👋 Good morning! The Alliance is alive and well!

What is The Alliance, you may ask?

Well, it’s basically just a bunch of Eagles and Bears fans on social media that are pretending that the two teams are working together. Almost like a wrestling storyline. It has been percolating for a few weeks, but The Alliance’s work was officially completed on Sunday Night Football. The Bears swept the NFC East outside of the Eagles, and in response, the Eagles swept the NFC North outside of the Bears. Sound stupid? Yes, but man, it is exactly my kinda stupid. I will even allow AI slop just this one time (don’t tell Bo), precisely because it’s in service of something so stupid.

From what I can tell, The Alliance is turning the Black Friday Eagles-Bears game into a celebration of sorts. There will be a lot of well wishes over Thanksgiving headed into that one. Maybe a formal dinner will be had, the most anticipated one in Chicago since Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I love it. Long live The Alliance!

Also, long live Righteous Felon Craft Jerky.

This Chester County based company has the perfect snack that satisfies your hunger and provides the right amount of protein to fulfill your body’s daily needs, and they have been doing it for over a decade. If you are the kind of person who wants a deal and snacks delivered right to your doorstep, you can order online using discount code PHLY20 for 20% off. Righteous Felon has all kinds of cool variety packs and bundles on the site.

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Something that I did not note in Friday’s game preview: Jared Goff has only played two games at The Linc in his career. In terms of weather, atmosphere and opponent quality, they really could not have been any different… and the results followed the script both times.

September 2020, beautiful day, no fans, terrible Eagles defense: Goff finished 20 of 27 with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in a 37-19 Rams rout.

November 2025, cold and windy night, fans, awesome Eagles defense: Goff finished 14 of 37 with 1 touchdown and 1 interception in a 16-9 Eagles win.

I felt bad for Goff at times. Well, as bad as I can for a guy making $53 million per year to stink the joint up, that is. The wind was whipping at times, but Goff looked like he was throwing a medicine ball into a monsoon. 2 for 18 to close the game!

I like to think this photo is of Dan Campbell looking at those super ugly completion numbers on his phone. He probably is just FaceTiming his family or something. Anyway, imagine he is looking at Goff’s crappy numbers.

And, as always, EJ’s Early Bird piece is likely on the site when you are reading this.

It’s the same story as always with the 2025 Eagles, so similar that I do not have to list the details for you. But, to make a point, I will:

For the last two weeks at least, the reason that we got Point 5, while also getting Points 1 through 4, is that the Eagles defense came out of the bye ready to rock and roll. Stifling, sound, relentless, physical football from Uncle Vic’s troops. Beautiful stuff. So beautiful, in fact, that as much as the offense frustrated everyone yet again, I think that the tenor of this week’s Eagles coverage should be a celebration of the defense. Not that you let the offense off the hook entirely, but first and foremost, the defense should receive some well-deserved props.

Think back to October 9th, which is just five weeks ago. Feels longer than that, but I checked the calendar and everything.

You might remember much from Oct. 9th’s Eagles-Giants game. After all, there were tragic events that took place at Chavez Ravine during the first half of that one. But make no mistake, it was a defensive disasterclass up at MetLife. 10 possessions and five touchdowns without a turnover for Brian Daboll and Jaxson Dart’s Giants. Wan’Dale Robinson and Lil’Jordan Humphrey, not exactly this generation’s Carter and Moss, were open the entire game. The Giants offensive line and Cam Skatteboooo out-physicaled the Eagles defense as the game went on. I swear, all of that bad stuff happened in short order.

On that night, I thought, “Well, let’s be realistic, it’s hard to sustain an elite defense in back-to-back years.” On that night, you would not have dreamed of what the Eagles defense did to both Green Bay and Detroit just a month later. But give Vic Fangio some reinforcements and a bye week, and you would be surprised what the human mind is capable of.

The Eagles absolutely dismantled the Lions:

Detroit statistically has one of the best offenses in the NFL. When you looked under the hood, though, the Lions got there largely by feasting on bad teams. Washington, for instance. My hope heading in was that this matchup would be similar to the 2023 Sunday night game against Miami, when the Eagles defense dominated an offense that had been feasting on bad teams. Well, my hope came true, primarily for three reasons…

(1) Jaelan Phillips is leading a dominant defensive front. Speaking of that Dolphins game, Phillips once again flapped his wings in celebration after a sack at The Linc. But this time he was doing it for the good guys.

I was pretty high on the Phillips trade, but even I did not expect this. As Fran broke down here, Phillips embarrassed Penei Sewell on one of the biggest snaps of the game (4th and goal from the 3-yard line, third quarter) to get the key hit on Goff. Penei Sewell is pretty good, and Phillips put him on skates!

It was not just Phillips that was making Goff’s life unpleasant, though. The two Georgia defensive tackles, Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, batted down at least five of Goff’s passes. Davis joked after the game that the key to batting passes is to be 6-foot-6, and sure, that helps. But he also said that batting passes was a point of emphasis in the game for the Eagles, after studying Goff’s low-release point on film. The Eagles linemen drilled it all week, and it paid off on their very first drive when Cooper DeJean intercepted a pass that Davis deflected.

(2) Nakobe Dean is playing out of his mind. I do not have the exact snap counts yet, but on first watch, it felt like Nakobe played the bulk of the linebacker snaps with Zack Baun. Jihaad Campbell mixed in for a series or two, but this job currently belongs to Nakobe. And how can it not? Like it says above, the man is playing out of his mind.

Nakobe is doing the stuff we know he can do, like blowing up a running back as a blitzer en route to notching a sack. He did that for the second straight week, and Fran broke down how Uncle Vic cooked that pressure up here. But Nakobe is also doing the stuff we had no idea he can do, like running stride-for-stride with Jahmyr Gibbs on a wheel route. Where did that come from? Nakobe has bolstered an Eagles run defense that was struggling down-to-down earlier in the season, which starts with him diagnosing everything so fast. Nakobe is seeing it. Bizarro Davion Taylor.

I do not think anyone could have reasonably expected Nakobe to play this well after the torn patellar tendon injury in last year’s playoffs. Shoutout to whichever doctor operated on him, by the way, that was one successful surgery. And the Eagles surely were not expecting this level of play, because they spent a first-round pick on an off-ball linebacker! #resources

I have no idea where this goes from here, but what a delight to see Nakobe balling out every week. Such an easy guy to root for, he also offers this defense some leadership. And he offers all of the Big Js some quotes!

(3) The weak link is getting stronger: What a strange ride it has been for Adoree’ Jackson this year.

It was clear that the Eagles wanted to hand Kelee Ringo the CB2 job, with Adoree’ signed as a relatively low bar for Ringo to clear. And then during training camp, Uncle Vic offers the unsolicited diss track quote about how it made sense that Adoree’ was available, how he had not watched much of his tape and that he had a lot to prove in Philadelphia.

Then Adoree’ got the CB2 job on opening night against Dallas, but it did not go well. He has been in and out of the lineup, as he and Ringo have traded rough games and injuries. But it’s clear that Adoree’ has the job now.

Adoree’ gave up the touchdown to Jameson Williams, but outside of that, he was pretty good in this one. He had much more success against Amon-Ra St. Brown, including nifty third and fourth-down stops.

Uncle Vic called Adoree’ “a survivor” this week, which is about as close as he will get to a compliment. And I think that is a good way to put it. With Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean back there, you just need competence. For the second straight week, Adoree’ provided it.

Add it all up, and there is a lot of good stuff going on with this defense. In that regard, it certainly feels like 2024 all of the sudden.

I will get into the offense over the next few days, but I would be remiss if we did not get to two Tush Push-related tragedies.

Tyler Steen: Hey Get Up, I got your first segment today!

I am not complaining too much, since the Eagles have gotten away with some pretty egregious false starts on the Tush Push this season. Landon Dickerson is practically to the second level on some of those. But what Tyler Steen did here is smart, and clearly worthy of a penalty on Detroit (the guy was all over the neutral zone, which is another foul that never gets called on the play)… aaannndddd we get nada. Oh well.

(Also, I know the Eagles were mad, but maybe don’t go back-shoulder to Kylen Granson on 3rd and 6 as a response.)

Oh, and while we are here, you cannot hump the goal post. You can say “No Fun League” all you want, but if you hump the goal post, everyone knows that it will be a 15-yard penalty. Regardless of whether or not you are getting a Cris Collinsworth lecture, you are getting 15 yards.

