👋 Good morning! We’re gonna gut these guys.

All downhill for The Gan Man from there.

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OK, let’s get you to the week. As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Eagles-49ers Trivia!

(1) 2023: Kyle Shanahan famously put the Eagles linebackers in a blender in the game where Big Dom and Dre Greenlaw got into it. Who were the two Eagles linebackers that played every snap in that game?

(2) 2022 NFC Championship Game: Trent Williams might play on Sunday. Good for him. Which little-used Eagles backup did Williams body-slam to the ground at the end of the NFC Championship Game, earning himself an ejection?

(3) 2021: The Eagles did not have a ton of offense in the 17-11 Week 2 loss. But which Eagles receiver came up with a 91-yard reception that did not go for a touchdown?

(4) 2020: In a terrible season overall, the Eagles got a nice win over San Francisco on Sunday Night Football. Which player ran an interception back 30 yards to seal the game?

(5) 2017: The Eagles cruised to a 33-10 win in Kyle Shanahan’s first season. That was when they were blowing everybody out and doin’ The Electric Slide while they were at it. Before Jimmy G, which little-known quarterback started this game for San Francisco?

As always, answers at the bottom.

I liked EJ’s framing on Eagles-49ers Palooza, Part 2: “I think the listeners know that I am not pollyannaish about the Eagles most times. But if you did want to be pollyannaish about the Eagles…”

Well EJ, I think the readers know that I have no problem being pollyannaish about the Eagles. So, let’s be pollyannaish!

The first reason to be optimistic about the Eagles this week is that they are the healthier team and the more rested team.

I have talked about the rest aspect already this week. San Francisco just played two absolute wars and got physically manhandled by Seattle in the second of those games. The Eagles just put their feet up for a week and they are at home. They did this for a reason, even it ultimately cost them the 2 seed. This Eagles offensive line has been banged-up all season and this defense has been lights-out when they are are not tired. Hopefully with the rest, the o-line gets to competent and the defense gets to dominant.

Just last season, the Eagles put their feet up in Week 18 and came out firing. They were the most physical team all postseason, and it started with Oren Burks popping Keisean Nixon on the opening kickoff of the wild-card game and Nolan Smith popping Elgton Jenkins just a few minutes later. They really need to be the more physical team from the jump this weekend.

But it’s not just the rest. We are currently in a Golden Age of Eagles Availability (*knocks on wood*). We are all nervous about Lane Johnson and obviously he is a critical player, but it was not long ago that the Eagles were one of the teams with the most man games lost in the entire NFL. Not during Nick Sirianni’s tenure, though:

Notice that I did not say “health.” The Eagles have available players who are gutting it out to a degree, three-fifths of their offensive line in particular (Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens and Lane Johnson). We will see about Lane. Contrast that with the 49ers, who have largely not been able to keep their players healthy during Kyle Shanahan’s tenure. They are down Fred Warner, Nick Bosa and first-round pick Mykel Williams.

And after Warner, it’s a MASH unit at linebacker in San Francisco. They seriously might start Eric Kendricks (signed to practice squad in late-November) and old friend Kyzir White (signed literally this week) in this game. The Eagles do not have injury issues that are that important.

Reason No. 2? Uncle Vic is passing out pasta and meatballs in a brown paper bag to the defensive player of the week. No wonder this defense is locked in! They all want some of those meatballs made with the ultra-secret Fangio family recipe.

But let’s get to the reason EJ was pollyannaish.

All year, this running game has been disappointing. That is a big issue, because for all of the talent that the Eagles have on offense, their ability to run whenever they wanted was their true superpower.

This slippage has been for a bunch of reasons that exist beyond Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni (not letting them off the hook). Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson both played much worse. The Eagles’ tight ends are straight-up terrible blockers. I do hope this draft has some decent tight ends and H-back types, because the Eagles need to invest in younger, better blockers. They also get the play in with like two seconds left on the play clock on average, which is a kind of an issue.

But as EJ pointed out, is this the week that Jalen Hurts decides to join the party in the run game? A huge, undeniable reason that the Eagles have seen major slippage on the ground is that Hurts has been less involved. You lose the +1 in the run game, and it’s a huge deal. Defensive ends and linebackers can crash without any fear that the quarterback is gonna keep the football.

Deniz’s numbers on Jalen’s non-sneak designed runs was pretty stark:

They are still pretty darn efficient! The Eagles just do not run ‘em anymore.

