Eagles Battle Commanders Tonight!

🚦 THE Philly sports newsletter

Š Geoff Burke | 2023 Oct 29

Good morning and Go Birds!

Most pro analysts are picking the Eagles to win tonight, which is always disconcerting. The Sixers lost to the undefeated Cavs on Wednesday, but Jared McCain’s performance made him an early favorite in Vegas Rookie of the Year odds. And Phillies rumors are heating up.

Let’s discuss.

In the email today:

🦅 Eagles Battle Commanders Tonight!

It’s a showdown in the NFC East tonight as the Birds take on the Commanders. Here’s a look at how the national media views the matchup:

From USA Today: two of four analysts picked the Eagles to win.

Eagles pick: "Although Jayden Daniels and Co. have shown some flaws recently, Washington has been a great story. The primary issue is that the Commanders haven’t defeated a team with a record over .500, and the Eagles are hitting their stride. I also think Philly’s defense makes things challenging for Daniels."

Commanders pick: "This one has potential game of the year written all over it. The Eagles have looked great, but they are easily susceptible to digging themselves into deep holes. The Commanders take advantage and get a major road win."

From Pro Football Network: Eagles 24 - Commanders 21.

"The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders are fairly even teams at this point in the season, so this game should be fascinating. Our PR+ metric grades them almost identically, with the Eagles having the edge defensively and the Commanders having the edge offensively.

. . .

The edge here goes with the home team and the one with the better defense. The Eagles should also have the advantage of a veteran quarterback playing on a short week, but the coaching advantage likely resides with Washington and Dan Quinn. It shouldn’t be another shootout like we saw last Thursday, but it has the makings of another tight game."

Tuesday's injury report via @eagles on twitter

From CBS Sports: Eagles 31 - Commanders 24

"The Eagles have righted things on both sides of the ball. The offense has come alive. The Commanders are coming off a tough loss to the Steelers. Rookie Jayden Daniels has played well, but on the short week this is a tough ask. The Eagles win it."

From Sporting News: Eagles 27 - Commanders 24

"The Commanders' defense has been overachieving under coach Dan Quinn, but they are still vulnerable to downfield passing. The Eagles have been hot with Jalen Hurts spreading and stretching the field. Jayden Daniels can answer with some big plays of his own, playing off his team's own strong traditional rushing attack. Philadelphia has a little more firepower to outlast Washington in a thriller at home.

From Deadspin: Eagles will cover the (-3.5 point) spread.

"The Eagles allow 192.44 passing yards and 0.89 passing touchdowns per game. They haven’t allowed a passing touchdown since Week 8. Since Week 6, they’ve [allowed] just one. Also, since Week 6, they’ve held opposing quarterbacks to 169 yards or less in four of five games.

The Eagles are taking on Commander quarterback Jayden Daniels, who has over 400 rushing yards this year. They’re allowing less than 12 rushing yards per game to opposing quarterbacks.

Meanwhile, the Commanders are allowing 1.7 passing touchdowns per game and five over the last two games.

They’ve allowed 47 rushing yards or more in two of the last three games, and they’ll have to slow down Eagles Jalen Hurts, who’s second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 10. The Commanders also need to find a way to slow down Barkley. Against running backs, they’ve surrendered just under 117 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown per game.

The Eagles will win this and cover at home."

🧟 Jared McCain’s Time Is Right Now as Zombie Sixers Lose Again

Someone probably got Sixers/Cavaliers tickets for last night’s game as a graduation present last summer or a birthday present a couple months ago. “WOW THANKS,” they said. “Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, it’s going to be so much fun!”

Yeah, about that. Maxey is out with a hamstring issue. Embiid and George didn’t play last night either. Are they injured? At this point, seriously, who the hell knows?

We’re not the only ones to notice what the Sixers are up to. They were 2-8 going into a game against the undefeated Cavaliers. There’s a whiff of tanking to this, and some people are saying the quiet part out loud.

While Adam Silver figures out what (if anything) he can do to compel the Sixers to play their stars, the Zombie Sixers played really hard against the Cavs. They were led by the primary (only?) reason to watch the Sixers right now, the rookie whose future seems to be very much right effing now.

Unfortunately, despite McCain’s best efforts, he couldn’t carry the Sixers to a win over the still undefeated Cavs, whose size advantage and overall talent edge proved too much for the Sixers to handle in the second half. Donovan Mitchell is a stone cold killer; he had 11 points in the final three minutes to put the game away.

But hey, the Sixers weren’t really trying to win this game anyway, so let’s celebrate McCain’s coming out party in his first start as a Sixer.

We will have thoughts about what McCain’s emergence means for the Sixers if (notice we didn’t say when) the Big 3 get healthy in the near future. For now, it’s just nice to have one good reason to watch the Zombie Sixers.

McCain is that reason.

🔥 Phillies Hot Stove Season Is Upon Us

It doesn’t feel like it given how this season ended, but we are living in one of the most successful Phillies eras in any of our lifetimes.

Given the Phillies payroll, they could conceivably just run it back in 2025. Fans would complain, but they’d probably still go to Citizens Bank Park in droves.

Early indications, though, are that personnel changes are possible-to-probable, and the names in play are names you know. The Phillies might be breaking up The Daycare.

Bohm didn’t help himself with his anemic 2024 postseason, but the real trouble came from his near total nosedive in the second half of the regular season. His OPS was .845 on July 3; at season’s end, it was .779. That’s not enough production for a corner infielder whose defense is, well, Bohm’s defense.

Early buzz suggests that Bohm could end up in the Pacific Northwest.

If Bohm leaves, the void at third base could be filled by free agent Alex Bregman. It’s tough to argue with Buster Olney’s assessment: “His swing translates in that park, strong defense, lots of postseason scar tissue.”

Bregman won’t come cheap, but he might be something of a “buy low” insofar as his OBP dropped almost 50 points from 2023, and he doesn’t run at all.

From the wishcasting category, Phillies fans are dreaming of some way that the team could bolster the starting rotation in a trade with the desperate Chicago White Sox.

The obvious problem here is that the Phillies are loaded with expensive veteran talent but light on the sorts of cheap prospects that the White Sox will want in a trade. Additionally, Crochet is most likely going to want a contract extension as part of a trade move.

Olney reported that back in July, it was the Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves who were kicking the tires on a Crochet deal. But the White Sox held firm, kept Crochet through the 2024 season — and now there will probably be even more suitors.

Watch this space for more details as they emerge on these potential Phillies moves.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On November 14, 1999, Donovan McNabb made his first career NFL start. At home against Washington, he completed 8 of 21 passes for just 60 yards.

But Number Five added 49 rushing yards, Duce Staley ran wild, and the Eagles pulled out a 35-28 victory.

Š Lou Capozzola | 1999 Nov 28

📊 Poll

AJ Brown: o/u 82.5 receiving yards vs. Washington?

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Results from Wednesday:

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

  • Flyers at Senators, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

  • Commanders at Eagles, 8:15 p.m. (Prime Video)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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