Bad news for Chicago Bears in home opener

Soldier Field has not been a happy home for the Chicago Bears recently, and Monday night it was a house of horrors.

The 29-14 loss to the Eagles wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. Eddie Royal's 65-yard punt-return touchdown with 5:09 left was only cosmetic, as 3 Bears turnovers and no take-aways helped drop the losers to 0-2.

“We need to get better, there's no doubt,” coach John Fox said. “Turning the ball over was very problematic and something we have to get cleaned up.”

The loss to the 2-0 Eagles was an insult, and it came accompanied by a slew of injuries, the most damaging a right-thumb injury to quarterback Jay Cutler, which could sideline him for several weeks.

The Bears have not won a home game in almost a year, not since they defeated the Oakland Raiders 22-20 last Oct. 4. They have now lost 11 of their last 12 games at Soldier Field, and in their last 18 at home the Bears are 3-15.

The way they played in the second half, when they lost Cutler late in the third quarter, it could be a long time before the faithful can celebrate a victory.

The Eagles were 7-9 last season, bad enough to get coach Chip Kelly fired. But they dispatched the Bears despite starting rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, who was handed the job one week before the start of the regular season.

He looked like a seasoned pro against the Bears with an 86.6 passer rating.

The Bears' pass rush rarely pressured Wentz, who was sacked just twice on 36 pass plays, many of which included deep drops. Wentz directed a 68-yard drive late in the third quarter that put the visitors ahead 16-7 on Ryan Matthews' 3-yard TD run.

And then things got really ugly.

On the next play from scrimmage, Cutler was intercepted by Nigel Bradham, who returned the pick to the Bears' 2-yard line. On the next play, the Eagles made it 2 touchdowns in 21 seconds, swelling their advantage to 22-7 at the end of the third quarter.

Cutler left to a chorus of boos and headed to the locker room with an injury that he compared to the broken thumb that knocked him out of the final six games in 2011. He was injured early in the game and the injury was aggravated when Eagles tackle Destiny Vaeao sacked him and forced a fumble that Philly recovered.

On the interception, Cutler said: “I couldn't get as much on it as I wanted to to get it over that linebacker. It was unfortunate, it hurt the team. I knew that I was putting the team, especially the offense, in jeopardy at that point. I knew my day was done.”

Cutler was replaced by Brian Hoyer, whose fifth play resulted in a Jeremy Langford fumble that the Eagles, naturally, turned into another touchdown.

The worst part of the Bears' balky offense is that there don't seem to be many answers.

“I don't know,” Cutler said when asked what was wrong. “But it's not where it should be. That's definite. I think everyone was probably a little taken aback by what happened in that game.”

The first half didn't do much to appease the home fans, as the Bears went to the break trailing 9-7 after the Eagles' Caleb Sturgis nailed a 53-yard field goal just before halftime. The Eagles' kicker actually missed wide right, but the Bears called timeout just before the ball was snapped. Given a second chance, Sturgis nailed it.

After the Eagles scored the game's first 3 points, Cutler completed 5 of 6 passes, utilizing four different receivers, including a 31-yard screen to Royal, to put the Bears in position for Connor Barth's first FG attempt as a Bear.

But his 31-yard attempt failed, as it hit the left upright and bounced back onto the field. Before that miss, Barth was 80-for-84 (95.2 percent) from inside 40 yards in his career.

It was that kind of night for the Bears.

• Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter @BobLeGere.