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The Eagles Are Losing Momentum (PST Episode 543) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know that we
• 0:02
  recorded this podcast episode on Wednesday, December sixth, twenty twenty three. That's
• 0:07
  the first part of the show. Second part, our interview, was recorded
• 0:11
  on December seventh, twenty twenty three. So by the time you hear this,
• 0:14
  some things may have changed, but we hope you enjoy the show.
• 0:42
  All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
• 0:45
  the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's right over
• 0:49
  ten and a half years strong. We got a great show for you this
• 0:52
  week. Here, I'm Jeff Warren. I'm here at my good buddy Len
• 0:55
  Hunt Sicker, Len Man, It's good to talk to you. How things
• 0:58
  Ben Man? Well last Sunday? Notwithstanding, h I'm pretty good. But
• 1:03
  you know, you know what I was thinking to myself, Okay, should
• 1:07
  I like, do I ask Eric or Lenn to do the postgame show?
• 1:12
  And he was on the show of course last week, so I just asked
• 1:15
  him right there, I'm like, do you want to do the postgame show?
• 1:18
  I'm like, haven't done one in a little while. He's like,
• 1:19
  He's like, yeah, sure, it should be a good game, and
• 1:23
  it was yeah, we know how that ended. Seriously, he gets on
• 1:27
  He's like ten minutes, man, ten minutes. That's it, that's all
• 1:30
  it gets. Yeah, you guys probably started then before the game even ended,
• 1:34
  right, we did. Yeah, there was still like five minutes left
• 1:38
  in the game. We stayed with the text thread with the guys, and
• 1:42
  he was just like, jets just start now. Yep, absolutely what I
• 1:46
  mean. It was a terrible game. It was probably one of the worst
• 1:48
  performances that US Eagles fans have seen in years, and for a multitude of
• 1:53
  reasons. But like I am hoping keeping our fingers crossed that this is going
• 1:57
  to be a kicking their ass they're gonna need in order to come out strong
• 2:01
  in Dallas this coming week. Yeah, that's like the only possible positive that
• 2:07
  I that I see there is that it's like, oh man, we got
• 2:10
  to get it together because that was terrible. And I mean, honestly,
• 2:15
  like, if you're asking me straight up, I think Dallas is winning this
• 2:19
  game. That's what I know. How close the first game was in Philly
• 2:23
  and just how the Eagles are playing right now. It's it's not good.
• 2:29
  But yeah, and I'm just and if they do lose, I'm hoping because
• 2:34
  I had the thought last week going into the San Francisco game of like,
• 2:38
  look, if they lose, I'm not going to be mad because San Francisco
• 2:42
  is a good team. But it's how they lost exactly, how they lost
• 2:46
  on the scoreboard, how they lost in terms of fight. Even before the
• 2:50
  game, They're going into the Eagles warm ups and woofing in their face and
• 2:53
  the Eagles aren't doing anything like it just felt like they just came in and
• 2:59
  you know, in every way that you can push a team around, just
• 3:01
  push a team around, and the Eagles just didn't do a goddamn thing about
• 3:07
  it. Yeah, at all. It was a good first quarter. I
• 3:08
  mean the uh, it was a good first quarter. Hunt from my recollection,
• 3:13
  one hundred and twenty four total yards from the Eagles and then negative six
• 3:16
  yards from the forty nine ers. Knew that wasn't gonna last. But still,
• 3:21
  like you said, they just got kicked, and they got kicked on
• 3:23
  the teeth right after that, you gotta play sixty minutes. Yeah, And
• 3:25
  it was the same thing as a Super Bowl against Chiefs, where you know,
• 3:30
  okay, the game's going on, and then the Chiefs just drive after
• 3:32
  drive after drive. They gave up five straight drives against the Chiefs where they
• 3:37
  went right down the field and got a touchdown. This game they give up
• 3:40
  sixty or six straight drives, and that's a troubling trend where it's like,
• 3:44
  Okay, once the defense starts giving up touchdowns, they just cannot, for
• 3:49
  the life of them get a stop. Yep. And that that was the
• 3:52
  thing to me where it's just like, oh my god, this is this
• 3:54
  is really bad looking. It was. I think it was a game that
• 3:58
  was probably a long time in two. I mean the going into the game
• 4:02
  ten and one on the season. I mean, nothing is ever perfect in
• 4:05
  the NFL. I mean, the one loss they had was to the New
• 4:09
  York Jets. The lowly Jets were able to beat this team too. So
• 4:15
  it's just sometimes you just never know what's gonna happen with this team. But
• 4:18
  you know, I still have hope for the I still have hope for the
• 4:20
  postseason. Yeah. And again, if they lost like twenty seven to twenty
• 4:27
  four or thirty one to twenty three or something like that, all right,
• 4:30
  you know, I that I could have lived with, but not what happened
• 4:33
  that was just yep, I agree. Excuse me, I agree? I
• 4:38
  agree. Well, folks, we got a great show for you this week.
