Eagles Win Eighth Straight

And we’re back! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

The local sports teams gave us much to be thankful for over the long weekend. The Eagles beat a talented Ravens squad on the road to improve to 10-2, the Flyers caught fire, and we even have a rare Sixers W to discuss.

Let’s jump in.

In the email today:

• 🦅 Eagles Victorious in Battle of the Birds

• 🔥 Flyers Are Certifiably Hot, Winning Four of Last Five

• 😎 Sixers Take Much-Needed Blowout Win in Detroit

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

The Eagles passed their latest test on Sunday, holding the Ravens' league-leading offense in check en route to a 24-19 victory in Baltimore.

Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and company came into Sunday's battle averaging 427 yards and over 30 points per game. But Vic Fangio's defense held them to 302 yards and 12 points before allowing a garbage-time Ravens touchdown drive.

How ‘bout that Cooper DeJawn?!

It wasn't always pretty. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense got off to one of their trademark slow starts, failing to score in the first quarter for approximately the 50th time this season.

The Ravens quickly jumped to a 9-0 lead on a field goal and a touchdown. Why not 10-0? Because Justin Tucker, one of the greatest kickers in NFL history, missed the extra point.

Tucker went on to miss two field goals as well.

But the Eagles didn't win this game just because they lucked out on a few missed kicks. After the first quarter ended, they outscored the Ravens 24-3 over the next 44 minutes of clock time.

Hurts hit Dallas Goedert with this second-quarter touchdown pass to cut Baltimore's lead to 9-7.

After the Birds' defense forced a three and out, Hurts led the offense right back down the field. He connected with A.J. Brown for gains of 15, 15, and 14 on the drive before setting up a tush push TD with a nine-yard run.

The Eagles struggled on offense again in the third quarter, but the defense kept giving them the ball back until they could straighten things out. Not many teams can buy time against the Ravens like that.

It was a true team effort, but Zack Baun (13 tackles) and Jalen Carter led the way.

Saquon Barkley didn’t post another 255-yard rushing game. But he topped 100 yards against a tough Ravens run defense, including a 25-yard touchdown run.

Your Eagles are legit Super Bowl contenders. If you didn’t believe it already, their performance in Baltimore leaves no doubt.

The Bird Gang will try to stay hot against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Prior to our last send, the Flyers had pulled three points from two games with an overtime win over the terrible Chicago Blackhawks and a shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights where they blew a three-goal lead.

If you checked out on the Flyers over the long holiday weekend, you missed out. The Flyers won three games in a row to pull themselves into the playoff places in the Eastern Conference.

On Wednesday night, the Flyers stole two points in Nashville late. That would end up being something of a Thanksgiving theme.

Wednesday’s heroes were Morgan Frost (scored with 11.4 left in regulation), Sean Couturier (game winner in overtime) and Alexei Kolosov (25 saves).

As Flyers fans were putting the good china away on Friday afternoon, the Orange and Black posted their first home win over the New York Rangers since March 2021. The Flyers broke that streak the way these streaks are often broken: forcibly.

The Flyers jumped on the Rangers for two goals in the first five minutes and were never seriously threatened. Even after the Rangers got one back in the second period, it felt more like a blip than a cause for real concern. The Flyers still controlled the game.

Soon enough, they put it away.

If these two results were all Flyers fans got this weekend, they’d have been plenty grateful. But the best was still to come.

The Flyers had every reason to come out flat in St. Louis Saturday night. They’d won three of four and accrued seven points in that span. A one-off Midwest road game to be followed by five days off? That’s a recipe for a mail-in job.

We don’t know, though…there seems to be something going on with this team. The Flyers led the Blues for most of the game before giving up a power play, empty net goal with 18.3 seconds left.

Again, this would have been an understandable moment for the Flyers to curse their luck, figure they got a road point and half-ass the overtime period they never wanted to play to begin with.

Except, three-on-three overtime (which used to be a pretty big problem for the Flyers) is now a phase of the game that the Flyers absolutely love.

Sensational rookie Matvei Michkov is an excellent player in five-on-five play. In overtimes, though, all the open ice makes Michkov positively lethal.

As Buddy Ryan once said, “you’ve got a winner in town.” Pressure creates diamonds and shatters pipes. Overtime pressure is revealing time and again that Michkov is an absolute gem.

It’s a shame that the Flyers are off until Thursday night. The way they’re playing right now, you wouldn’t put it past them to win their next game — against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

That’ll be must-see TV.

No one knows whether Joel Embiid will play a significant role in this Sixers season. The addition of “personal reasons” to his injury list explanation isn’t exactly reassuring.

At some point, it’ll be past time to stop playing the “will he or won’t he” game with Embiid. Quite possibly, that time is now.

The Sixers were essentially a pick’em against the 9-12 Detroit Pistons in the Motor City Saturday night. That line screamed Sixers (why was the 3-14 team not getting points on the road?) Hopefully if you played this game, you had the visitors.

This game got away from the Pistons early. That made sense, considering that the Pistons had won in Indiana Friday night and were thus on the home end of a road/home back-to-back.

The Sixers took full advantage, jumping out to a 17-point lead after one quarter. They were never seriously threatened after that.

Nick Nurse continues to tinker with the lineup and the rotations. Saturday night’s game was no exception, and it produced a pair of unlikely stars off the bench.

Put it this way: Any night the Sixers get 36 points in 54 minutes from two bench players, they’re going to be plenty dangerous.

The schedule isn’t doing the Sixers any favor in the near term. Starting Tuesday, they’re playing three games in four nights including a home-and-home with the Orlando Magic (currently third in the Eastern Conference).

Still, there’s no point in doing anything but looking for any silver lining. That looks something like this.

Preach.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On December 2, 1991, the Eagles’ top-ranked defense dominated QB Warren Moon and a flashy Houston Oilers offense in what came to be known as the “House of Pain Game.”

The Astrodome was nicknamed the House of Pain that season because the Oilers were unbeaten at home and lighting opponents up with 400+ yards of offense per game. But the Birds forced five Houston turnovers in a 13-6 victory.

Defensive tackle Jerome Brown summed the performance up with a perfect line: “They brought the house and we brought the pain.”

📊 Poll

Results from Thursday:

We have very smart readers.

🔗 Links

• 👀 It was a chaotic weekend in college football.

• 🖕 James Franklin had no time for the whining from Maryland head coach Mike Locksley.

• 🏥 There might not be a punishment severe enough for the hit that knocked Trevor Lawrence out of the Jaguars’ game with the Texans.

• 🌴 It is still an open question whether the Tampa Rays will build a new stadium or explore other options.

• 😡 Dan Hurley didn’t have any fun in Maui and swears he’s not doing it again.

📺 Coming Up

No games for the locals tonight.

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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