Eagles - Steelers Takeaways: How Do You Want To Win This Week?

26 yards per catch in this game

 > The Eagles won by 22 points in a game where they played the fourth quarter on auto pilot with back ups. No, seriously.

> No turnovers by the offense again. Deep balls with no turnovers. Hard to beat, people.

> All year, WR AJ Brown has been a cheat code. This week, QB Jalen Hurts decided to see what would happen if you just mashed the same buttons over and over again. Good, Lord. Some of these passes were also such perfect deep balls that if you want to start talking about Hurts winning the MVP, it's no longer without throwing highlights.

> Before this game, Hurts had 6 career passing touchdowns of over 25 yards. Now, he's got 10.

> If you are a Steeler Fan, you knew this was a rebuilding year and that this game, with the Eagles coming off a bye and at home, was going to be damn near impossible. It was. The Steelers showed fight, but also wipeout problems on both lines.

> It says something about your team that you spent most of the game with neither team getting a turnover, and you won by a ton.

> With 9 minutes left to play and a game on Thursday, the Eagles pulled the starters. It didn't seem to make a difference, but also with a short week before going to Houston, it helps.

> The Eagles still haven't trailed in the second half this year. We've just finished all of the games in September and October.

> Nice game from P Arryyn Siposs, but the punt coverage team gave up another successful fake. Lots of First World problems for the league's only undefeated team. 

> I don't think they are going to go 17-0 -- I think they are going to rest starters in games that don't matter -- but they are going to be favored in every game. We could also get deep enough into the year to start really thinking about it.

> Sweet moment from CBS to hype Merrill Reese and Mike Quick, with Tony Romo telling people to go listen to them. It's padding, especially because only Eagles Fan was still watching by that point.

> LB TJ Edwards with a great tip to add to the defense's takeaway total. This game was clearly fun for the defense, and it was also gratifying to see them shut down the running game.

> Also nice of QB2 Gardner Minshew to not light it up in garbage time. 

Next up is a terrible Houston team in Thursday, with Philly Fan probably already taking over the town for baseball. It'll be a challenge to not believe their press. But not much more than that.

The Phillies Advance: Takeaways

> Bryce Freaking Harper with the game-winning, career-defining, straight from a goddamned movie moment. He's played nearly the entire year hurt and unable to throw a baseball. He struggled down the stretch from coming back from injury too quickly. The career-long narrative -- a gifted player who makes too much money and isn't conducive to a winning atmosphere -- remained part of the idiot sports conversation right up until this afternoon.

And then he launched a ball to left, and watched it leave the yard as if there was no possibility that it wouldn't, despite the rain, gloom, cold and history.

The ball left the field of play.

The stadium and city shook. 

And everything changes. 

Sports, man. Gotta love sports.

> When a team wins a series 4-1, it should feel like they are just dramatically better... but in a series where the 5th seed loses to the 6th, that's not the sense. What was absolutely striking was the difference in managers. While Padres manager Bob Melvin was keeping LHP Josh Hader fresh for spring training, Phillies' manager Rob Thomson was sawing through his rotation like there was no tomorrow -- because there wasn't. You shouldn't win 4 out of 5 games just because you've got a better manager. That may have just happened.

> With the tying run on second and the winning run on first, Padres centerfielder Trent Grisham faced emergency reliever Ranger Suarez with one out and the chance to reverse a series-long ofer. He chose to try to bunt for a base hit against a pitcher who might be the best fielder for his position in the league. Ranger scooped it out, took the out, and then got weak-hitting catcher Austin Nola to pop out to right. Ballgame. And quite possibly a career-defining moment of WTF for Grisham and the Padres.

> During this entire run, people have talked about Philly Fan's impact on the game... and at 5-0, it's real. I don't know why this town is the only place where everyone is all-in from start to finish, but so be it. The rest of the world is looking at their phones and waiting to react. Philly Fan is cheering like sports fans used to cheer, and maybe more. 

> On deck after Harper is OF Nick Castellanos, who hit something like .200 for the playoffs, hasn't homered in forever, swings at every first pitch no matter where it is, and didn't hurt San Diego all series. You could have had Hader pitch to Harper; you could have pitched around him and went after this man who didn't rise to the moment all series. If you root for the Padres, you're going to spend the rest of your baseball life seeing this home run and wondering why your team gave him a chance to end your season. I don't envy your lot in life.

> MLB forced this game to continue in untenable rain that could have really gotten people hurt. They got away with it. They got so, so lucky.

> The Padres boast several stud players and a lot of good arms, but they also had a number of hitters that just gave them nothing in this series. They don't stop the running game, and their manager just totally failed in the spotlight in a way that has to bleed the confidence out of their people. They should be fine and there's only a few teams that really are trying to win, but yeesh.

> How happy, honestly, are the broadcast powers to have a major East Coast and top six metro team move on? San Diego is a lovely place to visit. Money, not so much.

> Philly Fan could not love Thomson more, and for a baseball lifer to just go all-in for new ways of thinking that works out is notable. The man they call Topper had nearly a dozen guys close games this year, and had the stones to know where the important outs were. Melvin, not so much. Hader's still available to work the bottom of the ninth, though.

> All credit to San Diego SP Yu Dervish, who gave his team every chance to win on a day where his fastball command just did not exist. The Phillies didn't play a perfect series, especially defensively; they just aren't that kind of team. But when their stars come through, they win. They aren't the best organization in the league, but playoff baseball isn't like that. 

> Nothing in sports beats joyous group song. For whatever reason, the Phillies chose "Dancing on My Own", and it's just part of what's made this run special. Keep singing.

> SP Zack Wheeler. 1.78 ERA with a 0.51 WHIP in this postseason, so far. When you make a run like this, your top starter does stuff like this, and he's remembered for it forever. (But not as much as, well, Harper. Dumb money, not so much.)

Eagles - Cowboys: The Blowout That Wasn't

Stop Doing This Quite So Much

 > After going up 20-3 in the first half and looking like they didn't belong in the same frame with Dallas, the home team came out flat and gave Dallas hope before coming back to form late. Not playing four quarters hasn't cost them yet, but it's still worrisome.

> Injuries change games, and maybe even seasons. Losing your starting LT and S didn't excuse the change in this game, but it did accentuate it. The way to attack this Eagles defense is with patience in the running game. Dallas added tape to that, but it shouldn't be news.

> Really rough night for the refs, and a female one as well, which is just hard to see and will prompt more misogyny from a country that already overloads on it at the buffet. After discussion, a block in the block isn't a block in the back. That's about as bad as it gets.

> DE Brandon Graham with the hit that causes QB Cooper Rush's third pick and the coup de gras. NBC wanted to sell this as a near miss on a Cowboys touchdown and further drama because rooting for Dallas and a close game is where the money is, but assuming that Rush can air it out long and far enough is a bit of a reach, honestly. He's a telegraphing noodle-armed QB, which is to say, he's a backup for reasons.

> When the Eagles needs to end games, they do it with the ground game and it's downright porny. The fact that they can do that against an elite defense with backup linemen is impressive, but it's also kind of where football is now. Speed is more common than power.

> The Eagles need to stop it with the telegraphed QB power sneak / rugby scrum play. Someone's going to get hurt, and that someone can't get hurt. 

> The Dallas defense is for real. Great at pursuit, good at tackling, fast. They didn't really wear down tonight, and they had every reason to. If and when they get an offense, they are a playoff team, but the joy of Dallas is that their general manager is a crazy old man who isn't very good at being a general manager, so they rarely overcome injuries or get better over the course of a season.

> Another joy of hating the Cowboys is that they inevitably hire the village idiot to coach them. Mike McCarthy didn't challenge an obvious first down ball spot mistake, so that he could rush into an ill-advised bootleg on fourth and short deep in his own territory. The fact that this was a game after that still kind of astounds me.

> Would Dallas have won this game with QB Dak Prescott? There's reasons to think it would have been a lot closer -- Rush was telegraphing, bad, and threw three picks in limited attempts, all of which were ill-advised and executed -- but this game shouldn't have been close. They just aren't that good, and the Eagles are.

> The single biggest reason why the Eagles are 6-0 is that their secondary is playing some of the best ball in the history of the laundry. Passes are deflected, picks are made, tackling is usually strong and they make plays when the money is on the table. They also haven't faced a murderer's row of quarterbacks, but this year's schedule doesn't really have one. Besides, the pass rush is good as well, and it makes every QB look worse.

