👋 Good morning! The Eagles are playing like

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Sixers season is here, and honestly, that might be the best thing that we have in Philadelphia for a little while. I covered the team for a decade, so that works out just fine.

But you know what? If the Eagles continue to stink, then I will continue to cover the season in-depth… and then we will have a much more interesting offseason, that I will also cover in-depth. No slowing down.

Nobody will outwork me. So please, consider upgrading your subscription to The Broad Street Bulletin to get Philly sports in your inbox every weekday.

🏒 Flyers 3, Ottawa 1: Yes, you read that correctly. The Philadelphia Flyers won a hockey game. They will not go defeated.

🥳🥳🥳

Strong Little Giants “They gained a yard!” energy from that dub. The Orange and Black are officially off the schneid, and believe it or not, they are not the last NHL team to pick up a win. That honor belongs to the 0-4-2 Los Angeles Kings.

There must be something about the Senators, a pretty good team that the Flyers have played two of their best games against in the early going. Maybe they see Claude Giroux’s beard and get fired up? Whatever it is, in what has been an incredibly discouraging start for Flyers fans, the team finally got a win due to the two guys that the fans are probably most invested in: Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone.

I am enjoying The M&M Line doing some damage. I would like to see them play more, as Michkov ranks seventh and Martone tenth among Flyers forwards in ice time on the young season. Rick Tocchet, this is not last year, man! Michkov is in good shape, is the only one scoring goals and most of your forward corps have been terrible. Let’s start playing your best offensive players a bit more.

The young bucks are bonding off the ice, too. Well, as much as they can through the language barrier. Maybe they are talking about how insane their ice time is.

Speaking of The M&Ms, it was really cool that the Flyers won on the day that Jason Myrtetus spoke to them before the game.

Jason has done a ton of work locally on the radio over the years, and has differentiated himself as an extra-knowledgeable hockey guy. He has become one of, if not the go-to Flyers broadcaster and podcaster over the years. Jason hosts a popular podcast called Flyers Daily.

Jason is in the fight of his life, and has been for almost two years now. He has Stage 4 colorectal cancer, and has been remarkably open about his battle against that awful disease. Good story from Kevin Kurz about Jason’s journey in The Athletic.

After the game, after his successful speech, Jason got the Rocky gloves and the game puck from Tocchet. Very nice touch from the Flyers.

⚽ Union 2, Charlotte FC 2: The eight-game winning streak is over for The Hottest Team in Philadelphia Sports, but on the bright side, a tie is not a loss. So, that is not 15 matches in a row for the Union without a loss.

This Bruno Damiani goal was a banger. The buildup was great and the finish was superb.

🏀 Boston 125, Sixers 120 (OT): A bunch of Celtics fans online were crowing about beating the Sixers with their backups. That’s fine, hang the banner.

(I do unfortunately think Boston is gonna be a very good regular-season team with their depth, rebounding and 3-point rate. As for the playoffs? They gotta prove it to everyone that the regular-season stuff will translate with this roster.)

I thought the Sixers starters all got an honest night of work in, though. Still a few too many turnovers, in large part because they are trying to push the ball. That is fine. They left after the third quarter with a ten-point lead, before the Sixers’ deep subs coughed up the lead to the Celtics’ deep subs. KCP played a nice game, it would be great if he was not washed.

The big fella really knocked the rust off in the second half, which was good to see. He even got up for a huge dunk, which I think he should be able to do from time to time while carrying less weight. But, you know, not too much, Joel.

It was also interesting to see Embiid knock down a corner 3, which is an easier shot in theory but has not been a major part of his repertoire. Anecdotally, it does feel like Joel misses a lot of his above-the-break 3s short. In that sense, going to the corner, where it is 1.75 feet closer, makes sense. But it’s also probably pretty hard for Joel to get off one of those shots without stepping out of bounds. There is not a lot of space over there for Size 17 feet.

Man, that was a slog.

This season has shown us the power of the Eagles fan base… on the road. Eagles fans travel in huge numbers, and when they go to another city, they can completely take that building over. Week 2 in Nashville and last week in London were perfect examples. But if the team gives them nothing to cheer about at The Linc, well, that place will be half-empty during the fourth quarter just like any other stadium in the NFL. The way yesterday’s game was moving, I bet some fans were home before the final whistle.

Is it bad that I am leading with some partially recycled material about the fans? Probably, but the dichotomy between last week in London and the half-empty shots of the Linc yesterday really stood out to me.

As for the actual football, it’s, uh, yeah.

Let’s get into it, though: The Eagles gave their fans almost nothing to cheer about in a pretty long, mostly boring 25-14 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The Birds are now 2-4 on the season. But like always, I have your ten takes, some of which have nothing to do with what happened on the field…

(1) On Saturday, Eagles placed Jalen Hurts on injured reserve. And they elevated running back Jaydon Blue to the active roster in Jalen’s place, which felt fitting. Not because their names rhyme, either! It felt like a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong for this team over this month: Here was the title-winning quarterback for the last five-plus years of very good Eagles football going down, and in his place, a practice squad running back who the Eagles were terrified to put on the field checks in.

Yeah, it might just be one of those years.

I thought these two paragraphs in Adam Schefter’s piece were pretty interesting.

On Friday, I wrote about the difference between Superficial Vein Thrombosis (no blood thinners needed) and Deep Vein Thrombosis (blood thinners required). But as we also are learning, these situations can be fluid. The blood clot can move. As the anonymous team doc says, there is a broad range of evaluations when treating these things. That said, Schefter is essentially laying out three options:

So, that is where we are at. Considering the sorry state of this Eagles season, it feels easier organizationally for Jalen to miss games. But the reality of this particular situation is that even if the Eagles were Super Bowl contenders, this is not something Hurts could play through. Blood clots can potentially be life-threatening, if not dealt with properly.

Take care of what you need to, buddy. 🙏🙏🙏

(2) This is some of the worst offensive football we have ever seen in Philadelphia, and the Eagles are getting their butts kicked every week because of it. After another game full of three-and-outs (five of ‘em!), I wanted to see what the yardage stats looked like during this four-game losing streak.

It feels like the same script every week: The offense goes three-and-out for most of the game. And the defense battles hard against an above-average offense, does not play terribly all things considered, but gives up a bunch of yards and ultimately breaks.

Well, Jimmy Kempski looked it up for me:

That is minus-723 yards for the month. Pretty hard to do.

Crazy stat from Bo Wulf over at PHLY: In Nick Sirianni’s first five seasons as head coach, the Eagles were outgained by 175+ yards just three times. And in his sixth season, it has happened in the last three games.

It is not from everyone, but I have occasionally seen the sentiment locally that the undermanned Eagles battled hard during the Rams and Jags games, and that they were right there in those games. Even if that latter point is technically true, I find the analysis to largely be misguided. Sure, especially on those goal-line stands in London, you can take some pride in the defense stepping up there. And sure, the Eagles are getting some penalty yardage that is not reflected in those totals.

But let’s be real here: The Birds are getting their butts kicked on a down-to-down basis literally every single week. One offense has a chance in these games, the other one does not. That is why it is hard to watch as a fan. The other team can move the ball and the Eagles cannot.

(3) While the personnel is the personnel, and I am not blaming everything on him, Sean Mannion has to show us some flexibility. Look, I supported the Mannion hiring. And I supported the incorporation of under-center play-action to the scheme. There is no hindsight bias here. I agreed with putting this stuff in the playbook.

But man, it is not working.

And honestly, “not working” is putting it mildly. It is an unmitigated disaster. Despite Jalen Hurts getting a blitzing linebacker immediately in his lap almost every time that the Eagles ran under-center play-action through the first five weeks, Tanner McKee ran under-center play-action on his very first snap as the Eagles starter.

Guess what McKee got? Four Eagles linemen blocked 1.5 Panthers, which left Dameon Pierce with two guys to pick up. News flash: Dameon Pierce ain’t picking up two guys, especially when he has to carry out a play-fake first.

They just cannot block blitzing linebackers. It feels like Johnny Mundt, who was sold as a good blocker, commits a holding penalty every week. This one negated a chunk play to DeVonta Smith, and really should not have been that difficult of a block to make.

Speaking of Mundt and under-center play action…

(record scratch, freeze frame) “Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here.”

Uncle! Enough Johnny Mundt! Calcaterra could do this!

The Eagles are the worst team in the league at under-center play-action, and it is not even close. The issue that they have run into, time and again, is that defenses are much more willing to blitz their linebackers against it. The adjustment makes sense, too: Instead of being confused whether it is a run or a pass at around the line of scrimmage, you might as well just fire downhill into the offensive backfield. Be decisive. If it is a pass, teams are gonna gave trouble blocking that blitz. The Eagles never block it.

This is part of the concern about chasing a trend… in this case, the Shanahan/McVay scheme. Trends end at some point, as defenses adjust. You need a coach that can adjust with it. If you chase a trend, you are often gonna be too late. That is why you really need to hire for the play-caller and not the scheme.

The Eagles offensive personnel is below-average, no question about it. But Sean Mannion has to show us some flexibility here, it really does not have to be this hopeless. Speaking of that…

(4) Tanner McKee mostly struggled, but did have one good drive when the Eagles spread it out. 10 plays for 69 yards and a nice toss to DeVonta Smith for six. Every single play on that drive? Out of the shotgun.

I have a half-baked theory on this: Through his first three seasons, McKee showed that he was either a low-end starter or high-end backup quarterback at pretty much every turn. But then this summer and preseason rolled around, and he weirdly took a step back. Maybe we all overvalued McKee, that tends to happen with backup quarterbacks. But he was dealing with a new variable this year. I wonder if The Tanimal is just not a scheme fit for this under-center offense. Some people thought that McKee would be better at the under-center stuff than Hurts, but I think that is the wrong read. Jalen is such a better athlete for the bootlegs and throws on the move.

It does not take Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan to figure out the adjustment for the next three weeks: Spread it out, put The Mormon Missile in the gun and let him sling it. It might work, it might not, but there is almost no chance it is worse than what you have been doing.

(5) The Eagles did a whole lot of Bad Team Stuff. In all three phases, too.

Bad Team Stuff.

(6) The injuries are getting pretty crazy. The thing about this Eagles losing streak is that it is not one thing. The personnel, the coaching, the execution, they are all part of this decline.

But let’s not forget the injuries.

Things are getting comical two places, in particular: edge-rusher and running back. At some point in the third quarter, I was like, “What is Keyshawn James-Newby doing out there?” He seems like the type of seventh-round pick that would sit on the practice squad for a few seasons before getting quietly released. But after Nolan Smith and Jonathan Greenard were injured, the Eagles were down to just James-Newby and Arnold Ebiketie. I bet Antwaun Powell-Ryland is furious that this was not his rookie year. This would have been him!

Carson Steele was a fan favorite during preseason, and rightfully so. He did some cool stuff with the ball in his hands, but was still a pretty early cut. I thought we would never hear from him again. But with the top-three backs all out and Steele on the 53, the Eagles made him the third-down back in this game. But then Steele caught one pass, and then he was out for the rest of the game. Dameon Pierce is a tough runner who was valiant as a three-down back, but that is not a situation that you want him to be in.

Elsewhere, Jordan Davis left the game. DeVonta Smith and Donnie Candles got hurt on back-to-back plays, but came back.

(7) What was up with Referee John Hussey? Never seen anything like that before from an official, adding some additional spice to his rulings.

THE QUARTERBACK WAS OUTSIDE OF THE POCKET, HE GOT THE BALL BEHIND THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE!

And then New York buzzed into him five seconds later: “No John, the Eagles fans were right, that was intentional grounding.”

Ease up next time, Hussey.

(8) The offense is the Eagles’ biggest issue, but this defense has also been disappointing considering expectations. They are part of the great yardage discrepancy listed above, too.

I just do not know any one thing that this group does incredibly well. They do not get sacks if Jalen Carter is not The Game Wrecker of All Game Wreckers. They do not generate takeaways. Their coverage on the back end is pretty good, but sometimes it cannot hold up with the lack of pass-rush and sometimes there are communication breakdowns. That was the case on both Tommy Tremble touchdowns, but particularly the second one. Just a complete bust.

Dallas this week will mark the end of a difficult stretch of offenses that they faced. And while their own offense puts them in a terrible spot week after week, I was hoping for an elite unit. This is not really close to that.

(9)The next three games are against the NFC East, which as you might be aware of, is not a very good division. I have an idea for all of you aspiring headline writers out there: The NFC Least. Since I am such a good guy, you do not even have to credit me for that one.

Giants lost to New Orleans, Cowboys lost to Green Bay, Commanders will lose to San Francisco tomorrow night. Well, someone is gonna have to win when the Eagles play these teams. I guess Commanders-Giants showed us that is not technically true, but regardless, here are the Eagles’ next three weeks:

Those three games will determine whether the Eagles are still within striking distance headed into the bye week. But here is a question: Should they want to be in striking distance?

(10) Might these next few games determine whether Howie Roseman goes into full-blown seller mode? This was a long discussion that Sheil and I had on The Ringer’s Philly Special.

I really do not want to be Blow It Up Guy, especially since I write a newsletter that would be greatly helped by the local professional football team playing important games, and the interest that comes from those games. And if the Eagles were just unlucky or run-of-the-mill bad, I feel like these conversations would be premature.

But the Birds are getting outgained by 200 yards every week and the offense is the franchise’s worst this century. If they cannot muster some points against Christian Parker’s horrible defense (now featuring Mike Pettine Jr.!) on Monday night, then what are we doing here?

The news and notes of the day…

A.J. Brown: Brutal performance in his first game back from the Week 1 injury.

🌮 Two-Way Tacko: The Sixers signed Tacko Fall to their final two-way spot.

Not my favorite use of resources, to be honest. The Sixers have gotten real NBA players from their two-way contracts (Jabari Walker, Dom Barlow) and it seems pretty clear to me that Tacko is just not that. But whatever, it is also pretty late in the game and Tacko has been here.

Ben Simmons tore his Achilles: No snark here, poor guy.

Good thing that the Flyers won on Saturday, because they are playing the Very Good Colorado Avalanche (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly) at home tonight. Tyson Foerster, Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett all missed Sunday’s practice. Probably partying too hard from The Big Win (or just banged-up).

We will have something of a Sixers Season Preview tomorrow, too. You can read that by upgrading here.

Let’s make it a good one.