👋 Good morning! The booing will continue until morale improves.

Sir, I salute you. I would break bread any day of the week with you and these two wonderful ladies (1 and 2). Keep fighting the good fight.

I would like to give Bo credit for being out front on the take I am about to give, both here in podcast form and here in written form.

OK, here goes: It is absolutely fine for a national broadcast to lean into the shots of the booing. It is absolutely fine for a national broadcast to mention the booing. I am not a homer here, the booing is legitimately good television! But I am so tired of national broadcasts treating Philadelphia fans as some sort of sociological curiosity for booing the most expensive offense in the NFL after…

Al Michaels, can you see the slop that is on the field right in front of you? Are Eagles fans supposed to applaud that level of ineptitude?

In general, I am sick of media types telling fans how to react. Once they take a step back, 95 percent of Eagles fans would admit that they have it good, that this has been an amazing era of football in Philadelphia. But the idea that they are currently unhappy, during an utterly miserable game in which the Bears recorded one less first down than the amount of plays the Eagles ran in the first half? That is objectively pathetic stuff! Of course the fans are unhappy. They are right to be unhappy.

bUt jETs FAns WoULd KiLL fOr An 8 aNd 4 tEAm!

Unlike the Eagles, the Jets do not have any talent. Eagles fans have followed teams with no talent before and have reacted accordingly. They are booing the most underachieving single unit in the entire NFL this season, and they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. — Rich Hofmann

So, gang, I have two big things to tell you about.

First off, today is the last day of our Black Friday deal. 30 percent off everything in the store!

Please, go get yourself my favorite t-shirt or my second-favorite t-shirt. Or my favorite hoodie. Or my favorite hat. Or my favorite beanie, which Devon rocks for a bunch of post-game shows.

The point is… there is a lot of sweet stuff.

We have so much good stuff in the store and it is all 30 percent off! Do yourself a favor, get out in front of that holiday shopping and hit up the store for all of our deals.

Secondly, we only have the best deal we have ever offered.

You can become a Diehard and get all of the perks…

And it is all for just 26 bucks in your first year! Let me type that out again, TWENTY-SIX BUCKS! So, join now and give the gift to the Philly sports sicko in your life.

OK, let’s talk about this frustrating football team. As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Speaking of Al Michaels, once upon a time he called a little hockey game that became known as “The Miracle on Ice.” I am no Phil Mushnick, but I thought he did a slightly better job calling that one than Eagles-Bears on Amazon Prime 45 years later.

One of the best moments of the HBO documentary about The Miracle on Ice is when Michaels points out the slightly amused post-game reactions of the Soviet players as the American kids hugged each other and jumped up and down on the ice. They had won so much and so often that they had forgotten that joyous feeling associated with winning.

It’s not apples to apples, but that is more or less how I feel watching this Eagles season. The Birds win a bunch of games, often unimpressively, and it is a more chill locker-room vibe. The standard is the standard, yada yada. And if I were to spin that lack of emotion in a positive direction, it’s the old “Never get too high or too low” saying. I am not pretending that type of atmosphere cannot lead to success. It has.

But I look at three of the Eagles’ four losses this season, and I do wonder where the joy has gone. After the Broncos loss, Sean Payton blasted Meek Mill, took the team bus down Broad Street and stole the Liberty Bell (OK, he did not do the last thing). After the Giants loss, Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo were actin’ a fool like a couple of excited rookies should. And after the Bears loss, well, this happened.

I am not mad at or shaming any of these teams for their celebrations (that is not true, the Payton thing still annoys me). And look, some of this comes with the territory of winning all of these games and trophies. Opponents have you circled on the calendar, and they are pumped when they finally get you. That said, I mainly look at Ben Johnson whooping it up shirtless and wonder where the joy has gone from the Eagles.

But the second part of the saying is that you can never get too low. Well, we are about to find out. This Eagles season feels very tenuous at the moment, the type of season that we know perfectly well can go off the rails. They just got their butts kicked, the vibes are low and the Cowboys are now approaching in the rear-view mirror. To quote Thomas Paine, these are the times that try men's souls.

Nick Sirianni, who is tasked with keeping the locker room upbeat, has a Super Bowl and a whole bunch of wins on his resumé. But he also has The Collapse of All Collapses on his resumé. And I am here to remind you that there is a lot of wiggle room between “hoisting the Lombardi Trophy” and “faceplanting harder than most teams could ever dream of.” It cannot be that when you fall short of the ever-elusive Standard, that you let go of the rope entirely. That is all I am asking for.

See, Al Michaels? We can be reasonable.

The Eagles are 8-4 and still have the NFC East in front of them. They are working against The Back-To-Back NFC East Titles Curse, which I am not gonna lie, is scaring me pretty good. That is one powerful curse. I am gonna put the Super Bowl hopes aside for at least a week and half, even if those can theoretically come back. But for now, I am lowering my expectations. I would like to see the Eagles show some backbone. I would like to see them not fold.

So, how do you do that outside of potentially getting lucky with the broken bone in Justin Herbert’s left hand?

The first question will be if Kevin Patullo is still calling plays next week. EJ tackled that question at length in th. Nick Sirianni said that Patullo will keep the responsibility after Friday’s game, which is notable.

But Sirianni’s answer in a post-game presser is not all that convincing, either. We have been around the block too many times with this organization to not wonder if this will in fact ultimately be Nick’s call. The Eagles are not a coach-centric organization, Lombardis be damned. Jeffrey Lurie cares about an underachieving passing offense more than any owner in the league and is not afraid to act. Might Lurie and Howie Roseman tell Sirianni that, however you want to spin it to the press, someone else is absolutely calling plays next week? Seems possible.

