👋 Good morning! Well, Hell Week is officially over.

This sports stuff is not for the faint of heart, y’all. Just from the calendar week of September 28th to October 4th:

The good news is that the Sixers beat the Sixers in their scrimmage over the weekend.

If you are also a Penn State football fan, I am so sorry. That week was an all-timer of awfulness. But we will get through this like we always do, you and me together.

You can reach me at [email protected]

The Eagles might be struggling right now, but whenever they turn it around, I will be right here. Hopefully, that is soon. Please be soon.

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🏈 LA Rams 24, Eagles 20: See below.

🏒 Carolina 3, Flyers 2 (OT): As I wrote on Friday, I am an 82-game hockey watcher. So, just like the Orange and Black, I took the first two nights of the (now) 84-game regular season off mostly. Some good sports on Saturday night, but I was excited to get my first real look at the Flyers.

Here is how the first 10 seconds of the game went…

Let’s not mince words here: The Flyers are playing like absolute 💩 to start the year. It’s a long season, 84 games if you have not heard, but the only reason that the Orange and Black have two points from three games is that their backup goaltender has been unbelievable. That part has been nice, and new. But the guys in front of Joseph Woll? Really bad, pretty much across the board.

You could not pick a worse team to get off the schneid against than Carolina. If I am adding this page up correctly, the Flyers are 2-13-8 against the Hurricanes since November 2021… and one of those wins was the playoff clincher in April when the Canes rested a bunch of their front-line players! That was a shootout win, too. Rod The Bod does not let his guys let up. They have incredible depth and a hard-to-play-against system, and they generally are going to outshoot you by a lot.

And that is precisely what happened last night: Carolina outshot the Flyers 40-18. Was the performance better than the previous two games? Sure, because the bar was the floor. But was it an objectively good performance? No, not even close.

Christian Dvorak had a rough night, as he had a big hand in both of Sebastian Aho’s goals. Misplayed a puck on the one ten seconds into the game, and then I do not know what he is doing leaving Aho this pass open into the bumper spot on the penalty kill. We all know Shayne Gostisbehere can rip it from the point, but come on. At least have your stick in the passing lane!

It has been a particularly brutal start for the fellas living in Trevor Zegras’ house:

In particular, Martone’s start has been a bummer. He got just 11 minutes of ice time and demoted from the first power play on Saturday. Remember, this was a guy who had 20 shots on goal in his first four games last year. He was all over the place. So far, he has been completely invisible.

(The power play is 0-for-8 on the season, by the way. Carolina goes 2-for-4 on Saturday, and well, that’s your ballgame. A tale as old as time.)

The good news? Matvei Michkov was much more nervous giving an English interview with Ashlyn Sullivan during the intermission break (he did well!) than he was on this goal. Nice plays by Dvorak and Travis Konecny to set it up.

On the blue line, David Jiricek made his debut. He might have to play every night now, depending on how serious Rasmus Ristolainen’s injury is.

These guys gotta figure a whole bunch of things out. They are playing like a tanking team out of the gate.

🎤 Make sure you check out the latest Ringer’s Philly Special. 🎤

It is pretty easy to be of two minds on this one.

1️⃣ On one hand, the Eagles were incredibly banged-up. I wrote in Friday’s newsletter, “I think that the Birds lose this game by double digits.” That was because of injuries to Zack Baun and DeVonta Smith.

Well, the Eagles also lost at different points of the day…

A murderer’s row of injuries. Throw in Dallas Goedert already being out and Jalen Carter playing with one hand, and that is your most important player in every single position group besides the quarterback. An untenable amount of Important Injuries.

An underrated part of the Eagles’ recent run of success is that they have been incredibly healthy. This is the franchise that has played in multiple Super Bowls with basically their entire Week 1 starting lineup available. A great job by the Eagles medical staff in those years, but also an unsustainable run. Injuries are a part of football. The regression hit the Birds extra hard on Sunday.

Despite suffering all of those Important Injuries, the Eagles did not lose by double-digits. The Rams are banged-up in some spots, too (Myles Garrett, Aaron Donald, Jaylen Watson, the tight ends), so this is not to excuse the Eagles entirely. But they were comically banged-up, and they played a close game.

And hey, The Optimist may point out that the Eagles just need to survive this stretch and weather the injuries. As long as the injuries are short-term, I will not argue with said optimist. I very much hope that is the case.

So, in theory, you should not be too upset. And yet…

2️⃣ The Eagles made losing by four really hurt: They led 20-10 and had 3rd and Goal from the Rams’ 2-yard line with 8:07 left in the game. They had it!

I do not think that win probability chart takes into account who was on the field for the Eagles, or how badly they had been outplayed on a down-to-down basis. Make no mistake, the Eagles would have stolen this game. But they had basically stolen it! The engine to the getaway car was being revved up! 🚗🚗🚗

And then third down happened.

It sure looked like a called run for Tank Bigsby, and one that would have scored if Jalen Hurts handled the snap properly. But he did not handle it properly. A brutal time for that to happen, but not something you often see with Jalen. And as it turns out, it was not Jalen’s fault! Shoutout to Brett Kollmann for pointing out that Cam Jurgens (pulling on the play) weirdly gets out of his stance early and gets his hand on the snap.

If there was ever a play to sum up the sorry state of the Eagles offensive line….

That was the most destructive play of Jurgens’ season, which is saying something. The Eagles have gotten some incredibly rough left guard play through four games.

3️⃣ I did not mind Nick Sirianni’s fourth-down decisions in this game, but the plays left a lot to be desired. And this is not hindsight, either. Often, fans judge whether a play-call was good or bad entirely by the result. Not the case yesterday!

On the previous drive, the Eagles had 4th and 1 from their own 38-yard line. I have no problem with going for it there, good teams gotta be able to get a yard in that spot.

But it was a long one. So, the Eagles brought in Willie Lampkin for The Tush Push and it got stopped. It really was not close, either. Hopefully, this is a lesson to Sirianni and Sean Mannion: You do not have the same offensive line as past years. You should not be running that play if you have more than a yard to go. This is not 2024.

And then there was the 4th and Goal from the 2 after the botched snap. The go decision was controversial in some quarters, but I do not think it should have been:

The way that the game played out, I think Sirianni’s decision was even more validated. The Rams marched down the field on their last two possessions against the Eagles’ Walking Wounded Defense without needing a fourth down. If the Eagles kick a field goal, I think they lose the game 24-23. Might have been better if you took the points beforehand, but for the Eagles’ purposes, kicking did not do a lot for them. The offense had a chance to end it. It did not work out.

But yet again, the play-call left a lot to be desired. In this case, it was not the play as much as the operation. The Eagles broke the huddle with 10 seconds left on the play clock. Makai Lemon did not get set until 4 seconds left. This is an issue that has plagued them the past few years. Sirianni was thinking about burning a timeout on the sidelines. He should have, because that play was rushed. Jalen Hurts had almost no time to scan the defense and make any proper audibles. It was a no-hoper.

4️⃣ The Eagles offense was historically bad on Sunday. This is where you look at Sirianni and think, “Man, it would be nice to have a head coach who can make in-game offensive adjustments, who is responsible for jump-starting a struggling unit.” Sean McVay has been Matthew Stafford’s play-caller for a half-decade. Ben Johnson will be the Bears’ play-caller for a long time.

Sirianni cannot do that stuff. So, we are back to Offensive Coordinator Watch.

I think the offensive line is clearly the Eagles’ biggest problem. They are below-average up front, after being elite there for years. Markel Bell was put in a tough spot yesterday, but Chris Shula blitzed the Eagles over and over again. 60 percent of Hurts’ dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. There were no answers.

That said, can Sean Mannion give us a run-of-the-mill, below-average performance? This was not that. Via Sheil:

There is something about this Eagles offense. When they struggle with something, they go whole hog. Not kinda bad, let’s be unbelievably bad. Speaking of that, have you seen the third-down numbers?

In the first few weeks of the season, Hurts bailed the Eagles out on third downs against bad defenses. The last two weeks, the regression has swung incredibly hard in the other direction. Hurts has struggled mightily the last two weeks, no question about it. I am not trying to go easy on him, he was not straight-up not good yesterday. But the lack of offensive answers from the Eagles coaching staff has felt more consistent over the first four weeks of the season.

5️⃣ The second-half offense has been remarkably bad. Whoever said halftime adjustments are not real, that all you can really do is go to the bathroom, I do not believe you.

I looked at the game logs, and the Eagles have had 15 possessions that started in the third quarter this season. 12 of them have been three-and-outs. That is mind-numbingly feeble stuff. What are we doing here? And that level of ineptitude is why I cannot get too mad at the Eagles defense for letting up those final two drives. The offense is putting them back on the field two minutes after they get a stop at all times. That does not work against Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua. Even if the Eagles did not score any more points, a few more first downs would have done wonders in terms of killing clock.

Just like the Phillies this week: It’s the offense. It’s the offense. It’s the offense.

6️⃣ The only bright spot on offense? Darius Cooper. All he does is catch touchdowns, and this one was amazing. Incredibly strong hands.

7️⃣ One bright spot on defense: I thought the back-seven played pretty well. Yes, they got shredded by Stafford on the final two drives. They also were playing with Jonathan Jones in Quinyon Mitchell’s place. Slight downgrade, and there were injury replacements all over the defense.

Stafford struggled for much of the game, but he also was all-or-nothing for most of this one. Some of the throws he made down the stretch were indefensible dimes. That is one of the best passing attacks in the entire NFL, not Case Keenum. After one of the back-seven’s worst games of Vic Fangio’s tenure, I think there is something to build on here on defense. Just gotta hope Q is not out for long.

Who knows, maybe Vic just needed the Phillies to lose. No NLDS game for him to watch on Saturday. It showed!

8️⃣ Finally some turnovers, and Cooper DeJean appears to have turned a corner. That has been the best news of the past few weeks. To my eye, the Eagles’ stud slot corner appears back to being a stud slot corner. Pretty important.

Coop was a big part of both Eagles interceptions. On Drew Mukuba’s pick, Coop runs with the receiver (who releases through the C-Gap, fancy-pants McVay stuff) and the guy is just not open at all. Stafford airmails the receiver, but it is not there even with a good throw. Coop is all over it. And then Coop got his own interception, when Michael Carter II was in tight coverage on Nacua. Not Stafford’s greatest no-look throw, that one. The DeJean interception allowed the Eagles to score a late touchdown headed into halftime. That was it for them.

9️⃣ The special teams were good, at least. In fairness, the Rams special teams is terrible every year. But Jake Ellliott made a 56-yard kick in bad conditions, Britain Covey had a long return to set up a score and Braden Mann punted well again. And every game, it seems like the Eagles opponent messes up a kickoff that gives them the ball at the 40. Well, the Eagles do not do that.

This is Bizarro 2022, as Michael Clay is the only coordinator who is fully on top of things.

🔟 Eagles fans are the best. These are our people.

That video really picks up steam after the 40-second mark.

The news and notes of the day…

Two quick depth chart notes: Tanner McKee was the backup yesterday, per Mike Garafolo. Good.

And the Eagles only dressed 47 players yesterday. They are normally allowed 48, but that was due to Lane Johnson’s late scratch and rules regarding the amount of backup offensive linemen a team is allowed. I am not even saying that the Eagles did anything wrong yesterday, but when it rains, it pours.

The Blue x White Scrimmage: The location of the Sixers’ annual fall scrimmage serves as a decent proxy for fan interest headed into the season:

OK, maybe I should have left the Palestra out of this. Playing in The Cathedral is cool as hell, but it does not have the same modern amenities as the other two… and just as crucially, the Sixers are not tenants there. But as far as the other two? Yeah, I would say that the decision to go from Wilmington to South Philly was due to the fan interest being higher than the past few years. Just ever so slightly.

👑 Your LeBron highlights are here. That montage did not include the sick behind-the-back pass he threw off a cut, because VJ Edgecombe missed the open corner 3. VJ made up for it with a nasty dunk off a give-and-go with Joel Embiid.

But I want to focus on Joel for today.

People like to point out that LeBron and Joel played together for Team USA in the 2024 Olympics. But LeBron also did not play with The Real Joel. At that point, the big fella’s knee was incredibly jacked up. His movement was so limited that, outside of that key stretch against Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the semis, Anthony Davis was a better option at the 5. In retrospect, it was a sign that Joel had an incredibly difficult season ahead of him… and that the Sixers had an incredibly difficult season ahead of them.

As LeBron has been quick to point out, Skinny Joel appears to be much healthier.

“He hasn’t missed a practice,” LeBron told reporters. “He’s been in everything that we've done. Pretty much, they’ve had to sit him out at times, even when he wanted to keep going. Obviously, you’ve seen how much he played tonight. It’s been good. Actually, it’s been great.”

Mike Gansey added: “We got a plan together, and he's been in every single drill, every single practice. So, there's been no restrictions.”

