Eagles Throttle Toothless Cowboys While Sixers and Flyers...Eh

Happy Eagles Victory Monday! Yes, the Cowboys are terrible this season. But the Birds took care of business. The Sixers also picked up a W (they have two now!), and the Flyers, uh, tried hard. We have some thoughts on the Michkov situation.

In the email today:

• 🦅 Eagles Destroy Cowboys - Top 5 Plays

• 🧟 McCain Shines, Zombie Sixers Prevail in OT "Thriller"

• 😨 John Tortorella Has a Plan for Matvei Michkov...Right?

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

The Cowboys are struggling this season and played Sunday’s game without Dak Prescott. But it was still incredibly satisfying to see the Birds roll into Dallas and crush Dem Boyz, 34-6.

The Eagles’ fifth straight win was an absolute rout. Jalen Hurts scored four total touchdowns (two passing, two rushing) and was pulled with almost the entire fourth quarter remaining. His defense forced five turnovers.

When the smoke cleared–and the blinding sun in Jerryworld set–the Birds found themselves on top of the NFC East at 7-2.

Here’s a look at the top five plays:

5 - Zack Baun forces his second fumble of the game

Baun was everywhere again in this one, leading the team with eight tackles and forcing two fumbles. The game was already 31-6 when Baun forced the second fumble, or the play could be ranked higher.

Reed Blankenship a/k/a Brian Chalkins a/k/a Ed Reed Blankenship with the recovery.

4 - Saquon Barkley turns nothing into something

When the game was still scoreless, the Birds faced a 3rd & 6 from the Dallas 13 yard line. Hurts hit Barkley with a pass well behind the line of scrimmage, around the 22. With a pair of defenders right in front of him, and about four or five more defenders in pursuit, Barkley somehow made it to the goal line. Hurts scored a touchdown on the next play.

3 - Zack Baun forces his first fumble of the game

The Cowboys had exactly one long offensive drive on Sunday. In the first quarter, with the Eagles leading 7-3, Cooper Rush led them 77 yards to the Eagles six yard line. But Baun forced an Ezekiel Elliott fumble, recovered in the end zone by Cooper DeJean a/k/a Cooper DeJawn.

2 - Hurts hits A.J. Brown in third quarter

This was just a beautiful deep ball by Hurts, connecting with A.J. Brown down the sideline for 44 yards. The drive ended in a touchdown and pretty much put the game away at 28-6.

1 - Jalen Carter stuffs Cowboys RB Dowdle

In the first quarter, after the first Baun forced fumble, the Eagles’ offense gave the ball right back with a fumble of their own. Dallas took over at the Philadelphia six yard line, and a touchdown would have given them a 10-7 lead.

But the Birds’ defense held strong. Elliott was stopped after a three-yard rush on first down. Cooper Rush missed CeeDee Lamb with a second down pass. And on third down, Jalen Carter bulldozed his way into the backfield to hit Rico Dowdle for a two-yard loss.

Dallas kicked a field goal, the Eagles held a 7-6 lead, and the good guys never looked back.

You know things are going great for your team, your town, your 76ers when they entered Sunday night’s riveting tilt at home against the Charlotte Hornets with Paul George — who has been here like a month — being forced to say this:

Well that’s a relief. A player who had logged all of 80 minutes in a Sixers uniform telling the fan base that 1-7 with both Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey hurt is nothing to worry about. Sounds good.

Through one quarter it seemed like a high school game had unexpectedly broken out. The Sixers led 16-15. This is your National Basketball Association in the regular season in November.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Sixers led 82-66 and looked like they were going to cruise to their second win of the season. Then the Hornets went on a 17-2 run to cut the lead to one.

At one point, the crunch time five was: George, Jared McCain, Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin and Guerschon Yabusele. It looked exactly like it reads.

The Sixers had the last possession tied in regulation with a chance to win. They ran isolation for George, and this is the shot he got.

The Sixers prevailed in overtime. McCain had a career-high 27 points with what frankly looked like a Maxey line (10-18 from the field, 3-8 from three, 4-4 from the line). Yabusele was the unsung hero with 20 points. George finished with 15.

But it’s lipstick on a pig. Season ticket holders cannot possibly be happy with the Sixers, a team with championship aspirations, needing a career high from McCain to hold off a spectacularly average Hornets team at home in overtime.

None of this is good enough. Even on the rare occasions when the Sixers win.

The Flyers took the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to overtime Saturday night, losing 4-3 in a shootout. Let’s not spend too much time regretting once again that the Flyers didn’t think Sergei Bobrovsky was good at goaltending.

This was another moral victory for the Flyers, i.e., something nice to talk about that in reality doesn’t exist in professional sports. Sure, they got the all-important point in the opponent’s barn. They’re still mired in next-to-last place in the Eastern Conference.

There’s only one thing about the Flyers really worthy of anyone’s attention today, and it involves the coach and the October Rookie of the Month in the NHL who now isn’t good enough to play.

As you can imagine, there are dozens of similar posts on X expressing opinions on this issue, but these two do the most work in the least number of words. We can add a few, though.

The Flyers haven’t made the playoffs since the pandemic. The past three seasons were blighted by the likes of Kevin Hayes, Cam Atkinson and Carter Hart.

They finally land a dynamic young center in Michkov, a player fans desperately want to see in action, and the coach chooses now to “help him” by benching him. That ain’t it.

Plus, there’s this:

That’s sort of the whole point, isn’t it? No one buys tickets, travels to the Wells Fargo Center, pays for parking and concessions and merchandise because Tortorella is behind the bench.

If the argument is that Tortorella is going to make Michkov better by sitting him, that argument falls apart quickly. Tortorella has benched lots of guys over the past two seasons, and the team was still pretty bad.

When something bad happens once, it’s a fluke. The second time, it’s a shame. The third time, it’s the new normal.

Just play the kid, already.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On November 11, the Philadelphia Quakers—the city’s first NHL franchise—played its first game. They lost to the New York Rangers, 3-0.

📊 Poll

Results from Friday:

We all thought the over was a lock. But Barkley ended up with 66 yards on 14 carries.

🔗 Links

• 🚑️ Former Eagle Miles Sanders left the Panthers’ Germany game with the Giants on a cart (prayers up).

• 🌴MLS’ goofy playoff format bit the league in the tush as Inter Miami and Lionel Messi are out.

• 🎤 A hot microphone incident involving the physical appearance of the reigning Wimbledon women’s champion has a journalist in very hot water.

• 🏒While the Flyers continue to flail, the Winnipeg Jets set a record by winning 14 of their first 15 games.

• 🌎️ Roger Goodell indicated that the NFL will hold eight games abroad next season.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

November 11, 2024

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

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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