👋 Good morning! With the Rams back in town this weekend, a reminder that Jalen Carter saved the Eagles’ Super Bowl-winning season with his mind.

Sometimes, you make an incredibly smart play on the most important play of the season. Other times, you hock a loogie on Dak Prescott and don’t play a snap. The highs and lows of professional football.

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Eagles-Sean McVay trivia!

And if you like that, well, there is a quiz down below too!

I will have a more in-depth breakdown of Eagles-Rams in tomorrow’s newsletter, but some quick-hitters for you on a Thursday morning…

Injury report: Dallas Goedert was listed as a limited participant, which is good news. Had to think this was a possibility when Goedert was not placed on IR. I hate to pick on the guy some more, but I would like to avoid another week of Grant Calcaterra run blocking, if possible.

Tanner McKee and Jalen Carter (shoulder) were listed as limited. I thought it was interesting that Vic Fangio mentioned Carter’s nagging shoulder that limited him at training camp as a reason he was lagging behind in terms of his physical fitness. Well, all Carter has to do is look over to his friend Jordan Davis and exerciseexerciseexerciseexercise.

The Curious Case of Kenyon Green: Bo was apoplectic about this on yesterday’s show. The man loves him some end-of-roster maneuvering. After all, he did call Sunday’s game “The Willie Lampkin vs. Dylan McMahon Bowl.”

But this is definitely weird. Green was signed to the 53-man roster on Wednesday, replacing Cameron Williams who was placed on IR. Credit to BLG for pointing out the exact timeline for Kenyon:

Howie can’t quit this guy, huh? It sure seems like Green will be inactive on gamedays, he had a pretty rough training camp according to most observers. Marcus Epps and Cameron Latu were elevated from the practice squad and played last game. Great Baldy’s Breakdown of Latu’s block in the red zone here.

Yeoman’s work from Jordan Mailata on the front lines of The Tush Push Wars, by the way. Good, righteous indignation.

Story of the day: From none other than Brandon Graham. I gotta meet this guy that met BG and Bo in the elevator.

Los Angeles (NL) 5, Phillies 0: Oh well, credit to Blake Snell. He threw 112 pitches, demanded to stay in the game and pitched seven dominant innings.

If the Phillies face the Dodgers in the NLDS (a real possibility, although LA still has work to do to win the NL West), that is gonna be a battle. The Dodgers starters were absolutely dominant in this series. If this is a playoff matchup, the Phils would have to grind out at-bats and make sure to get into that bullpen, which feels very gettable. I cannot get over Blake Treinen throwing meatball after meatball a few nights ago.

Four runs in seven-plus innings surrendered by Jesús Luzardo, who dominated the Dodgers back in Philly all the way back in April. Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani took him deep, nothing to be too ashamed about. Some bad BABIP luck mixed in there for the other runs.

Not a start or loss to get particularly upset about, but unfortunately, The Coaster does what The Coaster does.

One guy I am not feeling great about, though? Orion Kerkering. Seven earned runs in his last nine innings pitched. He had that dominant two-month stretch in the middle of the season, but nothing feels easy for Orion right now.

The Phillies are likely gonna finish with the No. 2 seed. Milwaukee won again, which puts them 2.5 games up (3.5 in practice, since the Brew Crew has the tiebreaker). The Phils have nine (admittedly pretty favorable) games left, while the Brewers have ten. Would be tough to catch them.

Walker Buehler, in the ‘pen: Rob’s got jokes!

Ol’ Tight Pants gets a shot out of the bullpen, which is probably his best chance at making the postseason roster. Everyone else gets bumped up a day.

Bang! Bang! As a child of WWE’s Attitude Era, Mick Foley was one of my favorite wrestlers. A guy who would put his body through hell, and who leaned into the absurdity of professional wrestling by adopting three different personas: Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack. Like, Foley would wrestle in the Royal Rumble as all three of them. One of them would get eliminated, and out came another.

Why am I talking about the man who created Mr. Socko in the Phillies section of the newsletter, you may ask? Bill explained here on his show yesterday: The Phillies players have clearly adopted a Cactus Jack celebration in recent weeks: Cartoonish finger guns pointed in the air while yelling “Bang! Bang!”

Watch Garrett Stubbs in the dugout after Brandon Marsh’s three-run homer on Tuesday. Watch Bryce Harper after John Middleton does a beer bong. Watch Kyle Schwarber and Harrison Bader after Schwarber does one himself. Bang! Bang!

This smells like a Stubbs creation. Anyway, looks like they are really leaning into this.

Andrew Painter wraps up: In what was likely his final start of the season, Painter’s line against Binghamton: 4 innings, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts and a homer. He got taken deep by top Mets prospect Carson Benge.

If that is it, certainly a disappointing season (5.26 ERA) for Painter. He was on track to make the Phillies’ starting rotation out of spring training in 2023, and now because of his injury and struggles, we are not gonna see him in Philly until at least 2026. That is a bummer. But I am gonna remain positive here and say that when Painter does finally make the big leagues, it will be a feel-good story.

Quentin Grimes: Alright, it is September 18th.

The Sixers are a week-ish away from training camp. Most of their players are working out at the practice facility in Camden. There is seemingly not the same level of friction that we are seeing play out with the other remaining major restricted free agent, Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga.

I am all for procrastinating, but let’s go, Quentin. Let’s get that Shams alert today.

Picking up the pieces: I have written a little bit about this magical Union season, but they just had a pretty tough four-day road trip.

It’s hard to play that sport at that intensity level with just a few days off. So, Union head coach Bradley Carnell rotated his squad in the Vancouver game with an eye on the Open Cup. That is something you see a lot in European soccer with all of their competitions. Adam Silver and the NBA tried to latch onto some of that in-season tournament magic, but it is not really working for them.

Well, this strategy certainly did not work for the Carnell and the Union. But they are still one point ahead in the Supporters’ Shield standings, with four MLS regular-season games left. In the driver’s seat! I would love to see the Union finish this off and get homefield advantage throughout the entire playoffs… which bit them back in 2022, when they had to play the final in Los Angeles.

Our beloved Phils get a well-earned day off, only their third in six weeks (and one of them was a weird, in-series day off in Milwaukee). High of 96 for the fellas in Phoenix today, but remember, it’s a dry heat. I really wish we had a better Thursday night game than Dolphins at Bills, I unfortunately wonder if Mike McDaniel is gonna make it past that one.

(By the way, have you seen the Bills’ schedule? They might as well be playing in a different level of football than the Eagles.)

Besides that, the Fly Guys hit the ice for the beginning of training camp and the Birds continue to prep for the 2-0 Rams of Los Angeles.

Your Thursday schedule at PHLY:

And oh yeah, the trivia answers:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS