👋 Good morning! Hang it in The Louvre.

Sometimes, the difference in being happy on a Monday morning and miserable on a Monday morning is whether or not a 32-year-old guy decides to climb on top of a big blue pad.

So, happy. ✅

📻📻 Make sure you check out The Ringer Philly Special post-game show! That will be up by the time this newsletter gets sent out.

You can reach me at [email protected]

⚾ Phillies lose 2 of 3 in Atlanta: And the result is three-fold:

But let’s go back to the weekend. First, the games and then a big-picture takeaway.

On Friday, the Phillies fans had a really rough hour from around 10:30 to 11:30 p.m. First, for the second time in a week, the bullpen could not make a strong Aaron Nola start against the Braves stand. Bummer.

Jonathan Bowlan, the big man and Lane Johnson doppelgänger who has been quite the find for the Phils, is starting to leak oil. While the two singles that Bowlan gave up to blow a potential save on Friday night were not hit particularly hard (and Derek Hill’s bobble allowed the run to score), the bullpen is a results-based business. And Bowlan has now surrendered runs in five of his last six appearances. This may not be entirely his fault — Bowlan has never pitched this much in his major-league career, and the Phillies rode him hard midseason — but The Trust Tree is a pretty lonely place right now.

I do think Bowlan and Alex McFarlane can work their way back in over the next few weeks. McFarlane really has been lights-out besides that one disastrous outing against Atlanta back in Philly. Tim Mayza has been awesome for a month-plus, too. But I am down on the bullpen right now, so therefore we have a one-man Trust Tree.

(And of course, Bowlan was only pitching in that spot on Friday because Jhoan Duran was used in a tie game on Thursday and with a four-run lead on Wednesday. Duran lost Thursday’s game against Houston for the Phils, and he really did not help matters this week with his continued weird inability to pitch effectively in tie games. But not a great few days for Don Mattingly’s bullpen usage, either.)

Anyway, the bullpen had a tough week. And that was bad news, becausemafter the Phils’ bullpen collapse on Friday, we learned that Saturday was very much gonna be a bullpen game.

Well, that was terrifying.

And maybe it still is terrifying, after Jesús Luzardo threw 109 pitches in that masterpiece that he spun a week ago today. We just will not breathe a sigh of relief until the lefty gets on the mound again. Luzardo said that he did not feel bad on Tuesday, but that the discomfort in his throwing shoulder began to increase as the week went on. He then underwent an MRI that revealed no structural damage, and he truthfully sounded optimistic over the weekend for what that is worth. Luzardo has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball for four-plus months now. To say that the Phillies need him in a few weeks is an understatement. Fingers crossed.

And then the Phillies got destroyed on Saturday, because bullpen games are tough to win. Bryce Harper hit a homer and then took his dear sweet time running around the bases, a clear response to Ronald Acuña Jr.’s slow trots two weekends ago in Philly. Unfortunately, Acuña then responded with a homer off Brooks Raley.

Raley, by the way, is a David Stearns plant. He has to be. There is no other explanation for this. What in the Turk Wendell?

The Phillies are getting a taste of how truly hit-or-miss the MLB trade deadline can be. That degree of volatility extends to the hitters, too. Last year, Harrison Bader was an overlooked deadline acquisition that proceeded to have the best two months of his career. This year, Luis Arráez is a headliner who better be saving up his hits for October. The Arráez Experience has been a tough watch for Phillies fans so far.

It is not just that Arráez has a .673 OPS with the Fightins, which is not good enough. At the moment, you also can not trust him to come through situationally. Just yesterday, he failed to score a runner from third with less than two outs twice (weak pop-up, tailor-made double play). As it turns out, not all contact is created equal. And I have not written enough about how poor Brandon Marsh’s second half has been. Maybe some other day this week.

OK, all that negativity aside…

CAPS UP FOR PAINT!

On Sunday, Andrew Painter rebounded with a greasy five-inning, one-run start. And the Phillies rallied for a seven-run eighth inning, to get them a comfortable win to salvage at least something from Cobb County. Much-needed.

So, what do we make of all this?

The Phillies had a tough week, no question about that. They lost two consecutive series. But I also think that any doomerism is a little overboard. Take a step back and you see the following:

The bullpen had a bad week. The starters had a bad two nights against Houston. And the lineup had a bad three days in a row. But this was not like earlier in the season, when the Phillies were getting their doors blown off and unable to hang with the league’s top teams. Nothing they are doing in September is changing the general state of play. We have seen Phillies teams stumble to the finish line and then turn it on in October before, for those who have that concern. The 2022 group, which went 11-14 in September, comes to mind.

