I was just a little more comfortable in the pocket [against the Chargers] after being out a couple of weeks,” Trubisky said. “Just keeping my eyes downfield and trying to make plays for my team; putting the ball in the right spot and just gotta continue to make better decisions and stay on the field.”

X-FACTOR

At 3-4, with the Packers (7-1) and Vikings (6-2) on a roll and five other teams ahead of them in the wild-card race, this is a very likely must-win game for the Bears. And the players are aware of the significance.

“Without a doubt,” coach Matt Nagy said. “Every game that goes by, you lose time. Our goal is to make sure that we go 1-0. We can’t worry about the playoffs. We can’t worry about anything else until we got 1-0. This game is more significant, just like two weeks from now is going to be more significant than this week.”