> The Eagles didn't really make their claim to being the best team in the league tonight; only a blowout would have done that, and the offense is still too hit and miss, mostly on their own execution and QB Jalen Hurts being vulnerable to odd man blitzes. It' maddening, because when they are good (like, say, in every second quarter), they are utterly unstoppable and can take their pick of how to beat you with mismatches all over the field. There's going to be a game where they play 3 or 4 quarters at their top level and put up a point a minute, and it won't matter who the opponent is.

But 6-0 is 6-0, and it closed one of the best weekends in the history of Philly sports -- and they get to rest up with a bye. Enjoy it.

> Three unsportsmanlike flags on the Dallas defense tonight, all in the second half. America's team, people. I used to rail against that, but then I used to not be quite so cynical about politics...

The Phillies Discover Their Fandom

These People Are Loud

This week, for the first time in 11 years, Philadelphia hosted playoff baseball and utterly crushed it. After two games of relentless offense, stunning fan volume and perfect weather, Atlanta was dispatched and the men in red moved on.

The wins were remarkable in many respects. Nearly every offensive player had a starring moment. The relievers, long the telltale sign that the Phillies organization wasn't ready for prime time, manned up -- even the ones that had failed before and recently. Phillies manager Rob Thomsen continues to have every decision, even the ones that seem a little questionable when he does them, work out. It's all been an amazing couple of weeks for a team that looked like they'd only make it to the playoffs if the Brewers stunk worse, and would get dispatched with prejudice

If you're an Atlanta fan (they exist?), I have no idea what to tell you. Your young stud players, some of them the envy of all MLB, just didn't show up. You have to love them anyway, even while the rest of the civilized world wonders how, in 2022, you still perform racist pantomimes as a rally event. Seriously. You also just got cheered and booed out of the playoffs while your star outfielder failed to cover an inside the park home run, because running is hard, I guess.

The joy of playoff baseball is that if you get in, anything can happen and usually does... which is why the NLCS will be the 5th seed (San Diego) against the 6th (Philly). Two or three of those games will be in Philadelphia, the only place in the world where baseball is seemingly life and death to a fan base that, up to two and a half weeks ago, had ample evidence that these guys were choke artists. 

Life. Amazing thing, isn't it?

Eagles - Cardinals: Good And Lucky Enough

Takeaways from a sloppy win that my laundry somehow gutted out. Perfection isn't always perfect...

> Just because QB Jalen Hurts is very effective in power sneaks does not mean I really want to see him do it a half dozen times a game. It's a long season. This team doesn't win without QB1. Find other things to do there please.

> Up-tempo offense always look really good or really terrible. 

> Eagle Fan made this a home game. They do that a lot.

> DE Josh Sweat didn't get a sack today and is very hit or miss, but his raw wheels were shown on a 5 yard loss on a reverse. 

> Winning a road game against a talented and desperate opponent when you have multiple offensive linemen go down is impressive. More helpful: the linemen came back and played in the game.

> Best play of the day from Hurts: a 3rd and 13 backbreaker  to WR Devonta Smith. Off side, cross field, against pressure, 23 yards and fantastic. The QB didn't have his best day today and lucked out from a near-pick, but he flashes routinely.

> PR Brandon Covey looked more like an NFL player today. Maybe the game's starting to slow down for him.

> The Eagles are the best team in the NFC, playing a major market team with a marquee QB... and we got the D team (Chris Myers! Robert Smith!) as the announcing team. Honestly, Chris Myers could make you nap through any game ever, and Smith's commentary is as nondescript as his name.

This, after two days of Yankee announcers talking about the Yankees during the first Phillies playoff series in 11 years. If you've ever wondered why Philly Fan hates the national media, you haven't been paying attention.

> I don't really understand Arizona. Talent is good, speed is off the charts, and the results and fan base aren't there. They lost a home game they really needed to have against a team that gave them a B- effort, with their franchise QB sliding too early and their front office being unable to find a kicker to make a very manageable field goal. Maybe they'll be fine once WR DeAndre Hopkins is back, but this seems like a place where the coach loses a job soon.

> Better work from P Aaryn Siposs this week, but failing to stop a fake punt is not great.

> How I'd attack the Eagles defense: tempo, running, quick throws. The dirty little secret of the Eagle defense is that they aren't as good against the run as the numbers look.

> The biggest hole in Hurts' game? Deflected balls at the line of scrimmage. Several per game. Not sure how to scheme away from that.

> Did not love the Eagles' offensive play-calling this week. Too many vertical screens, not enough running until late, poor blitz coverage in obvious situations for a blitz, and didn't get the ball to WR AJ Brown enough. Hopefully all fixable.

> For the defense, 17 points on the road is more than good enough, but the tackling and third down performance wasn't up to snuff. I'm never a fan of DE Hassan Reddick dropping into coverage. 

> Meanwhile in other games, Dallas won again with QB Cooper Rush and the Giants won in London against the Packers, so suddenly the NFC East is the best division in football. Yeah, I know, just what everyone was predicting.

The Phillies Advance

Celebrate Good Times

I'm a day late and not really having enough time or skin in the game on this, but the real fun of sports is when you see players achieve in stress situations. Especially when it's surprising.

In the 8th inning of the clinching win, Seranthony Dominguez, with an ERA of over 11 since returning from injury, struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado with men on base to preserve the lead. The fact that Phillies (somehow still interim) manager Rob Thomson did this, and it worked, was everything about this.

For the Cardinals faithful, multiple Hall of Fame careers ending in back to back losses at home has to be hard to take. But that's baseball, and while it's very small consolation, the final at-bats from Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina were base hits. Not so much from their MVPs.

It's all small sample size and that's the fun of it, and whether it will hold up against the Braves is a whole 'nother matter, but who cares. They won. They get to keep playing, probably against a Braves pitching staff that will make them look very, very bad. But at least some of those games will be at home -- and unlike the Mets, they are still playing baseball. Good times!

Phillies - Cardinals Game One: Contact

 After 8 innings of mostly dull as hell while still being excruciating baseball, the Phillies trailed on the road 2-0. After 1B Rhys Hoskins failed to hold up on ball four, they were two outs away from defeat... and then they stopped swinging at balls. After a single by C JT Realmuto, two walks and a hit by pitch by 3B Alec Bohm broke the shutout, then 2B Jean Segura snuck a ball through the right side, and hey presto, a lead. PR Edmundo Sosa took home with a slide for the ages, and when the smoke cleared, it's the most runs ever in the post-season for a team trailing in the 9th. Phillies 6, Cardinals 3, and they are a win away from taking the series.

Thoughts:

> I enjoyed the ending, but lord alive, baseball is terrible now. Just no contact, all the mystery gone with spin rates and velocity, shifts taking away hits. You can have it.

> Watching Albert Pujols trying to beat out a double play ball is like watching a Galapagos turtle. Apologies to the turtle.

> The Cardinals had 20 innings of Zach Wheeler this year, and scored no runs. Fun.

> For a bad defensive team... not so much! Enjoyable.

> I don't do much in the way of managerial second-guessing, but leaving in the closer who can't find the plate and burning up the bullpen... yeesh.

> I still don't think this Phillies team is going deep -- the bullpen isn't exactly deep or trustworthy, and when OF Kyle Schwarber and Hoskins aren't doing much, the offense is very workable -- but they beat a good closer on the road. If you can't enjoy that, there's no reason to watch the game...

The small joys of Phillies fandom

Yesterday in Houston, the Phillies clinched a spot in the post-season for the first time in 11 years, with SP Aaron Nola going perfect for 6+ innings and OF Kyle Schwarber continuing his Rob Deer 2022 impersonation by leaving the yard twice. This ends the current longest post-season drought in MLB. They'll play on Friday against St. Louis or New York, have a puncher's chance behind Nola and SP Zach Wheeler, and consider themselves fortunate to be playing extra baseball despite being left for dead in May. All good, right? 

Well, kind of. The problem for the Phillies is that with any amount of good, you get an equal or greater measure of Oh Good Lord. Consider:

> The best players on the team this year (Nola, C JT Realmuto) are anti-vax asshats that cost their team dearly in a series in Toronto. They aren't alone in this selfishness.

> The bullpen is a constant churn of Who's Good Now, with little consistency from week to week, let alone month to month. Nearly a dozen pitchers have recorded saves for the team this year. Even when they are good, as they have been for much of the year, they induce anxiety.

> The team isn't particularly young, cheap, lovable and thriving. The best players are already at their peak or descending, and in a division with New York and Atlanta, this makes you third place all day. The ceiling for this team is more or less where they are: around 90 wins. Whoop de damn do!

> There's like a half dozen guys on this team who have played long and lucrative careers without even sniffing the playoffs, even in an age where it's easier and easier to get into them. That's kind of telling.

> This is basically a .500 team if you don't count their speed bag games against a deplorable Washington team. If you wanted to define Paper Tiger or Empty Threat, this is your line up.

And yet... a half dozen guys in the starting lineup can reach the seats with relative regularity, and in the sad state that is baseball in 2022, where no one can string three hits in a row any more unless they all leave the yard, that matters a lot. The defense is no longer a complete train wreck. It's more fun when the local team is good, and right now, with the exception of the Flyers (and I stopped caring about hockey this century), it's a great time to be a Philly sports fan. There's something to positive civic momentum.

Do I really think they can win a series, let alone a dozen plus playoff games? Not especially, unless they have another gear of House Money Fun Time that they weren't showing during a stumblebum September. OF Bryce Harper isn't healthy or himself, and the rest of the mashers don't really do much against, you know, good pitchers. 

But it's baseball. In October. For a franchise that won't break your heart, because they've shown you many times over that you shouldn't give it to them. Yay!

Eagles - Jaguars Takeaways: Winning In Many Ways

 > If you are a fan of being able to win in different ways – and why wouldn’t you be? – having a rain and wind day and crushing on the ground, while overcoming a big early deficit, is all kinds of good.

> QB Jalen Hurts’ first quarter pick-6 was just a horrific play from start to finish. Bad decision by Hurts to throw into coverage to 4th WR Zach Pascal, bad execution of the pass leading to the tip and score, and bad luck from T Jordan Mailata getting hurt in the runback. Just maximum fail.

> The fact that Hurts can Hulk Up to finish touchdown runs is one of those superpowers that I hope he doesn’t use too often. Because injuries.

> The offensive PI call on TE Dallas Goedert that cost WR AJ Brown a nifty score was bogus, but I have no idea what that call means now, and refs are people too who need TV time, so. Moving on.

> P Arryn Siposs continues to miss inside the 20 opportunities, and PR/KR Britain Covey doesn’t look like he’s going to survive the season. The fact that this is the most consistent point of complaint among the faithful is the very definition of First World Problems.

> For a good defense, this team gives up kitten-soft touchdowns far too often, but they’ve got more takeaways than scoring plays against them. So, time to STFO.

> It’s a bad idea to judge an offense in bad weather conditions and when they are missing their top people, but… QB Trevor Lawrence just didn’t pass the eye test for me. For a purported generational talent, he just seems ordinary, and that’s before we get into the fact that he was a turnover machine today. (Yes, yes, weather… but Hurts’ stopped at one giveaway. Lawrence got to five. That’s not all coincidence.)

> The pick CB James Bradberry in the third was flat out awesome, in timing and game context.

> A hidden part of why the pass rush has been getting home in the past few games: DT Fletcher Cox is having a bounce-back year while playing fewer snaps. Keeping him fresh for 17 games will be the challenge.

> This team seems to be trying to see if they can win every game by simple treating the opponent like a speed bag in the second quarter. So far, they haven’t done the trick in other quarters, and it has not mattered. It will eventually.

> If you want to pick nits, going +4 on takeaways and winning by 8 at home seems a little on the light side. Fourth down play calling remains not great, and injuries were a real concern today. Again, First World problems.

> RB Miles Sanders with the bell cow day, 24 carries and 2 scores. If the man can stay healthy, he’s going to have a very nice second contract from someone soon. And if RB Boston Scott isn’t healthy soon, he’s going to get Wally Pipped by new toy RB Trey Sermon.

> DE Hassan Reddick with the Nope, No Drama strip sack to end things was downright porny, especially for a hometown hero. In the past two days, the man has sold some jerseys.

> Right now, it’s difficult to tell whether keeping your powder dry about being the best team in the NFC (if not the league) is just being a killjoy, or whether pricing Super Bowl tickets is jinxing it or refusing to honor the moment. But they just seem special, deep, well-coached, motivated, etc. Not allowing a 14-point hole at home to remain and fester and controlling the line of scrimmage in both directions will do that.