👋 Good morning! Look at Mark Ruffalo, rocking the Dawk jersey and and flapping his wings next to LeGarrette.

How about that for guerilla marketing for Task? Can we get Kate Winslet in a Kelce jersey if there ever is a season two of Mare?

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As always, you reach me at [email protected]

The Big Man

A second day of Jordan Davis talk? Why not, he earned it.

I hope our Diehards are devouring “The Early Bird,” EJ and Fran’s day-after piece. Yesterday, EJ did a great job of contextualizing and providing the backstory behind Jordan Davis’ late heroics.

What is the most important thing I learned from yesterday’s piece? That one is easy: Davis’ trainer, who got him on that Peloton, is named Jeremiah Alphabet. Holy smokes, what a name.

But besides the debut of Mr. Alphabet, it seems like Davis really took his conditioning to heart midway through last season. He looked more trimmed down in training camp, but that is Best Shape of My Life SZN for everyone. You gotta prove it on the field, and through three games, Davis has done that. Love it when Best Shape of My Life SZN actually turns out to be true.

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So much of Davis’ performance Sunday would not have felt possible for the 6-foot-6, 336-pound lineman as recently as one year ago. The 45 defensive snaps he’d played before his signature moment, the 18.59 miles per hour he reached on his way to the end zone, or even the fact that he sat at the postgame podium 20 minutes after all the commotion without being short of breath.

“This time last year,” Davis said after the game, “it would have been hard to catch my breath, I’ll tell you that.”

EJ Smith, PHLY

Seriously, how fitting was that finish for Davis? After addressing the major conditioning issue, the best play of his career came on the final play of a game. You know, when you are supposed to be the most tired. That fact then got me looking up some Davis snap-count stats…

  • 45: Davis’ snap count yesterday, and also the third-highest snap count in his 3.18-year NFL career. And on the final play, he blew two guys off the ball and ran 18 miles per hour. Awesome stuff.

  • 53: Davis’ Week 1 snap count, and also the second-highest snap count of his career behind the crazy 2023 Buffalo game. This has to be the most Davis has played in a three-week span ever. Like Jalen Carter did last season, I just hope he can stay fresh enough throughout the season despite the heavy workload.

  • 35: Davis’ Week 2 snap count, the lowest so far this year… but also a higher number than he got in any game post-bye last year.

Keep up the good work, Mr. Alphabet. Oh, and in honor of [Insert nickname for the block/return, we really need one], we have a brand-new Victory Monday shirt at PHLY!

READ: Les Bowen on the Birds’ comeback

Everything was Bad: The Monday show with Franny Films is just so good. And I especially like that Fran sometimes challenges the prevailing narrative from Sundee’s game after looking at the All-22.

And while the prevailing narrative from this one — Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo, let your killers do their thing — still certainly rings true, it was not just the conservative play-calling that sunk the Eagles in the first half. Matt Pryor struggled, Saquon Barkley’s pass protection was subpar, and there were a lot of small things. It’s the whole team.

Case in point: I, uhhhh, think Jahan Dotson ran the wrong route here.

If Dotson does not get in the way, DeVonta honestly might score here. Gotta straighten that stuff out, fellas!

Around the NFC East: Some quick-hitters, from what looks like a two-horse race…

  • 🪖 Washington: Marcus Mariota stepped in nicely for Jayden Daniels (knee), and the Commanders (2-1) blew out Las Vegas. Remember a decade ago, when Philly radio spent a whole spring trying to get Chip Kelly to move up a billion spots to somehow draft Mariota? What a time. Mariota also accidentally gave Dan Quinn and his backwards hat a bloody nose.

  • ⭐ Dallas: Adding injury to insult, CeeDee Lamb and Tyler Booker are both now out for the month. Meanwhile, Jerry Jones is musing about spending the Packers picks on “a really special player.” Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! On a somewhat related note, the Packers travel to Dallas on Sunday.

  • 🔵 NJ Giants: Sure seems like it could be Jaxson Dart Time. Mr. Mara has been oh so patient, but Dart is probably the last chance for Messrs. Daboll and Schoen to lead Big Blue. Speaking of which, the Russell Wilson goal-line sequence was an all-timer. Russ was channeling the Michael Vick Powerade commercial inside the red zone. How bad is the Cowboys’ defense?

Lots happening around the league, but I would be remiss if I did not give two additional game balls to a pair of former Eagles in Minnesota:

  • 🏈 Carson Wentz: Two touchdowns, no interceptions. J.J. McCarthy hearing footsteps?

