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What They're Saying About Eagles / Cowboys

🚦 THE Philly Sports Newsletter

© Bill Streicher | 2023 Nov 5

Happy Friday Eve! In today’s send, we’ll collect national media outlets’ thoughts on the Eagles, discuss whether the Sixers are #madeforthis 1-6 start, and check in on Villanova.

In the email today:

👀 What They’re Saying About the Eagles - Week 10

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

Here’s a look at what they’re saying about your Birds against the Cowboys this week:

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

“Dak Prescott is going to miss at least a month due to a hamstring injury. It’s just the latest example that the Cowboys’ season is headed in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, the Eagles are performing like one of the top teams in the NFL. Saquon Barkley’s been all that Philly’s hoped for. He has 1,071 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns already this season.”

From the analyst who picked the Cowboys: “No one expects the Cowboys to win, which is exactly why they will win. Dallas is always dangerous at home. I think Micah Parsons has a standout performance.”

From Pro Football Network: Eagles 27 - Cowboys 17.

"The Philadelphia Eagles continue to confound and confuse onlookers this year as they bumble their way through one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. Some weeks, Philadelphia looks incredible, but then the Eagles do head-scratching things, and their head coach makes a baffling decision.

“They are still the 14th-best offense and the ninth-best defense this season, but the Eagles’ strength of schedule means they are only 14th in PR+. The good news for Philadelphia is that the Dallas Cowboys are even more confounding and confusing than they are.

“Dallas ranks 24th overall with the 20th-ranked offense and 26th-ranked defense. The Cowboys have played a much harder schedule (sixth-toughest), so there is some mitigation, but this is a game the Eagles should win if they don’t do something to cost themselves.”

Wednesday’s injury report via @eagles on twitter

From CBS Sports: Eagles 24 - Cowboys 21.

"The Cowboys will start Cooper Rush for the injured Dak Prescott here. Good luck. The Eagles will run the ball right at the Cowboys' bad run defense with Saquon Barkley, who will have a field day. Look for the Eagles to win this one on the ground, but the Cowboys will hang around.”

From Sporting News: All three analysts picked the Eagles to win.

"Are the Cowboys done? We will find out here against Philadelphia. The Eagles look like the best bet to challenge Detroit in the NFC, thanks to a punishing running game that averages 200-plus yards in three of the past four games. It's going to get worse before it gets better for the banged-up Cowboys, who will be without Dak Prescott (hamstring) and possibly CeeDee Lamb (shoulder).”

From Bleacher Report: All eight analysts picked the Eagles to cover (-7.5).

"This one is fairly straightforward. Prescott is out for the foreseeable future. Lamb seems likely to play but is on the mend after suffering a shoulder injury last week.

"This rivalry series has gone back and forth over the last two years, but the Cowboys haven't been very good even with Dak and Lamb this season, so I shudder to think what they'll look like without them. Meanwhile, the Eagles defense looks better every week, and Saquon Barkley should have a field day against the Cowboys' porous run defense.

"Philadelphia wins this by at least 10."

🧟 Zombie Sixers Fall to 1-6 After Loss to Clippers

The Sixers chose #madeforthis as their mantra for the 2024-2025 season. Hopes were high. Any team with Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey should be at minimum a problem nightly and at maximum a contender.

Marketing schemes are great, but ultimately it’s the product that matters.

We miss the simpler times like last season when we could just blame Tobias Harris for this team’s inability to be, like, good.

Maybe the strangest subtext to this game was Paul George’s return to Los Angeles and some blowback he received for leaving. This wasn’t Johnny Damon coming back to Fenway as a Yankee. George didn’t win anything in LA, and it’s not looking great for him in Philadelphia so far, either.

  • George had 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds.

  • Kelly Oubre matched George’s tally and did what he could to keep the Sixers in the game.

  • Andre Drummond missed a double-double by one point (nine points, ten rebounds).

  • Tyrese Maxey left the game after 31 minutes as a precaution with the game out of reach.

Last night’s loss felt like another significant inflection point. The Sixers have been hiding behind Joel Embiid’s elongated recovery process as the losses mount. But there are only so many losses the team can absorb before fans ask whether it’s all a lie.

And here we are.

 đźź¦ Villanova Got Rinsed at Home by Columbia

Power conference college basketball teams lose early season games on the regular. These are kids after all. One loss in November doesn’t mean all that much. Usually, it’s easily written off.

Yeah, but then again some November losses are more alarming than others.

Quite literally, what are we doing here? Jay Wright was in the stands for this game. It was televised nationally. This wasn’t a scrimmage, though the way Villanova played you could be forgiven for thinking as much.

Watching the game, you didn’t need to be a basketball coach to see that Columbia played with a specific plan (a hybrid of Pete Carril’s Princeton offense) and Villanova played like five guys who met in the dining hall two hours before the game.

Don’t believe us? We have backup.

Villanova basketball in its present state equates to the Hemingway line about how one of his characters went bankrupt: “Gradually, then suddenly.”

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On November 7, 1933, Philadelphia voted to allow sports to be played on Sundays.

The Philadelphia A’s had threatened to move to Camden, NJ unless Pennsylvania’s Sunday restrictions were eased. In response, the Pennsylvania House and Senate passed a bill allowing PA jurisdictions to vote on whether Sunday sports would be permitted in their localities.

The measure passed easily in Philly. And fans have enjoyed (well, sometimes enjoyed) Sunday sports ever since.

© Albert Cesare/The Enquirer | 2024 Oct 27

đź“Š Poll

Will the Eagles (-7.5) cover the spread against Dallas this week?

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Results from Wednesday:

Let’s hope the December vote for Dick Allen goes as well as our poll:

đź“ş Coming Up

Games before our next send.

November 6, 2024

  • Flyers at Lightning, 7:30 p.m., NBC Sports Philadelphia

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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