Deniz pointed out that the Eagles are inefficient at running from under-center (some of those in Buffalo were complete no-hopers) and average at running from shotgun. I think that has to be the playbook this week. Spread the 49ers out, but use Jalen’s legs as a threat. It’s time to cut it loose. And give me one QB Counter Bash.

Also, you have to hope Lane Johnson’s presence provides a boost. If he plays, that is.

It really snuck up on me how little Lane played this season. Lane played just 450 snaps, the third-lowest total of his career and the lowest total by a mile since Sirianni became head coach. That is basically the same number of snaps that Lane played the second time he got suspended, when he missed eight games.

With Lane, you get a better run blocker in the starting lineup and also have the flexibility to play Fred Johnson in the occasional heavy personnel grouping.

Look, I know that this offense has been untrustworthy all season. Sleepwalking against a terrible defense would be a fitting end to this season for this unit. The 49ers linebackers are bad, but so were the Bears’ on Black Friday. Patullo, Hurts and this Eagles offense did not stress out those guys at all.

This 49ers defense looks so gettable on paper. Deommodore Lenoir is one of their best players, and Fran spent a few minutes on yesterday’s pod talking about what a physicality advantage A.J. Brown should have against him.

For this week at least, I am feeling pollyannaish. We will find out on Sunday if I was mistaken or not.

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Injury report: From Thursday…

I cannot believe the Niners of all teams do not carry three quarterbacks on their active roster. So, if the Eagles were to knock out Brock Purdy and Mac Jones again, Christian McCaffrey would be the quarterback yet again.

Mike McDaniel got fired: The Birds have a title to defend. But quietly file that one away for the offseason, along with Kevin Stefanski and Kliff Kingsbury.

Fran’s Mock Draft: In addition to Fran’s NFL Draft newsletter (which is free and full of good stuff), he has his first mock draft of the season out for Diehards. No surprise that Fran went offense in the first round for the Birds.

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Toronto 2, Flyers 1 (OT): Death, taxes and the Flyers lost to the Hockey Sixers. Death, taxes and the Flyers’ power play stinks. Instant observations are here.

Not a lot of good from this game. Honestly, not a lot happened until a ridiculously fun overtime period. The Flyers certainly had their chances in that extra frame. In fact, the only good thing in my opinion was this photo that Bill Meltzer tweeted of Rick Tocchet and Craig Berube with mullets.

For whatever reason, Toronto just has the Flyers’ number… even when the Orange and Black have been a better team so far this season. The Flyers are 1-6-3 against the Maple Leafs in the teams’ last ten meetings.

The Flyers lost this game on the power play, which yet again is letting them down. After the hit against Jamie Drysdale on Tuesday, they could not score with a five-minute major. Last night, they held a 1-0 lead late in the third period and close to a minute with a 5-on-3 advantage. They did not score, despite one of the Leafs penalty killers losing their stick. And at the end of that power play, Scott Laughton scored shorthanded like he was on the 2023-24 Flyers’ power kill. I wonder if Laughts cracked a smile.

The Orange and Black are down to 15.4 percent on the power play on the season, 30th out of 32 teams. The more things change…

This is a good team, but their inability to execute on the man-advantage is holding them back. And we cannot even blame Rocky Thompson anymore!

Bo Bichette: As the Phillies have been in a long standoff with J.T. Realmuto, another option has emerged in this game of chicken: What if the Phils signed Bo Bichette instead and moved on from Realmuto and Alec Bohm?

Well, The Athletic first reported that the Phillies scheduled a meeting with Bichette and that there is legitimate interest there.

All along, it has not seemed like the Phillies want to spend more money than they initially budgeted for this offseason. But let’s take a look at MLB Trade Rumors and what Bichette and Realmuto were projected to sign for.

Well, Alec Bohm just agreed to $10.2 million in his last year of arbitration. Get rid of him, and that would seem to roughly fit within the Phillies’ budget for this season.

As a right-handed hitter with a career .806 OPS, Bichette would be a nice fit behind Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber in the Phillies’ order. And he would also be a nice fit in the clubhouse, coming over from Toronto with Don Mattingly, who he is close with.

But there are two major hang-ups here…

I will write about this more next week, but it is certainly interesting.

Here is the loaded weekend schedule, featuring 🍽️ 🏈The Football Smorgasbord 🏈🍽️

And oh yeah, the trivia answers:

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