  • 🏈 Isaiah Rodgers: Not one, but TWO defensive touchdowns and another forced fumble for our old friend. Man, he owns Ja’Marr Chase. Instead of fretting about the Eagles letting him go for $7.5 million AAV, which is not ideal, hit it! 🎶 You've got to know when to hold 'em… 🎶

Joe Peezy: I was in Jalen Carter’s post-game scrum, and he gave a lot of credit to assistant special teams coach Joe Pannuzio for his work with the field goal block. And during the scrum, Carter said with glee, “I call him Joe Peeeezzzzy.”

This is Joe Pannunzio.

Change the name in his official bio to Joe Peezy, Eagles.

Bernie and the Blazers: Great Flyers pod yesterday, honoring the man, the myth, the legend Bernie Parent. Two things that stood out to me:

  1. Bernie played 73 of 78 games in 1973-74. I would like to salute Bobby Taylor, the Flyers backup goalie that season, for living the dream. What a life! As Bill put it, how did they decide which five games Bernie would not play in? Like, why those five? Did he have family commitments or something?

  2. The alumni game: Remember when a 66-year-old Bernie played a few minutes at Citizens Bank Park? That was awesome.

But the thing that stood out to me, and something I did not know about, is that the year before Bernie won the Vezina Trophy and led the Broad Street Bullies to Lord Stanley’s Cup, he played for… The Philadelphia Blazers?

What?!?! Yeah, it’s true. Check out this story from loyal PHLY Daily reader Wayne.

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The WHA Miami Screaming Eagles reportedly signed [Parent] for $600,000 and a house boat, among other perks. The Eagles never got liftoff, however, and Parent's contract was switched to the Philadelphia Blazers... Parent would wind up bolting the team after a playoff game over a contract dispute, and wound up making his way back to the Maple Leafs, who, at his request, traded him back to the Flyers in 1973.

"I never wanted to leave in the first place," Parent said. "Now that I was back, I couldn't have been happier."

Wayne Coffey, NHL.com

So, to recap:

  • Bernie signs with an upstart league for a ton of dough and a house boat.

  • Bernie’s team gets switched from Miami to Philly before they even play a game.

  • Bernie plays in front of nobody at the Civic Center for a year, and after the first playoff game, bolts the team due to a contract dispute.

  • Bernie, back in the NHL, gets immediately traded from Toronto to the Flyers… where he wins back-to-back Cups.

Incredible!

The final week: For a lot of July and August, I looked at this last week of the Phillies regular season as a potential opportunity. If only they can get to that last week around even, six at home against the Fish and Twins…

(By the way: What are we doing having the Phillies close with Minnesota, MLB? That should be a divisional opponent. I am certainly more pro-Rob Manfred than the average baseball fan, but they gotta do better here.)

As it turns out, the Phillies clinched the NL East over a week before we even got here. And the magic number for the first-round bye, which is likely the only thing left to play for, is only two with six to play. If the Phillies somehow cannot get this bye, we will be talking about it forever.

Outside of making sure those two games get taken care of, the things I am looking forward to this week, in order:

  1. Does Trea Turner play? He is scheduled to face live pitching tonight and tomorrow, but could the Grade 1 hamstring that has the entire Delaware Valley on pins and needles get some game action over the weekend? Sure sounds like it. Pray for the Twins.

  2. The Chase for 58: Can Kyle Schwarber have a two-homer game tonight and make it interesting? Good Ryan Howard-58 shoutout on the first episode of Task a few weeks ago. Make that reference immediately dated, Kyle.

  3. Walker Buehler: As Tyler talked about on the pod, ol’ Tight Pants pitched quite well out of the piggyback role on Friday night. He will start on Thursday against Miami. Can Buehler pitch himself onto the postseason roster?

Besides that, it should be a fun week of MLB watching. Lot of nervous fans in New York and Detroit.

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By the way, I am tired of people overrating the AFC because of the big-name quarterbacks. The NFC has better teams! They did last year, too! The Eagles beat the Ravens handily in Baltimore last year, and nationally, it was like it didn’t happen.

Your tentative Tuesday schedule at ​PHLY​:

  • 🎙️ The Anthony Gargano Show: 9:00 a.m.

  • 🎙️ Billadelphia: 1:30 p.m.

  • 🦅 Eagles: 2:00 p.m.

  • 🏀 Sixers: 3:00 p.m.

  • 🏒 Flyers: 4:00 p.m.

  • 🦁 Penn State: 5:00 p.m.

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS

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