During the scrimmage, Joel threw down a lefty dunk. And he contested a monster Edgecombe dunk attempt. Joel might have fouled VJ, but that is something he would not even have attempted to try the last few years. And I loved his take on the idea of sacrifice: “It’s just about making the right play for each other over, and over, and over, and finding a way — I think for me — more efficient than you’ve ever been.”

Joel’s most efficient season (55 percent on 2s, 33 percent on 3s) came during his MVP year in 2022-23. That, of course, was the only full season he had with James Harden chipping in by creating some easy looks for him. Can he get back to that level of efficiency on less volume with this talented cast? I would not doubt it.

I thought Malika Andrews’ interview with Joel was pretty good. He was not joking around, which he has mostly done at the podium over the past week. He even talked in-depth about going to therapy, despite his hesitations.

One last thing: Arthur is getting big!

🇺🇸 USA 3, 🇲🇽 Mexico 0: I kinda wish they would have stopped after the second goal, you know, the whole dos a cero thing.

But it is also hard for the USMNT to top this goal.

It is so crazy how fast these things happen. Three months ago, the word on Cavan Sullivan would have been, “Good player, holding his own in the MLS at a young age, nice future ahead of him.” Now, it’s unambiguously, “This kid could be a global superstar in way that very few Americans before him have been.” That is a lot to put on the kid, but it is at least on the table.

I am sitting here like Ron Burgundy: Boy, that escalated quickly.

With that little counter-press and chip, Young Cavan became the youngest goal-scorer in the history of the USMNT. He had just celebrated his 17th birthday earlier this week. This kid grew up in Bridesburg, like not that long ago!

Some good notes from Henry Bushnell’s piece at The Athletic:

Not unlike NFL teams at training camp, it seems like the USMNT made the newcomers sing in front of the whole group. Cavan’s song: “Every Breath You Take” by The Police.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Cavan — I dunno if you follow world footie closely, but Man City is in some serious hot water — but the last few months have been nothing short of a 🚀🚀🚀 for him. The USMNT has one more game this cycle, against Canada, and then it’s time to return to The Hottest Team in Philadelphia Sports.

🦁 Northwestern 34, Penn State 13: Matt Campbell, life is coming at you fast.

Heading into the year, I had some skepticism about Campbell bringing a million guys over from his 8-4 Iowa State team. But then again, Curt Cignetti brought a lot of guys over from James Madison and turned Indiana into national champs. Not much makes sense in this sport anymore… which, in some ways, makes it more fun.

Northwestern opened its sick new stadium in style on Friday night, rushing for an astronomical 413 yards in a 34-13 blowout off Penn State. That was a rushing performance straight out of The Linc in 2013! Speaking of which, who is Northwestern’s offensive coordinator again?

THE CHIPPAH! I wonder what Mark Saltveit thought of that masterpiece.

Chip is still counting his money from Mark Davis, back in college where he belongs. A Cut The Check all-star, that Chip Kelly.

As for Penn State, it is a bad year for the program to be in flux. They will never, ever get an easier Big Ten schedule than the one in front of them. James Franklin would have went 12-0 against this schedule most years (and then lost by three touchdowns to Ohio State in the conference championship). I could see Campbell turning things around, as college football is very much a year-to-year thing nowadays. But as an uneducated outsider, I understand why Penn State fans are not happy at all with AD Pat Kraft right now. Seems like a bummer.

Let’s do baseball today, football tomorrow. Here is where the series stand:

⚾ Chicago (AL) 1, Cleveland 0: Munetka Murakami is ⚡ electric. ⚡ The best interview in baseball, and oh yeah, the man also hits tanks.

⚾ Tampa Bay 1, NY Yankees 0: Austin Wells breaking up the no-hitter in the eighth inning and immediately getting thrown out by ten feet at third base is the hardest I’ve laughed in a while. No notes.

⚾ Milwaukee 2, San Diego 0: My Brewers! Mason Miller blows the save, thanks to my guy Jackson Chourio. Great playoff moment. Also, I would have written 1,000 words about The Roof Incident, had it happened in a Phillies game.

⚾ LA Dodgers 1, Atlanta 1: Guess who else scored two runs against a Ray Kerr bullpen game? This Dodgers team is so beatable, and now the Braves have Chris Sale going at home in Game 3. Sigh.

I will get into some preliminary Phillies offseason thoughts here tomorrow. Upgrade your subscription to get ‘em!

The Flyers are in Tampa (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly), the Sixers are at home against the Knicks in the preseason opener (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly Plus).

Let’s make it a good one.