Nick Sirianni: You knew the situation: Three minutes left, 4th and 1, Eagles up 10.

What does Sirianni do? He goes for it, Tush Push, and it backfires spectacularly.

Jamie had a great rant on the subject here, but unlike last week, I am not as mad at this one. I see the logic in punting, but I also think you should in theory be able to get just one yard in that spot with this unstoppable play. But like everything Nick has done at the end of games recently, it blew up in his face. Remarkable how much that is happening, remarkable how much the defense is bailing out the offense.

Flyers get a realistic split: I already declared Saturday night in Dallas “The Schedule Loss of All Schedule Losses.” And the Flyers did in fact lose that one.

But Friday was a thriller in St. Louis. The Orange and Black gave up a 4-0 run in the middle of the game, as Sam Ersson continues to give the Flyers almost nothing. Make a big save for once, Sam! But thanks to Owen Tippett and Trevor Zegras, the Orange and Black clawed back to force overtime with their fathers in attendance.

Because Zegras is unstoppable in a shootout, and Ersson is impossibly stout in a shootout after stinking up in regulation, the Flyers won yet again. I will take two ppints from the weekend. Charlie’s in-depth recap is below.

Sixers lose, and get hurt: I feel bad for the NBA Cup heads in Philly. The Sixers just stink at that competition. Does not matter if the Sixers are playing decent ball to start the season, once the courts turn disgusting, they tend to stink it up.

The Shorthanded Sixers delivered a stinker against The Even More Shorthanded Pistons to all but eliminate themselves from Cup contention. There is always next year, local Cup heads. Post-game pod is here.

Not a good loss, but I am trying to be realistic in the Sixers’ Post-Expectations Era. And the biggest issue is that the Pistons held the Sixers to their two least efficient halfcourt performances of the season. Their switching and length forced Tyrese Maxey into a “31 points on 31 shots” game, when Maxey is taking bad shots out of isolation. Felt like 2024-25, and that is not a compliment. I gave Nick Nurse credit for the offense flowing the first seven-ish games, but it has become much too static over the last week. And in fairness, you also need Joel Embiid back against those type of defenses.

the Sixers are not gonna have Embiid back tonight, but Paul George is listed as questionable against his former team (LA Clippers). Good thing, because the Sixers’ only other heavy-minute wing suffered an injury in Detroit.

Flipping the calendar: Some huge MLS news late last week: The league is flipping the calendar from the current schedule (February to November/December) to the one that most of the other major soccer leagues around the world use (August to May).

They are doing this for a few reasons:

The biggest complaint for the calendar switch is weather-related. After all, MLS franchises play in outdoor stadiums in the following places: Montreal, Toronto, Saint Paul, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Columbus, Cincy, Denver, Salt Lake, Foxboro, New York, New Jersey, and oh yeah, Chester PA!

Part of the reason for the current, summer-centric calendar is that you avoid the winter months. The USMNT plays World Cup qualifiers in these frigid places because their players are more used to it than their CONCACAF opponents, but they are just trying to get a result. In terms of the quality of the soccer? It’s a terrible product.

I think the MLS’ solution to the cold-weather problem is a pretty good one, all things considered. They are taking a break from mid-December to early February, and the league can also schedule a few more Florida, Miami and Texas home games around that break. It’s not that big of a difference from the current setup, maybe one more cold-weather home game per market.

So, how do they line it up? By giving the people a whole lot of soccer.

MLS also signed a new television deal with Apple to move it from behind the paywall. If you have a regular Apple TV subscription, you will be able to watch Union games moving forward.

And oh yeah, the Union host NYCFC this weekend, for the right to host the Eastern Conference Championship. We want The Cup.

What do we have tonight, you may ask? Well, James Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers are in town (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Despite having some high aspirations (*laughter from the studio audience*), the Clips have been one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams. In general, and the Sixers found this out to a degree a season ago, the NBA is a young man’s game now. The Clippers loaded up on old guys.

Rest advantage game for the Sixers, too. After losing a bunch of winnable opportunities, it would really be nice to get that one. And we will have a big Phillies catch-up in tomorrow’s newsletter, I have been slacking there.

Your tentative Monday schedule at PHLY:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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