No, results are what matters now. Better yet, playoff positioning is what matters now. And that is why this upcoming week matters. After an off day, the Phillies have six games against two divisional rivals (Washington, NY Mets) that are playing out the string. If they want the No. 4 seed — and they should desperately want the No. 4 seed — it is time to do some damage against those teams.

As promised, we are changing up the format this year. And the day after every Eagles game, that means I will be hitting you with Ten Takes from said game.

Here is what I got from the Eagles’ 24-22 win over Washington:

(1) This was a Quarterback Win, first and foremost. Biggest play of the game, Non-Ojomo Edition? I will take Jalen Hurts’ 22-yard scramble on 3rd and 18 in the middle of the fourth quarter.

At that point, the Eagles were only up one stinkin’ point and the offense was still disjointed. It was 3rd and 18 because a bubble screen to Saquon Barkley went nowhere and Jordan Mailata false-started. The boo birds were out when Hurts threw a ball away on 2nd and 18, and I more than understood the locals’ frustration. But then Hurts, who looks slimmer and faster than in recent years, changed the game by darting through the line for a first down.

And then, after two incredibly odd Will Shipley runs, Hurts found Dallas Goedert on 3rd and 6. Goedert took his time getting in the end zone, but he did get in.

Hurts finished 14-25 passing for 203 yards and three touchdowns. He rushed seven times for 46 yards, too.

For so much of his Eagles career, you could point to factors outside of Hurts (elite skill position talent, a dominant offensive line, a strong run game, etc.) as major drivers of the Eagles’ offensive success. How much credit to assign to Hurts has always been a hot-button issue, particularly nationally.

But in this game? I thought Hurts mostly overcame his surroundings. The Eagles could not run the ball consistently at all. A.J. Brown was not here. Sean Mannion was not scheming up a lot of open stuff. The Eagles won this game because Hurts hit on some big plays with big-time throws:

Tom Brady was gushing about Hurts in the booth, which is not something that he has always done. On the bomb to Wicks, he said that Hurts “dropped it in there like a butterfly with sore legs.” Dunno about that one, but Brady was impressed. He should have been.

(2) Which also means that it was not a Scheme Win. I am far from a Film Grinder. People like Fran Duffy and Shawn Syed can tell you a lot more about what actually happens on that football field. But even an amateur like me could see the irony in the Eagles’ best plays of the first half (besides the deep ball to Wicks) being…

That is Stoutland stuff! That is Patullo stuff!

Makai Lemon finished the game with three catches for negative-five yards. Eli Stowers has five more career receiving yards than Lemon while sitting over on injured reserve. Needless to say, the bubble screens and such need a little work. So does the outside-zone runs, under-center dropbacks and honestly most of the other things that we thought Mannion would bring over from Green Bay.

(I did like Mannion’s high-fives in the booth, though. Loved the passion.)

But nothing needs more work than…

(3) The Eagles could not run the ball efficiently. Washington’s defense was living in the Eagles backfield. Hard way to live.

What the hell, offensive line?

As it turned out, Washington did very much run a Brian Flores scheme. Basically, they put a ton of defenders up on the line of scrimmage. That unpredictable style of defense brings risks and rewards, and like he always seems to, Hurts did hit some big plays against those looks. But Jordan Mailata suggested that basic alignment took away the Eagles’ outside zone runs, which is why the old stuff worked better.

Maybe, but there has to be a better and quicker adjustment. If you take away Saquon’s 42-yard run, the rest of his 14 carries went for 41 yards. That was not Saquon’s fault, either. Rough start to the season for the o-line. And speaking of that…

(4) Landon Dickerson might have to get benched at some point. It take no pleasure in typing that, by the way.

A year and a half ago, Dickerson put his body on the line in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl. He was one of the best guards in football for a three-year span, earning a big second contract from a franchise that only hands those contracts out to its stars. But Landon’s body betrayed him last year, and yesterday he played one of the worst games I can remember from an Eagles interior offensive lineman.

The reasons for that are two-fold. One, the Eagles have generally employed excellent interior linemen (Dickerson included). But it is also hard for an interior lineman to stand out so negatively on first watch. Usually, they are only part of a greater whole. They are typically not on an island, like Winston Justice against Osi Umenyiora. Normally, it takes the microscope of a film grinder to uncover bad guard play.

But Dickerson really did stand out in such a negative way on first watch. He got beat in the run game consistently, and he got beat in pass protection consistently. He did not look to be moving at the same speed as Washington’s defenders.

Cam Jurgens, the other Medellín Man, also did not have a particularly good game with two holding calls. But Dickerson’s level of play felt more alarming, which is something that the training camp observers warned us about. Especially with Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin showing positive signs in the preseason, I do not think Dickerson can afford to have many more performances like this. It is hard for an offensive line to function if it has a major weak link.

(5) Overall, “weird” is the word I would use for the Eagles defensive performance. They were dominant for large stretches of the game. I count five three-and-outs, and a few more short Washington drives. The Eagles held the Commanders to nine points on their first nine drives. That is some really good defensive football.

It just felt like good team defense, for the most part. Fangio Ball, essentially. The pass-rush got Jayden Daniels off his spot, and the back end continually held up in coverage. Quinyon Mitchell and Riq Woolen both did a great job against Terry McLaurin (2 catches, 14 yards).

But the Eagles defense also did not force any turnovers, even if Jalen Carter got pretty close with a Peanut punch that the Commanders recovered. And despite the constant pressure, Daniels was sacked all of one time for one yard. As elusive as he is, that is a disappointing number for this Eagles front against that makeshift offensive line.

And the Commanders were 3-3 in the red zone, largely because…

(6) Cooper DeJean did not look to be moving right. On two of Washington’s red-zone possessions, DeJean was torched on in-breaking routes by Diggs (who then jumped on the goal post) and third-round rookie Antonio Williams (not a great sign). It was jarring to see DeJean beat that badly, particularly by the rookie. That had to be one of the worst games of Coop’s young career.

I saw some people speculating that DeJean suffered an injury early in the game, that he was grabbing his core. Maybe he was hurt, which may or may not provide solace depending on what the injury is. Regardless of the reason, he usually does not get picked on like that.

(7) Zack Baun should get the game ball. As good as Hurts played, man, that was about as good as you can play the linebacker position.

Baun had 12 tackles for the game. Early on, he knifed through the line on a 3rd and 1 for a run stuff. Later, he blew up a screen in the backfield. And he was just as buttoned-up in pass coverage. Per Next Gen Stats, Baun was targeted six times in coverage against the Commanders, allowing three receptions for minus-2 yards. He even made a sweet would-be interception on a ball that took him just out of bounds. After that catch, Baun had a big smile on his face. He knew that he was in the zone.

It is still pretty wild that one of the best linebackers in the sport was simply playing the wrong position until Vic Fangio straightened him out at 27 years old.

Conversely, I did not think Jihaad Campbell had a very good game. He was unable to get Daniels on the ground a few times as a free-rusher and had a major lapse in pass coverage that led to a third-down conversion for Washington. I now see what Uncle Vic was seeing, as Campbell has a ways to go.

(8) In the first compliment to the defensive line, Jalen Carter came up big. Carter’s work with Joe “Joe Peezy” Pannuzio continues to pay off. He blocked an extra point, which if you look at the final score, ended up being kinda important. And I wonder if Carter messed with Commanders rookie kicker Drew Stevens’ head. After drilling a 55-yarder early on, Stevens missed one later after Carter blocked his extra-point. Did he perhaps hear some footsteps?

Also, while we are talking special teams: Braden Mann was awesome.

(9) And then Moro Ojomo came up even bigger. “What a play” carries multiple meanings here.

Did it seem pretty crazy that Washington ran a shovel pass to (*checks my program*) John Bates on that play? Even if there might have been other more appealing options baked into the play that Daniels turned down, yes. The Commanders just scored on a pick play, run another one of those!

But that was a sublime read by Moro Ojomo. He was all over it!

“I saw the guard pull, spun out of it,” Ojomo told reporters. “The tight end was right there.”

Ojomo is a really good player who the Eagles are probably not gonna be able to afford after this season. He made a spectacular read on this one, a split-second decision that saved the Eagles.

(10) The Eagles do not need to apologize for this one. The offense needs a lot of work, but we had a feeling that might be the case. But the Eagles also need to win games while they are figuring things out. They did.

The news and notes of the day…

“Inside the Eagles Media-Industrial Complex”: As someone who has covered many an Eagles game and practice but never been a full-time member of the beat corps, I like to think that I know a little something about it. And with the possible exception of a few other franchises (Yankees? Cowboys?), it truly is unlike any other beat out there both in terms of size and intensity. I was at a rookie mini-camp once, and I think it was Jimmy Kempski who pointed out that the media on hand to chronicle that practice outnumbered the players on the field by well over a 2:1 ratio.

The Eagles are really good for local journalism, at a time when local journalism is generally in a really tough place. But because we all care so much about this football team — and the football team has been both good and interesting for the past decade, which has ratcheted up the interest from a 10 to a 13 — the Eagles beat is boomin’. Because of the heightened interest, there are a lot of excellent writers, podcasters, content creators and you-name-it covering the team on at least something close to a full-time basis. And it is very competitive. Getting in a question at a press availability is a learned skill.

This whole dynamic was explained expertly by Tom McGrath over at Philly Mag. Great idea for a story, followed up by great execution. Very funny line: “Okay, so I’m kind of mocking all this coverage. But I should acknowledge that I only know it exists for one simple reason: I consume it, day after day after day. It’s honestly a miracle that I still hold down a job.”

Definitely worth a read. And you know what is definitely worth a watch?

Howie Roseman’s September 11th story: Like always, NFL Films does an awesome job. We expect nothing less from a Philly-area company. Their latest involves Roseman, Eagles fan Jonathan Reiss, retired New York City fireman Gary Bulger and Super Bowl 59. It got a little dusty for me at the end.

Another nice sports-related moment from the 25th anniversary of 9/11: The Yankees had Brielle Saracini and Sean McGuire, a married couple who both lost their fathers on that tragic day, throw out the first pitch. I have met Brielle through my fiancée Alex, and she is an awesome person. Her decades-long friendship with Derek Jeter is so heartwarming.

There is a local tie-in here, too. Sean and Brielle run a really cool brewery called Future Days in Northern Liberties. It is a great spot with excellent beer, I highly recommend it!

Myles Garrett, headed to IR: Lost in The Sleep Discourse from The Aussie Bowl, Myles Garrett was completely invisible. Goose eggs across the board, which has only happened a few times in his career. And as it turns out, it was not just his REM cycle that was messed up.

Garrett is having arthroscopic surgery on his knee and headed to IR. Which for our purposes means that he will not be in uniform Week 4 at The Linc.

Rookie games! We are officially back on the ice. And while the vets will not officially start until Thursday, the Flyers’ annual rookie series against the Rangers Rooks took place in Allentown this weekend.

Since the Flyers very much have Good Rooks™ right now, they took both games:

Alex Bump played in the first game, and he unsurprisingly played well. Bump scored on the rush, which we know he can do. The Western Michigan alum has a great shot, and he is probably still fuming about that whole clock situation in Ann Arbor. Someone should ask him and Keith Jones what they think of those B1G clock operators.

But Bumpy also found Cole “Son of Mike” Knuble with a nifty cross-ice feed for a tap-in goal. Come to think of it, the only time that Bump has really disappointed over the past few years came at Flyers training camp 12 months ago. He was expected to battle for an NHL spot, but got sent down to the AHL pretty quickly. But that disappointment seems to be behind him. Bumpy is now a near-lock to make the roster after impressing down the NHL stretch run last year. Good to see him play well.

And then more of the Flyers’ headline rookies played the second game: Porter Martone (goal, assist), Denver Barkey (goal, assist) and Oliver Bonk (assist). They all played well. Again, they are good!

It is really cool that Brek Liske scored a goal. Liske grew up a Flyers fan in Western Canada, because his dad just so happens to be a certified Orange and Black sicko. When Brek got drafted in the second round, he had a million different Flyers jerseys lying around his house to choose from.

Brek is gonna go back to Everett in the Western Hockey League this season, but cool to see him score in Orange and Black while he is here.

⚽ Union 5, San Diego nil: What else can you say at this point? The Hottest Team in Philadelphia Sports is on a rampage, everyone. The good people of San Diego did not know what hit them. Break up The Fightin’ Ryan Richters!

And oh my word, Cavan Sullivan…

Two goals and an assist for Young Cavan. It is truly every game now.

I am gonna keep writing about this Sullivan run until it stops, that is now 14 goal contributions (goals and assists) in eight games for the 16-year-old wunderkind. He had a lot of hype, but this is pretty advanced stuff from such a young kid.

🦁 Penn State 27, Temple 9: If Eli Stowers does not work out, Benjamin Brahmer looks like a pretty good prospect.

I will have more on the rest of the NFL weekend tomorrow. But before then, I just want to say something really important: It is not Justin Herbert’s fault.

The Phils are off tonight, which is nice. I think we all need a break, let’s all just throw on Monday Night Football instead.

Let’s make it a good one.