👋 Good morning! Shoutout to Michael from Ocean City, keeping the zebras honest.

I enjoyed having the Sixers back on NBC last night. A little Roundball Rock, some nice pregame introductions and Mike Tirico is really good at announcing any sport. Would not have minded Cris Collinsworth instead of Reggie Miller, though. Why not? They could have stayed in town all week for Eagles-Lions. “Mike, I’ll tell ya, this Justin Edwards!”

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

Too much to do for me last night with a Sixers post-game show, so we will treat tomorrow as our normal detailed game review. In the meantime, I would like to catch you up with yesterday’s pod and EJ’s Early Bird piece. Dig in!

Still, I have a couple Eagles things on my mind…

Jaire steps away: Well, that is now two midseason acquisitions who just up and left. Bounced. But you know, if you have to sacrifice Za’Darius Smith and Jaire Alexander to balance out the Jaelan Phillips trade, I will take it and reenact the Alonzo Mourning GIF while I am at it.

Honestly, have the 2025 Eagles set the record for in-season retirements? They gotta be close, right?

I did not really expect Alexander to do much in Philly, as he could not get on the field for a terrible Baltimore defense. Michael Carter II always felt like the more interesting secondary acquisition at the deadline. But did the Eagles really just trade a sixth-round pick for a seventh-round pick for no reason? There is a precedent here, the Eagles once sent back the seventh-round pick they received from New Orleans for Jon Dorenbos when it was revealed that Dorenbos immediately had to retire after getting heart surgery. Eric DeCosta, do the right thing.

Jaire, best of luck. And thank you for the emergency pod.

A Brief History of DeVonta Smith Mossing Dudes: I cannot express how much I enjoy Smitty playing for our football team. And what a well-rounded receiver he is.

On one hand, DeVonta is an exceptional route runner. The video of him doing the ladder drill at training camp is one of my all-time favorites. That fluidity and ability to change directions makes him such a tough cover. The route that he ran on 3rd and 12 against Keisean Nixon last night was nothing short of awesome.

DeVonta can also get open for deep balls. And while there are a lot of speedy downfield threats with his relative build, the single most unique thing about The Slim Reaper is his ability to win contested catches… as if he is Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson or Randy Moss. His ability to climb the ladder and Moss dudes is unreal. Ask Evan Williams.

Underthrowing DeVonta on a deep ball is not the worst thing because his body control and play strength are that good. He is just gonna climb over a guy for the catch.

During his career, DeVonta has had better catches (Jacksonville 2024) than the three I am about to show you. He has had more consequential catches (“The Dagger”). But without further ado, these are my favorite three examples of DeVonta Mossing a guy.

No. 3, Washington 2023: Poor Emmanuel Forbes, it was not just A.J. picking on him. I swear DeVonta caught this one.

No. 2, Denver 2021: A sign of things to come. Pat Surtain, come and get some.

No. 1, Washington 2022: Poor Kyle Fuller. He got Mossed on this play AND the ensuing red zone possession for 6.

The Howie-fication of the NFL: Mike Sando had some pretty wild stats last week.

Of course, Howie Roseman has made six of those 55 trades (11 percent). And that does not even include the seven that the Eagles have made in August during that time! Howie loves to trade.

We need to appreciate how bad the Giants have been. I joke about the Giants organization and their love of class, but for most of my life, they were a very good NFL franchise. Even when their talent level was not overwhelming, they had the dominant pass-rush that got them a couple of Super Bowls. Along with the rest of the NFC East, their fans made a whole bunch of trophy case jokes at the Eagles’ expense. But man, it is unreal how far they have fallen.

Since 2017, the Eagles are 91-50-1 (why do they always tie against Cincy?) with three Super Bowl appearances and two Lombardi Trophies. That is the fourth-best regular-season record during that span, behind Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore.

Since 2017, the Giants are 42-142. Dead last. Their two most successful seasons during that span…

Woof! This was the ship that launched a thousand losses.

Think about this: The Cleveland Browns, who are the butt of every single football joke, went a combined 1-31 in 2016 and 2017. And yet, since 2016, the Brownies have three more wins than the Giants do.

The Flyers had three days off before The McDavids come to Philly tonight. And we got two storylines out of that downtime.

(1) The Coots-Meech “beef”: So, the groundwork for this whole thing was laid on Saturday. In the 3-on-3 overtime against Ottawa, Sean Couturier got called for an offsides when he beat Matvei Michkov (who was carrying the puck up ice) inside the blue line on a rush.