Now, is Kevin Patullo ultimately at fault here? My short answer: Likely not entirely, but it would be a perfectly reasonable demotion.

As we all know, “The offense is gonna look how Jalen Hurts wants it to look.” And Jalen, who I have praised for stretches this season, is not playing good ball right now. No question about that. His best ball of the season came before the bye, and now his worst ball of the season is coming after the bye.

When the Amazon broadcast showed this missed throw to DeVonta Smith (with Dallas Goedert running even more wide-open on the backside), I was pretty bummed out. Chicago’s coverage was an absolute mess on the back end, with Kevin Byard doing his best Sydney Brown impression in getting all turned around. From Jalen’s standpoint, you just have to make that play.

Jalen is not entirely at fault. But he is the quarterback of the most underachieving offense in the NFL, and at some level, needs to be held accountable for that. On that note, I do appreciate that Jalen is not making any excuses publicly in the press.

And yes, the Eagles’ run blocking also stinks. But did you see how easy Hurts and A.J. Brown (10 catches, 132 yards, 2 touchdowns) made it look when they essentially went into Wing It Mode? You did, which feels like a problem for Kevin Patullo. Did you notice once during the game that the Bears were without all three of their starting linebackers? You did not, which also feels like a problem for Kevin Patullo.

Ultimately, Patullo is the easiest lever that the Eagles can pull in-season. Maybe it does not change anything — Is Scot Loeffler gonna turn Philadelphia into Bowling Green East? — but after the putrid on-field results and the film grinders telling me all season that the play design is lacking, I do not think it would hurt.

And then there is Uncle Vic’s defense.

Half of the reason that Friday’s game became such a dreadful watch was the Eagles’ impotent offense. But Vic Fangio’s defense, which still fought to limit the damage, also got absolutely gashed on the ground: 47 carries for 281 yards, the most yards that the Eagles have surrendered in a game since Billy Davis’ sad-sack defense in 2015. D’Andre Swift did not even have those types of holes when he was running against Father Judge.

(In fact, it was such a dreadful game that I could not even care a little bit about the, “Do you go for two right away when down nine?” debate that was raging online. Usually, I would be all over a little game theory. But not on Friday, I was just sad about the game.)

This defense looked absolutely gassed, which makes sense, because their offense loves going three-and-out and sending them right back on the field. The Eagles’ fatigue hopefully will be helped by the mini-bye headed their way. Still, 87 snaps is the most they played in a regulation game since 2016. The defensive line got manhandled, Sydney Brown had a number of troubling reps and the Eagles’ first-round pick now just does not play anymore. Not like all is quiet on the defensive front.

OK, so maybe this defense is not trending back to 2024 levels. But I trust this group to battle and make the most out of the last five games.

The offense? We will see. They are playing the role of the 2023 defense, just without Matt Patricia’s pencil and The Shaq Leonard Sweepstakes. Until they turn it around?

Flyers win three in a row: Woohoo! We are going short and sweet for the rest of the newsletter, but nobody had a better Thanksgiving than the Flyers. To recap:

Tippett added his 100th goal to start the scoring, but it was his last goal that caught my attention. And that is because Tippett did not physically put the puck in the net. With the Devils having pulled their goalie, Tippett got tripped when having a clear path to an empty-net goal. And according to the official’s discretion, they award you a goal when that happens. They just give it to ya. Who knew?

The Orange and Black have a .646 points percentage, which is sixth in the NHL. Excellent start to the season. Charlie has more below.

The Sixers get a split: They won in Brooklyn, which even if the Sixers were pretty shorthanded, is pretty hard to not do. And then they lost a tough one in double overtime against a good Atlanta team. Kyle has more on Sunday’s loss here.

The good news? Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe and Andre Drummond (left Friday’s game via a wheelchair, Paul Pierce style) all played on Sunday. Kyle has more on The Big Fella’s return from a three-week absence here.

Sunday’s game against the Hawks was pretty wild.

The Sixers had no business being in the game after some rough offensive possessions throughout the fourth quarter. But the Hawks missed some free throws down the stretch, and the Sixers had a crazy five-point possession in the final minute to tie the game up: Dom Barlow scored a bucket and got fouled, and then after Barlow failed to complete the three-point play, Paul George made possibly his best play as a Sixer (which is sad, I know) by collecting the offensive board and finding Tyrese Maxey for 3.

The Sixers should have had a chance to win in regulation, after Dyson Daniels missed a shot and George rebounded the ball. Nick Nurse immediately called for a timeout, which would have allowed the Sixers to advance the ball to midcourt with 2.8 seconds left, and… the officials just did not grant the timeout. Instead, George fired a prayer that had no chance. Nurse absolutely lost it.

Something about Nurse and late timeouts not getting recognized, man. He got screwed even worse than in Madison Square Garden a few springs ago. Rob Perez watches more NBA hoops than anyone alive, and he does not use the words “referee malpractice” all that much. He did here.

Tyrese Maxey was awesome down the stretch. But with four seconds left in overtime, and the Sixers up two points, Maxey somehow missed both free throws that would have iced the game. Shocking misses, but also from someone I literally cannot get mad at. Atlanta scored on the other end, and with Embiid taken out for the second overtime, the Sixers ran out of gas and lost.

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and then defeat from the jaws of victory. Oh well, can’t get too mad about that with the context.

We will get into some Phils and maybe even some college football over the next few days. How about that Lane Kiffin?

Flyers-Penguins tonight in South Philly (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Crosby sucks!

Your tentative Monday schedule at PHLY:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS