‘I’m trying to beat Chicago’s [butt]’: Eagles try to avoid trap game mentality vs. Bears

Micah Parsons ignited the Eagles-Cowboys engine one week early, and there’s been enough fuel to keep the fire going into next week, when the NFC East rivals battle in a critical game on Christmas Eve in Dallas.

On the topic of the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, Jalen Hurts, Parsons said on Von Miller’s podcast, mostly is a product of the Eagles’ system and the talent around him. Hardly fighting words, but enough to make the rounds on social media and create a bit of back-and-forth between the Eagles and Cowboys.

» READ MORE: Blood feud begins: Micah Parsons gives Jalen Hurts and Eagles another reason to hate the Cowboys

Jason Kelce came to Hurts’ defense on his podcast. C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who is out with rib and kidney injuries, responded on Twitter. Lane Johnson posted a popular GIF of Michael Jackson eating popcorn.

All of it became food for fans, players, and sports radio hosts.

With all of that going on, it would be easy to forget this: the Eagles and Cowboys play Sunday … against other opponents on the road. The Eagles fly to Chicago on Saturday to play the Bears. The Cowboys are in Jacksonville, Fla.

Time for Nick Sirianni to make sure the message for this weekend is clear?

“I think the back and forth, from what I have seen, and, no offense, it’s you guys asking more about it,” the Eagles’ coach said Friday. “A lot of times I see them say: ‘We’re focused on the Bears.’”

Darius Slay eventually came to that line of thinking Friday when he was asked if he thought Hurts, the current MVP favorite, should win the award.

“Of course he’s going to be mine,” Slay said. “But I know he’s probably not concerned about it right now. I always want the best for him. I hope he does win it. But I’m trying to beat Chicago’s [butt].”

If there is a such thing as a “trap game” doesn’t this — a 12-1 team, with the biggest game of its season up next, traveling to face a 3-10 team as a nine-point favorite — qualify, especially given all that’s transpired this week.

“That doesn’t exist in the NFL,” Sirianni said. “You have to be on your game every single week. It doesn’t matter. You can lay an egg if you’re not on top of your stuff.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Bears predictions: Our beat writers make their picks for Week 15

“We all understand this: everybody in this league can play,” Sirianni said. “Everybody in this league, if you’re not on your game, can beat you.”

Just ask the Cowboys. Dallas was a 17-point favorite when it nearly lost to the one-win Texans this past weekend.

In his preparation for the Bears, Sirianni said he keeps noticing how tight some of Chicago’s games have been with Justin Fields on the field. The Bears, who are coming off a Week 14 bye, have lost six straight, including one game without Fields. That streak includes a three-point home loss, 35-32, to the Miami Dolphins and a three-point road loss in Atlanta. Chicago’s most recent game, on Dec. 4, was a nine-point home loss to Green Bay where the Bears had a 19-10 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

“You don’t realize how close all of these games have been, but you see it on tape,” Sirianni said.

“They’ve been in every single game.”

That includes a 49-29 loss in late October in Dallas, where the Bears trailed by just five points midway through the third quarter. That game surely will be another measuring stick as the Eagles and Cowboys ride a collision course to next Saturday’s game inside Jerry World.

Above everything else, though, the developments of the last few days are exactly the “rat poison” Hurts has long sought to keep out of his team’s locker room, no matter what NFL analysts like Chris Simms have to say.

“I know him, as a person, he’s not focused on that. I can be focused on that for him,” Slay said with a smile.