On the broadcast, the camera panned to Coots on the bench looking frustrated. Brian Boucher, expertly playing Body Language Doctor (in fact, give Boosh his PhD!), noted that Coots was frustrated with Michkov, who went east-west at the last second before reaching the blue line. That seems like an accurate read. As Bill pointed out here, even high school hockey coaches teach their puck-handlers not to make a move within three feet of the blue line. Otherwise, the other players are gonna go offside every single time.

And then after the game, Michkov’s best of the season so far, Coots got asked how the team has tried to keep Michkov “on the level” as the points have been hard to come by early in his sophomore season.

You can watch the video for the full quote here, but it was blunt. I will type it out for you.

Number one, I think it’s interesting that in many cases we do not like directness from our athletes in public settings. I understand why some Flyers fans would wince at Coots’ answer, but also like, don’t we generally want honesty?

Number two, even a dummy like me has noticed that Michkov cheats at times in the defensive zone. Sometimes he breaks out before the Flyers even have the puck, which is where the whole “being on the right side of pucks” part comes into play. Michkov did so on Ottawa’s first goal on Saturday, although I do not think this one was as egregious as some past mistakes. In general, I understand why that would rub someone like Coots the right way. Coots has been a responsible two-way player his whole career! Michkov has more offensive talent and thus should be able to freelance a bit more, but there is a balance to strike.

Number three, and Charlie mentioned this part in his column, this is likely why Rick Tocchet is slow-playing Michkov’s ice time. Michkov is the face of the franchise, the guy whose sticks Danny Briere and Keith Jones carried through the airport. When that guy shows up to camp out of shape and plays poorly because of it, the vets notice. That guy is gonna have to earn more minutes with more than one good game.

It does seem like Couturier does not have a bad relationship with Michkov, though. Not at all, Michkov seems to respect O Captain, His Captain. It’s also admittedly a little tougher to gauge due to the language barrier. If you are interested more in this subject, the first half of Monday’s Flyers podcast was excellent.

(2) Trevor Zegras extension: When the Flyers traded for Trevor Zegras, there was almost no downside. If he was good, the Flyers could keep him via extension or restricted free agency. If he stunk, they could just move on from him in time to open up all of that cap space this summer.

Well, through 15 games, Zegras certainly has not stunk. Not only has he shaken off two down seasons in Anaheim, Zegras is on an 87-point pace with strong underlying metrics. So, now we get to the question of downside: Should the Flyers be looking to extend Zegras? And what are the risks and benefits of waiting?

It all comes down to how real you think Zegras’ hot start is. Charlie tackles that subject, while looking at recent comps right here.

Sixers 102, Boston 100: Wild win! Kyle’s observations are here.

Let’s get the 🐘 in the room out of the way: No, I have no idea why the Sixers are so bad in third quarters. They got outscored 36-20 by the Celtics, and that required a Quentin Grimes 37-footer at the buzzer. On the season, the Sixers have been outscored by 104 points in 11 third quarters. That is impossible, especially because they have a comfortably positive point differential overall!

I sympathize with fans who are annoyed at the third quarters, because I am too. Same story every night. But as someone who is not really even a huge Nick Nurse Guy, I would gently point out that he does coach the team in the other three quarters as well when they do good stuff and win comfortably. But Nurse needs to do something different. Maybe burn some sage in the locker room when you walk in next time?

On a positive note, I did not think the Sixers could win a defensive slugfest like this. They were much more aggressive defending pick-and-rolls than they were against Boston on Halloween, and the Celtics struggled. Andre Drummond made a great defensive play against Derrick White on the last play of the game.

The Sixers offense in this one? For the most part, stinky. But they got bailed out by Justin Edwards, who was just having One Of Those Nights: 22 points (8-9 FG, 5-6 3P), 3 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. He had a personal 9-0 run midway through the fourth quarter that literally brought the house down. Eight points down to one point up, just like that.

It was like he was back at Imhotep playing in The Pub! Call it The Justin Edwards Game.

And give the Sixers credit for winning shorthanded. Joel Embiid did not play in this game due to right knee soreness. If you are keeping score at home, that is Joel’s “Good Knee.” And while I am just speculating, I think the explanation is pretty simple here: Joel, unconfident in The Bad Knee, was overcompensating on The Good Knee… and thus gave The Good Knee some soreness. The Sixers did some imaging, and there is no structural damage to The Good Knee. Joel is day-to-day.

As for Paul George? I have given up trying to explain that one. Kyle has more below.

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I think the Eagles are back at practice? Short week. Tirico Week.

And oh yeah, the Oilers are in town (7:30 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). That is always a fun one.

Your tentative Wednesday schedule at PHLY:

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS