What They're Saying About the Eagles

🚦 THE Philly Sports Newsletter

AuthorAuthor

Philip Keidel & John Foley
November 01, 2024

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Happy November! Have some candy for breakfast, you deserve it.

Today we’ll take a look at what national analysts are saying about the Birds, celebrate a second consecutive W for the Flyers, and stress out together over Joel Embiid.

In the email today:

👀 What They’re Saying About the Eagles - Week 9

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 Jaguars this week:

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

"The Eagles seem to be finding their groove. Jalen Hurts is the first player in NFL history with multiple rushing touchdowns and a passer rating of 100 or higher in consecutive games. Hurts might continue the streak against the lowly Jaguars."

From NBC Sports: Both analysts picked the Eagles to cover (-7.5).

"The Eagles are stacking wins, and the Jaguars are overmatched."

From CBS Sports: Eagles 33 - Jaguars 19.

"The Jaguars are reeling, while the Eagles are suddenly playing well. The Philadelphia offense should have a field day against a bad Jacksonville defense. The Jacksonville offense won't be able to keep up with its injuries at receiver. This will be ugly. The Eagles are on a roll now."

Thursday’s injury report, via @Eagles on twitter

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

"The Philadelphia Eagles put to bed many of the concerns swirling around them this season with a comprehensive win over the Bengals. Jalen Hurts was superb, and the offense was a top-five unit this week through Sunday. The defense wasn’t at its best, but the Bengals’ offense is a pretty good unit, so it was always likely that they would have some success moving the ball.

“The Jaguars have put together a couple of solid weeks offensively, backing up a strong showing in Wembley with a seventh-ranked offensive performance coming out of Sunday. Jacksonville’s defense remains a concern, ranking 30th overall, but they did have another solid week, even if they allowed 30 points. The Eagles are just a better overall team than the Jaguars.”

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

"It's not easy to lay over a touchdown with Philadelphia, even after last week's impressive outing against the Bengals. Cincinnati hasn't exactly impressed this season, and the Eagles can't rush the passer or cover a bed with a sheet.

"Luckily for Philly's matador secondary, the Jaguars don't have any wide receivers. With Kirk out for the year and Thomas perhaps out this week as well, the top three wide receivers in Jacksonville may be Davis, Parker 'Who?' Washington and Tim 'Randomly Generated Madden Name' Jones.

"Combine an injury-ravaged offense with the league's fourth-worst defense, and you have all the ingredients for a happy crowd at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday—and an Eagles blowout."

🥅 Flyers Scrape Out Another Narrow Win as Ersson Shines in Goal Again

Overreaction is not our thing. Two Flyers wins on the bounce isn’t cause for rampant optimism or a sign that the Orange and Black are so back.

But there’s no reason not to celebrate another victory, or to fail to give credit where it’s due.

Ersson has now tossed a shutout in Boston and held the Blues to a singleton in the past three days. Is this sustainable? Probably not.

But Ersson’s mini-hot streak came at the perfect time for the Flyers, who were 2-6-1 and going nowhere fast before play began Tuesday night.

Additionally, as long as Ersson can continue to limit damage, he can keep the relatively punchless Flyers (currently averaging fewer than three goals every time out) in games.

Maybe best of all, the more Ersson plays, the more the Flyers can ease their prized goaltending prospect in.

The Flyers probably can’t keep winning games 2-0 and 2-1. They need to start finding consistent goalscoring somewhere.

For today, though, they have a starting goaltender and a two-game winning streak. They’ve won three of four.

Might as well enjoy the good times while they last.

😡 Joel Embiid Is Scrimmaging, Progressing Toward Debut, Which Somehow Counts as News

We have sunk to a new low. We’re now at the point where even the suggestion that Joel Embiid might play in an NBA regular season game is news. 😡 

We intend no disrespect to Shams Charania. He’s a worthy successor to Adrian Wojnarowski. It’s also not Charania’s fault that this is what currently qualifies for “news” where the Sixers are concerned.

You know how much money Embiid is making — and how much he is still owed.

What no one really wants to face is the possibility that, in Embiid, the Sixers have created the equivalent of the Ryan Howard Phillies fans had to live with from 2012-2016. A guy who either missed half the team’s games or played with reduced effectiveness.

Howard’s last moment as a Phillie was plenty nice.

But if you listen closely at Citizens Bank Park, you can still hear faint echoes of the exasperated boos Howard heard as his production faded.

You can also make out an even worse sound: The silence the fans created when it was obvious booing wasn’t making any difference.

Maybe this is all a little premature. But what if it isn’t?

Regardless, the next time Charania wants to break a story, we’d prefer to hear something about this:

That dynamic, we’re definitely interested in.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

This day in 1883 is the cause of all our problems.

📊 Poll

Will Juan Soto get a $700 million contract?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Results from Thursday:

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Saturday, November 2, 2024

  • Bruins at Flyers, 1:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

  • Grizzlies at Sixers, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Sunday, November 3, 2024

  • Jaguars at Eagles, 4:05 p.m. (CBS)

Thanks for reading. See you Monday.

Be sure to follow On Pattison on social media:

If you were forwarded this email from a friend, subscribe here: