👋 Good morning! I know that I opened with this clip the other day, but gosh darn it, I think HBO and Nick Sirianni did it.

They lured me back in. Forget that this play happened against a Raiders team that might as well have already been on the plane home. When you have Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni sharing a genuine moment that has seemingly not always been there even in the best of times, captured by NFL Films’ cameras and narrated by Liev Schreiber, unfortunately, I think we all have no choice but to be all the way back in.

Fun football game in Seattle last night. Biggest drive of the night, and Kirk Herbstreit lets all of America know that Sam Bradford can’t win the big game. I know that’s right, Kirk. Poor Bradford was probably sitting on his couch with his sleeves and was like, “What the hell, man?” — Rich Hofmann

The Friday links. Spread the word, spread the word:

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Spector Sports Art! Doing some last-minute Christmas shopping? Head on over and see what Jordan has to offer for the Philly sports fan in your life.

OK, let’s get you to the weekend. As a reminder, you can reach me at [email protected]

November 28th, 2004.

That is the last time the previous year’s NFC East winner was able to go back-to-back. Ever since Undertaker lost to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, it has widely been referred to as The Streak* in the sports world. And the Eagles can put an end to The Streak tomorrow.

(*OK, maybe not.)

If you would like to see, the Eagles have a nice two-minute video on their site recapping the last back-to-back NFC East clinch. It was 2004, the year that the Birds made the Super Bowl under Andy Reid. Terrell Owens was the most popular athlete in the city, Big Red had it rolling and Eli Manning was a rookie. Yeah, it was a long time ago. Andy claps it up and says, “Hey, NFC East champs one more time, huh?” Very nonchalant, which makes sense. After all, the Eagles had won four in a row.

And in that visiting locker room in the old Giants Stadium, The Streak was born. In order: Giants, Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Washington, Eagles, Cowboys, Washington, Cowboys, Eagles, Cowboys, Eagles, Washington, Cowboys, Eagles, Cowboys, Eagles…

The Birds are on the precipice of putting an end to it. They have a golden chance tomorrow in Landover. But we are not counting our chickens just yet. Weird things usually happen in division games, but a division game in which the power of The Streak is on the line? The Eagles are gonna have to be prepared for some external forces we cannot even comprehend. I am sure that Jerry Jones and Mr. Mara have thrown their full support behind Josh Harris.

As for the game preview, eh, the Commanders do not seem to be all that good 🤷 with one important caveat that I will mention at the end. Preview pod is here.

Did you see this video of Fran in August listing all of the reasons that the Commanders would not be very good? Prescient stuff! We should have ran the Hit Em Up instrumental over this one.

Washington’s offense is much better than its defense. This is not unlike a season ago, although both units have both taken legitimate steps back from last year. In 2024, the formula for the Fightin’ Josh Harrises was “great offense, average defense.” This year, it’s, “average offense, bad defense.”

But it probably is not correct to say that the Eagles are even facing an average offense this week. Quarterback and left tackle are probably the two most important positions on offense, and the Commanders will be without both Jayden Daniels and, he of gas-mask fame, Laremy Tunsil. Marcus Mariota and Brandon Coleman slide into their spots.

The Commanders’ other issue on offense? Lack of skill talent. Scary Terry is still here, after holding out and getting his new contract. Like a season ago, I imagine he will see a lot of Quinyon Mitchell. But Zach Ertz was the Commanders’ second-leading receiver, and he is out for the season. Deebo Samuel is getting some volume due to injuries and lack of talent elsewhere, but he is averaging a career-low 9.3 yards per reception. Treylon Burks (yes, that Treylon Burks) made a sick touchdown catch a few weeks ago on Sunday Night Football. That was the second of his career, the last one coming against the Eagles in 2022.

Fran mentioned that Kliff Kingsbury can run some of the same stuff that Ben Johnson gave the Eagles’ run defense trouble with on Black Friday. Jacory "Call me Bill" Croskey-Merritt is the Commanders’ leading rusher behind a decent offensive line. Mariota has put up high-20s points in two of the past three weeks, so while the Eagles defense should be at an advantage, this will be more of a test than last week.

On the other side of the ball, it has been a been a tough year for Dan Quinn and his backwards hat. No getting around that.

See? That thing has taken a beating.

The Commanders are near the cellar of every defensive metric. Believe it or not, the Raiders defense has been much better statistically (although Washington’s effort has to be better than Las Vegas’ last week). I look at some of these names like Von Miller and Bobby Wagner, and it seems like the makings of a dominant defense in 2015. As Fran put it, this is the second straight week that the Eagles offense should have the opportunity to work on itself. Run it, throw it, under-center, shotgun, empty, condensed, whatever. Just put another efficient offensive performance on the board.

To close, I did mention the one caveat I had…

It might have just been the magic of Hard Knocks, but I thought the vibes seemed pretty good in Washington for a team having a tough season. Quinn and Mariota had me wondering if they could play spoiler and make the next week of Hard Knocks an auto skip for Eagles fans. It’s at least in play.

Am I reading too much into a win over Mike Kafka? Probably. But let’s hope the Eagles do not mess around here. We do not want Tailgate Ted getting any ideas of retaking the Hard Rock for a must-win Week 18 game.

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Think about that: $2,500 for furniture, and then $1,000 for art to decorate your walls. Imagine the setup that you could have for watching football next year!

Enter now at ashleyfancave.com and you might be watching the next big game in a fan cave built by you, courtesy of Ashley. The winner for The Ultimate Fan Cave will be selected the week of the Super Bowl.

No Lane Johnson, no Jalen Carter: Hopefully those two are in Lane’s barn, lifting and getting ready for Buffalo.

We ride with Big Fred and BG at DT once more.

#PlayoffScenarioSZN: I looked at The Athletic’s playoff simulator that everyone seems to cite, and it seems like the Eagles are pretty much set if they avoid The Collapse of All Collapses and win the NFC East.

So, pretty likely the 3 seed in our future. But The Professor goes through all of this work to run through scenarios, so I might as well show his work.

Buffalo 5, Flyers 3: Bad Flyers! Bad!

This was a real missed opportunity against a not-very-good team… albeit one that is playing better as of late. The Flyers were up 2-1 late in the second period and then gave up two bad goals:

60 goaltenders who qualify for the stats leaderboard. Dan Vladar is 15th in save percentage, Sam Ersson is 58th. They are playing behind the same guys.

Another nice assist from Trevor Zegras. And how about those Sabres throwbacks, by the way? It felt like Dominik Hasek and Miroslav Šatan were out there!

So long, Strahm: And at the buzzer, we have a Matt Strahm trade.

Tyler is letting everyone know what to think about this as I am typing.

Strahm’s last act as a Phillie was Dave Dombrowski calling him out for his comments about pitcher fielding practice. And then he shipped him off to Kansas City. Cold world.

So, how do we feel about this?

In a vacuum, it’s a clear downgrade. Strahm made me uneasy at times a season ago, and I do wonder what happens if that fastball loses even a little bit of giddy-up. But Strahm still pitched a million innings, had a 2.74 ERA and struck out over a batter per inning in 2025. Bowlan is a guy who has pitched one real MLB season.

But who knows? Maybe the Phillies see something in Bowlan’s profile that they like. Caleb Cotham is still very good at his job.

Of course, the financials are impossible to miss here: Bowlan makes something in the area of $6 million less than Strahm. The question to me is if the Phillies are reallocating that money elsewhere or if they have already reallocated that money. They just signed Brad Keller the other day, so it’s not like they lost a bullpen arm. As of now, they swapped one bullpen arm for another.

Busy weekend ahead, a whole bunch of college football too.

And then enjoy your Sunday, everyone.

Your tentative Friday schedule at PHLY:

Have a great weekend. Let’s make it a good one today.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS