Eagles Prepare For State Championship Game

Happy Wednesday!

The sooner the Eagles can get back on the field, the better. Nothing would squash locker room drama quicker than a convincing win over a very good Pittsburgh team.

In other words, keep the main thing the main thing.

Lots of Birds talk in today’s send, plus Flyers and Union discussion. And check in over on the website for all the latest Phillies moves and rumors!

In the email today:

• 🦅 What They’re Saying About Eagles / Steelers

• 💪 Flyers Enjoy Comfortable Road Rout of Blue Jackets

• 🖕 No Philadelphia Sports Team Hates Its Fans Like the Philadelphia Union Hates Its Fans

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

The best Eagles coverage is always local, but it’s helpful to get a national perspective as well.

That’s particularly true this week: while everyone is panicking locally about the Hurts/Brown relationship, analysts around the nation don’t seem concerned.

Here’s what they’re saying about your Birds against the Steelers:

From CBS Sports: Eagles 23 - Steelers 20

“Since [a] 1965 win, the Steelers have gone 0-10 in Philly and that includes 0-3 under Mike Tomlin. In Tomlin's three games as coach, the Steelers have been outscored 84-22. If Tomlin wants to end that streak, he might want to bring a tank to practice this week and have his defense practice tackling it, since that's basically what they'll be doing on Sunday when they go up against Saquon Barkley.

. . .

“The Eagles are 9-0 this season when Barkley rushes for at least 100 yards, so the big question is: Will he it 100 yards against the Steelers? There are only six teams in the NFL surrendering less than 100 rushing yards per game and the Steelers are one of them. The Steelers passed their biggest test of the year back in Week 11 when they gave up just 65 yards to Derrick Henry in a win over the Ravens. However, that game was at home in Pittsburgh and this game is being played Philadelphia, which has been Pittsburgh's personal football hell for nearly 60 years.”

From Sporting News: Eagles 24 - Steelers 20

“Maybe this is the Super Bowl preview of the week? The Eagles are on a nine-game winning streak, and this is a strength-on-strength matchup. How much success will Barkley have against the Steelers' run defense? Russell Wilson will match Jalen Hurts in the passing game in the first half, and the Steelers will keep this one close. We still like the Eagles to keep it rolling.”

From Sports Illustrated: Steelers to cover the (+5 point) spread

“By virtually every metric you can look at, the Eagles are the superior team, but Mike Tomlin continues to get the most out of his team on a weekly basis and while you may think Philadelphia will win this game, covering a 5.5-point spread is another question.

“The Steelers have arguably played some of their best football in recent weeks, ranking ninth in the NFL in Net Yards per Play over their last three games at +0.5. They also have the rare ability to slow down the rush attack of the Eagles, ranking ninth in the league in opponent yards per carry, keeping teams to just 4.3 yards per rush.

“I'll take the points with Pittsburgh.”

From Pro Football Network: Eagles 24 - Steelers 17

“At this time last season, we saw a monumental collapse from the Philadelphia Eagles. And in Week 14, we saw a little wobble from them against the Panthers.

“Carolina wasn’t quite good enough to turn that wobble into a loss for the Eagles, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are a more complete team that will capitalize if Philadelphia looks sluggish again.

. . .

“The Eagles appear to be the better team overall, but the Ravens and Panthers have demonstrated a blueprint for taking them down, and the Steelers have the personnel to execute it. We should expect Philadelphia to get somewhere in the 20-24 point margin at least, but serious questions remain as to whether Pittsburgh can match or better that against a good Eagles defense.

“I lean towards the Eagles laying the points, and the metrics say that is how this game should go, especially with them at home.”

Recently the Flyers have had a troubling tendency to build healthy leads and then carelessly and/or inexplicably blow them.

Last night in Columbus, the Flyers pulled off the trick that has eluded them so many times this season. They jumped all over the Blue Jackets and never looked back.

Travis Konecny scored two more goals, extending his team-high tally to 15 goals on the season. In a similar vein, Matvei Michkov chipped in with two assists giving him 16 for the year. Only Konecny has more for the Flyers so far.

The last five minutes were unkind to Flyers goaltender Sam Ersson, who held the Blue Jackets to one goal through two and a half periods. By that time, the Flyers were up 5-1.

The Blue Jackets got one back with a little over eight minutes left and added a wholly meaningless tally in the final minute to make the final score look much closer than the game actually was.

Granted, the Blue Jackets were there for the taking. This was Columbus’ first home game after a five-game road trip that took them across Canada.

But the Blue Jackets’ road rash isn’t the Flyers’ problem. Part of being a playoff team — which as of this writing, the Flyers would be — is collecting the “easy” points on offer.

Speaking of which, the Flyers take on a well-below-average Detroit Red Wings team Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center. That’s another game that a team with serious playoff aspirations has to have.

As the young people say, we don’t **** with the Union here much. We covered the Union’s season-ending collapse and their supporters’ frustrations. We laid out the reasons why firing Jim Curtin was the furthest thing from a solution.

Did you know the LA Galaxy won MLS Cup over the weekend? If you didn’t, we can’t blame you. We had to look it up.

The Union don’t play again until February, and that’s just fine by us. We wish they weren’t making news. But they just can’t help themselves.

It is understandable to try to spin this move positively. But reduced to data, this is a pretty gruesome trade for the Union.

• Trade Details:
  The Union traded all their picks in the next three MLS drafts to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for $350,000 in allocation money over three years, with up to $250,000 more tied to performance metrics on the players the Rapids take.

• Draft Picks Traded:

  • Three first-rounders

  • Second-rounders in 2026 and 2027

  • Three third-rounders

True, the Union went six seasons (2017-2022) without taking a player in the first round of the draft. But those teams were either on the rise or at the top of the hill.

Conversely, the Union is currently a pretty terrible team that also happens to be very old at key positions. It is difficult to imagine that the Union couldn’t find a player in the first round who could at least make their bench.

As we have said many times in this space, the true test of whether your move in competition was a good one is how the other side receives it. Welp.

Above all, what this move drives home is how little the Union cares about what the fans want.

The club remains a glorified development academy with an unstated but clear goal of producing young players and then selling them on.

Imagine being a Union season ticket sales representative today. On second thought, don’t.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On December 11, 1982, Dr. J had himself a day:

📊 Poll

Results from Tuesday:

It’s actually a one-year, $8.5 million deal, but we doubt that would affect the results:

🔗 Links

• ⚾️ The Yankees didn’t get Juan Soto, but Max Fried isn’t a terrible consolation prize.

• 🟦 Bill Belichick can have the North Carolina head coaching job if he wants it.

• 🎙️Cole Hamels will feature on some 2025 Phillies broadcasts.

• 🕛️ Caitlin Clark is Time’s Athlete of the Year.

• 🚨 Joe Burrow’s house sustained a break-in while he played in Dallas on Monday night.

📺 Coming Up

No games for the locals tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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