• 4:42
  We are gonna be getting into some Phillies off season talk actually actually some
• 4:47
  MLB Hall of Fame talk as well, and we've got some Flyers talk in
• 4:53
  terms of just how this season hasn't really been what we expected. We're gonna
• 4:58
  give our thoughts, and also we're gonna get into some Philadelphia Union talk because
• 5:01
  len is on the show Philadelphia Union. They're out of the playoffs after losing
• 5:05
  to Cincinnati. We're just gonna reflect on this season and what may happen down
• 5:11
  the road. And we're gonna get into some college football talk as well,
• 5:15
  with regard to the college football playoff situation as it is, an undefeated team
• 5:21
  does not get into the tournament, yet a team with one loss does.
• 5:25
  And then what we're throwing down on the table this week, we've got egg
• 5:28
  Kratz from Fan Nation Eagles today over at SI He's gonna be joining us for
• 5:32
  again, how this Eagles team is going to be looking as they try to
• 5:35
  rebound from the terrible loss against the forty nine ers, and if they lose
• 5:40
  to Dallas, is there a momentum just about gone. I know, loaded
• 5:45
  question, but we're gonna get to it with Ed and a couple housekeeping notes
• 5:49
  if you haven't heard the past two podcasts in the feed, I'm gonna be
• 5:54
  on vacation next week with my family, very much looking forward to cruising around
• 5:59
  the Bah. So we're gonna have an abbreviated podcast platform next week. In
• 6:03
  terms of the uploads, uh, I don't know necessarily which day it's gonna
• 6:08
  be. Maybe Wednesday we're gonna be uploading a show, but no Eagles postgame
• 6:12
  show after the Dallas game. I'm not even gonna len I'm not even know
• 6:15
  what's going on probably with that game because we're boarding at like three o'clock.
• 6:18
  We got we're three o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday, so I'm not even
• 6:23
  gonna get a chance to even see what's going on with the game here.
• 6:26
  Well it say anything like last week, it'll be for the best. Yes,
• 6:30
  So no table talk, no opposition territory next week, and I don't
• 6:33
  think I just don't think I'm gonna be able to do the postgame show the
• 6:39
  following week, so we'll well, we'll see what happens there. Also just
• 6:43
  wanted to let folks know from my perspective, I've kind of pulled back on
• 6:46
  Twitter as many know it as x now and well, while certainly not gonna
• 6:50
  be leaving the platform and the and and if you follow us at Philadelphia PST,
• 6:55
  We're not gonna be leaving the platform, there's just not gonna be as
• 6:58
  many posts. I'm just not finding that social media platform lend too valuable these
• 7:03
  days. I'm kind of shifting over to threads. I've been enjoying the experience
• 7:08
  over there a little bit more just in terms of getting news and just the
• 7:12
  various content that I've been following over there. So I don't know about you,
• 7:15
  buddy, I know you haven't been on Twitter as much, but what
• 7:18
  are your thoughts. It's like I go on every day. Like the whole
• 7:23
  reason I use Twitter really is a news source to like follow, you know,
• 7:27
  maybe the Winter meetings or just whatever's going on. I use it as
• 7:30
  a news source. And I don't know what happened since old Elon took over,
• 7:35
  but every day there is a new hot female bot account that is fuss
• 7:42
  started to follow me that I need to block. I like you literally every
• 7:47
  day, Yes, and it's just like so clear that this is not a
• 7:53
  real human being. And I'm just like, what, Like I know that
• 7:57
  he cut like all the staff there, and you know, nobody's like looking
• 8:01
  at anything or anymore. And you know, but like, man to that,
• 8:05
  like how is this guy a success in any way shape or for I
• 8:11
  know, I now buy something for forty four billion dollars and then just turn
• 8:16
  it into a dumpster. I I god, he is. He is just
• 8:22
  working. And I'm not even going on like some political rant because I know
• 8:28
  that that's where everything goes these days. It's just like how how does this
• 8:31
  man make money? It's it's concerning in a lot of different ways. But
• 8:37
  like you said, we'll end up going down that political rabbit hole, so
• 8:39
  we won't do that right right now. But yeah, I just wanted to
• 8:43
  let folks know that just not going to be as active on Twitter on x
• 8:48
  so, not going to be as active. But one more thing, len
• 8:50
  before we get into some Baseball Hall of Fame talk and Phillies talk to get
• 8:56
  the show started, I wanted to let folks know that, as you know,
• 9:00
  every year around this time we start promoting our friends over at the Redding
• 9:03
  Hot Stovers their annual banquet. Go to Redding Hotstovers baseball dot com if you
• 9:09
  want to attend. Billy Wagner is going to be there this year, by
• 9:13
  the way, Thursday, January eighteenth, twenty twenty four. There's it's always
• 9:18
  a great time. You can get your tickets. Tickets are eighty five dollars
• 9:22
  for the event. Not one hundred percent sure who the other two guests are
• 9:26
  going to be, but it's always a fun time. They had. They
• 9:31
  have a silent auction, which is great. Just so much cool memorabilia that
• 9:35
  you can get and you can just hear from baseball greats of the past.
• 9:39
  Who are there, I mean Ricky Batalico I have met before. I mean
• 9:43
  there are just so many. Not that Ricky Battalico was like some sort of
• 9:46
  baseball great. Uh, that kind of came out wrong, didn't it,
• 9:50
  Lanta. I mean, hey, he made it, he made a living.
• 9:52
  I mean, yes, you know you got a lot of help a
• 9:56
  lot for it, and a lot of people do in their in their baseball
• 9:58
  careers. Yeah, we've the last time you were there, Lynn, who
• 10:01
  was do you remember who we were interviewing and who useful? The last time
• 10:05
  you were here. The name was the big name was Fergie Jenkins. Fergie
• 10:07
  Jenkins baby. Yep. Absolutely, it was great meeting him talking with him.
• 10:13
  Unfortunately, the PSC podcast show is not going to be able to be
• 10:16
  out there again. Thursday, January eighteenth, twenty twenty four. I'm going
• 10:20
  to be assuming public office and I am going to have a meeting that evening,
• 10:24
  which kind of kind of stinks in terms of being able to attend the
• 10:28
  Redding Hot Stover's annual banquet. But again, folks, it's a great,
• 10:31
  great event, and what the funds go toward are scholarships for baseball and softball
• 10:39
  athletes, high school athletes that are getting ready to go to college. So
• 10:41
  that's what the proceeds from this event go towards. Again, reading Hotstovers baseball
• 10:46
  dot Com, we love our friends over there, good people doing things for
• 10:50
  a good cause. So let's stick I guess with a little baseball talk here,
• 10:54
  lenn. As we get into the show, we got Chase Suttley.
• 10:58
  He's on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. He's joining Jimmy
• 11:03
  Rollins, Bobby Abray, you, Billy Wagner as former Phillies that are on
• 11:07
  the ballot this year, and I guess the real question is are any of
• 11:11
  these players going to actually make it in? And for Jimmy Rollins, what
• 11:16
  is this? This is his this will be his third time, third year
• 11:20
  right. He received twelve point nine percent of the vote in his second year
• 11:24
  on the ballot. And as we know, Jimmy Rollins leads the league in
• 11:28
  triples. They did that four times in his career, including twenty during his
• 11:33
  MVP season four in two thousand and seven when he was on the Phillies.
• 11:39
  Here he led the league and played appearances at bats, runs, and triples
• 11:43
  while playing in all one hundred and sixty two games that year as well.
• 11:48
  Chase Utley his career slashed two seventy five, three point fifty eight, four
• 11:54
  sixty five with one eight hundred and eight hundred Oh my gosh, I can't
• 11:58
  even talk tonight was eight hundred and eighty five hits, four hundred eleven doubles,
• 12:03
  two hundred and fifty nine home runs, one thy twenty five RBIs,
• 12:07
  one one hundred and three runs, and one hundred and fifty four stolen bases.
• 12:13
  Three top ten finishes in MVP voting, but never higher than seventh so
• 12:18
  it's an interesting career both of these guys had. I think it would be
• 12:22
  so cool, and I don't think it's gonna happen. But because of who
• 12:26
  they were on those Phillies teams, Len and the duo that they were in
• 12:33
  terms of a shortstop and a second baseman working in conjunction with each other,
• 12:37
  they were two guys that motivated each other. They led in different ways in
• 12:41
  terms of their leadership, just both winning type of guys. And I've always
• 12:46
  said this about Hall of Fame candidates, and it doesn't matter which Hall of
• 12:48
  Fame it is, if you contributed to the story of that sport, then
• 12:52
  I think you deserve to be in. And quite frankly, and yes I'm
• 12:54
  being biased, I think both of these gentlemen deserve to be in the Hall
• 12:58
  of Fame for sure, And don't don't know if it's gonna happen with both
• 13:03
  of them, and certainly an argument could be made for Bobby Abray as well,
• 13:07
  but I'd love to see both of them, and I don't necessarily think
• 13:11
  it's gonna happen again Jimmy Rollins only getting twelve point nine percent of the vote
• 13:15
  last year, I don't know what are your thoughts here in terms of Chase
• 13:18
  Utley and just where there's ballotmet go this year, we're talking about four different
• 13:24
  guys, so I think it's maybe best to go guy by guy here.
• 13:28
  Ok So, where do you want to start? I would say, so
• 13:31
  let's start with Chase Utley, just because he is the new guy here.
• 13:33
  You know, he's the first year on the ballot. Okay, So basically
• 13:39
  the interesting thing with me here because he's not gonna he's not gonna be a
• 13:43
  first ballot Hall of Famer, right, not even close, I don't think
• 13:46
  so. But the interesting thing to me because so many of these guys,
• 13:52
  and we'll get to a guy that you know has has experienced this in just
• 13:56
  a bit, but so many of these guys, Okay, they have their
• 13:58
  first year on the ballot, and I think you need five percent to stay
• 14:01
  on the ballot, and so you get that, and you most of these
• 14:05
  guys just get a little bit more and more and more each year until they
• 14:09
  get to a point where maybe they're close. So to me, the interesting
• 14:13
  thing will be where does Chase Utley come in at? Does he come in
• 14:16
  at six percent to start? Does he come in at twelve percent to start.
• 14:20
  If he comes into like twelve percent to start, then maybe you're looking
• 14:26
  at a trajectory there, because you know, over time, you know,
• 14:28
  people look at things differently, they look at players differently, and they change
• 14:33
  their arguments. Somebody that you know, sports writers didn't vote for their first
• 14:37
  or second or fourth time on the ballot, maybe by year eight or nine,
• 14:41
  they're getting voted for every year by those guys. So the entry point
• 14:46
  for Utley will be interesting to me because it's the guy that you know,
• 14:50
  you look at his stats, is counting stats. He doesn't have two thousand
• 14:54
  hits, right, he doesn't have three hundred home runs, he doesn't have
• 14:56
  a lot of things. He doesn't have an MVP award to name, So
• 15:01
  there's a lot of things there that like, you know, you know,
• 15:05
  this guy on the surface doesn't look like a Hall of Famer if you're going
• 15:09
  by that. But then you have a counter argument of was he the best
• 15:13
  player at his position in his era? Yeah, and in his area you're
• 15:16
  looking at him or Robinson Cano or the Yankees who ended up having two substitute
• 15:22
  you know, steroid violations against him, yep, So that maybe knocks him
• 15:26
  down and maybe that does make Chase Utley the best second basement of his era.
• 15:31
  I think that's his best argument at this point. That and the postseason,
• 15:35
  that the clutch play, you know, the stuff that you can't measure,
• 15:39
  the headiness on the field, the respect he had, the hustle,
• 15:43
  all those things that you can't quite measure. You know. Maybe that's an
• 15:48
  argument too, But to me, his best argument is he was the best
• 15:52
  second basement of his era. I don't know if that'll be enough. I
• 15:56
  would put his in this ten year window, his odds of getting in at
• 16:04
  I would say forty. Okay, I just I just don't know. When
• 16:12
  you're talking about his era, you're talking about what two thousand and three to
• 16:15
  twenty fifteen or so, or when he was still with because he went with
• 16:19
  the Jet Dodgers in twenty fifteen through twenty eighteen, I believe, right.
• 16:26
  I mean, you're just looking at the era in which he was a viable,
• 16:30
  decent player every year. So yeah, maybe two thousand and three to
• 16:36
  you know, maybe twenty fifteen was his last you know, decent year.
• 16:42
  So I think that's a baseball career is a baseball again. He is with
• 16:48
  what he might end up being one of those Hall of very Good players that
• 16:53
  I think it is quite possible to happen. And believe me, do I
• 16:56
  want him in. Yes, what I vote for him because I'm out of
• 17:00
  the Homer thing. Yes, But I'm just trying to look objectively at this
• 17:06
  and you know what happens in the Hall of Fame. But that's why I
• 17:08
  think his first percentage of the vote that he gets is important because I think
• 17:15
  it'll build off of that. Okay, very good Jimmy Rollins. Like I
• 17:18
  mentioned twelve point nine percent last year when it was his second year on the
• 17:22
  ballot. What are you thinking in terms of him at this point? So
• 17:26
  he's kind of got some different stuff here. He does have an MVP Award,
• 17:32
  yep, he you know, in terms of counting stats, Okay,
• 17:36
  he didn't get to twenty five hundred hits, but he is the all time
• 17:38
  leader for his club in hits, so maybe that counts or something. But
• 17:45
  he's not the best shortstop of his era. He was always in Jeter shadow,
• 17:48
  and I'm just I'm trying to think of who all with shortstops in that
• 17:52
  time. But when you thought of who is the best shortstop in baseball.
• 17:56
  You never really thought of Jimmy Rowins outside maybe that two thousand and seven season.
• 18:03
  You know, he had his other you know things in terms of you
• 18:07
  know, the things you don't measure on the field, the leadership, yep,
• 18:10
  the worthy team to beat thing that that he had that kind of took
• 18:14
  pressure off everybody else because he became the heat magnet. Maybe people look at
• 18:17
  that, but to me, having that award, that MVP award, and
• 18:21
  maybe some of the numbers kind of maybe skew a little bit more. But
• 18:26
  he's another one that I think is going to end up being haul of very
• 18:30
  good. Okay, all right, sounds good. I would put him at
• 18:33
  like and and now we at least have a track record of Jimmy Rowinds in
• 18:37
  terms of voting. So you look at his okay, two thousand and two
• 18:41
  or twenty twenty two, first year on the ballot nine point four percent,
• 18:45
  twenty twenty three, twelve point nine. I would have hoped for a little
• 18:48
  bit more of a jump, but you know, hey, maybe he gets
• 18:51
  a little bit more this year and we'll see where we're at. All right,
• 18:53
  Well, let's move on to Bobby and Bray. You here a fifth
• 18:56
  year on the ballot here, I think in twenty twenty three he received or
• 19:03
  no, it's a sixth year. I think, isn't it sixth year?
• 19:06
  I think, oh, it is his fifth year. Okay, fifth Yeah,
• 19:07
  last year he received fifteen point four percent of the vote. What are
• 19:14
  what are we thinking in terms of this year? I mean, two time
• 19:15
  All Star, two thousand and four Silver Slugger, two thousand and five Golden
• 19:22
  Glove Award winner, He's got two ninety one batting average in his career,
• 19:27
  three ninety five OBP, two hundred and eighty eight home runs. I mean
• 19:33
  his hits are almost at twenty five hundred, two thousand, four hundred and
• 19:37
  seventy one thousand, three hundred and sixty three RBIs and four hundred stolen bases.
• 19:41
  What are your thoughts on where that percentage goes that fifteen point four this
• 19:47
  coming year? I mean, it'll it'll jump, maybe he gets to twenty.
• 19:52
  But he is another one where I like anytime I see an argument,
• 19:55
  and I've read I read the Hall of Fame, you know columns every year.
• 19:59
  This is who I've voted for, and this is why. And I
• 20:02
  don't see a lot on Bobby A Bray of people voting for him, But
• 20:04
  whenever I whenever I do see it, like I think Jason Stark has you
• 20:08
  know, maybe mentioned him once or twice, all of the stats are sabermetric
• 20:15
  inclined, like, you know, yeah, he has decent counting stats.
• 20:18
  He's got almost twenty five hundred hits, He's got two hundred and eighty eight
• 20:22
  career home runs, things like that, but a lot of the you know,
• 20:25
  the things with Bobby Abray you that I see are you know, like
• 20:29
  the sabermetric numbers are kinder to him. So maybe like his best hope for
• 20:36
  me is as we get you know, more of the new school baseball writers
• 20:41
  that follow the sabermetric thing, maybe that kind of bodes well for him.
• 20:45
  I don't know if he'll have enough because he also, unfortunately for him,
• 20:51
  he did not have the track record of you know, Okay, Rollin's and
• 20:55
  Utley won a World championship, and Utley we're on a team that was basically,
• 21:00
  you know, a dynasty in the National League for a period of time.
• 21:04
  Bobby A. Bray was not on a winning you know, he just
• 21:08
  wasn't a part of that winning era of Phillies. Well, yeah, I
• 21:14
  mean he was. He was out of Philadelphia by then. Yeah, he
• 21:15
  was at Philadelphia by two thousand, by the end of two thousand and six,
• 21:21
  right, so he missed that championship window. He played it. He
• 21:25
  appeared in the playoffs four times, in nineteen ninety seven with the Astros,
• 21:27
  two thousand and six and two thousand and seven with the Yankees, in two
• 21:30
  thousand and nine with the Angels, But in those in all of those postseason
• 21:37
  appearances, I mean, he was no more than a supporting cast member on
• 21:41
  any of those teams. You know, nobody ever wrote, you know,
• 21:44
  a Bray you led so and so to the postseason. That's not part of
• 21:48
  his narrative. Yeah, no, definitely not. And that that's why I
• 21:52
  like, out of the out of the four guys that we're going to talk
• 21:56
  about here, Bobby A Bray far and away to me, has the least
• 22:02
  chance of getting in. I think. I mean, like I said,
• 22:06
  utterly forty percent. Ron's maybe thirty five, maybe closer to forty. Yeah,
• 22:11
  Bray, you I like ten percent. I don't think he really has
• 22:18
  I don't really think that he has it much of a chance. Well,
• 22:22
  that leads us to Billy Wagner, it still isn't in the Hall of Fame.
• 22:26
  And that's an issue. That is a problem. It really is.
• 22:30
  He's got to get in. So the whole kind of thing that when I
• 22:36
  talked about in the beginning, Okay, here's where you enter yep, Incrementally,
• 22:41
  year after year after year. You know, the arguments change and people's
• 22:45
  perceptions change, and you you know, you get more and more. So
• 22:49
  you know, let's look at his numbers. Okay, ten point five,
• 22:53
  ten point two, eleven point one, sixteen point seven, then a jump
• 22:59
  in year five to one point jump yep, then to jump again forty six
• 23:03
  point four, then jump again to fifty one point zero, and then last
• 23:07
  year in his like iuess it's eighth year of eligibility, sixty eight point one,
• 23:11
  you need seventy five. Yes, there's a chance. And I think
• 23:15
  Billy Wagner gets in. If not this year, I think he gets in
• 23:18
  next year. He keeps trending upward. More and more people I see,
• 23:22
  you know, voting for him. I think maybe this year, maybe he
• 23:29
  gets in. You have to see who else is on the ballot, and
• 23:33
  that because you know, new guys come on their slam dunk first ballot Hall
• 23:36
  of Famers. Yeah, and that pushes everybody else back a little bit.
• 23:38
  I don't know if there are any believers though, you know what I mean
• 23:41
  with the point the resume that he has. Yeah, and you know,
• 23:47
  the perception of relievers is much more accepted than it used to be in the
• 23:51
  past. Like it's it's seen as okay, these are guys that will put
• 23:55
  in the Hall of Fame now where back in the day it was like,
• 23:57
  what, no, we're not putting a one in guy in the Hall of
• 24:00
  Fame. But you know, Billy Wagner, you know, you talk about
• 24:03
  the counting stats. Four hundred and twenty two career saves, that's sixth all
• 24:07
  time. Yeah, so that right there, and you know a guy that
• 24:10
  was like, you know, I remember when he came to Philadelphia and it
• 24:12
  was like the first time you saw a guy that was like one hundred every
• 24:17
  pitch and people were like, oh my god, I've never seen anything like
• 24:21
  this before. I definitely remember that, like it's just people being wowed by
• 24:26
  that. So I think that he has a good shot. I think the
• 24:30
  counting numbers are there. I think the groundswell of support is there. If
• 24:36
  it's not this year. I think it's next year and then if it's if
• 24:40
  not, then then you know, maybe when they do that you know thing
• 24:42
  down the line where they vote on these guys like that committee and it's not
• 24:47
  to the baseball writers anymore, Yeah, you know, maybe then they kind
• 24:49
  of back door their way in that way. But yeah, I think of
• 24:53
  all of all of them, Billy Wagner, hands down, has the best
• 24:56
  shot. Nice. All right, well, we'd love to know what you're
• 25:00
  thinking out there, Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We'd love to read your
• 25:03
  email here on the show and respond to it. Got some emails that are
• 25:07
  in the can about some stuff that Eric and I specifically we're talking about,
• 25:12
  and we're gonna get to those in future shows. Just to let you all
• 25:17
  know out there, you dedicated listeners of the PST podcast show, and let
• 25:22
  as we're moving along here with some Phillies talk here really quick. It really
• 25:25
  seems to be like this this organization is going to have a lower key type
• 25:30
  of off season here. I mean, we're hot stove season has started throughout
• 25:33
  Major League Baseball, and it really seems like what the front office is going
• 25:40
  to do is they're going to it looks like they're not targeting like top flight
• 25:45
  pitchers like Blake Snell and Josh Hater. In fact, from all reports,
• 25:49
  they haven't even spoken to or inquired about Juan Soto at this point. Yamamoto,
• 25:56
  they're not bidding in the highest range, according to Matt Gill from The
• 26:00
  Athletic And at this point it seems like they're basically gonna let the larger pieces
• 26:06
  fall off the board and then add some complimentary players when prices drop. So
• 26:11
  I think it's gonna be a while before we really see the Phillies acquire anyone.
• 26:15
  They signed Aaron Nola, which was which was huge in terms of the
• 26:19
  pitching staff not letting him get away. And you know they're gonna be running
• 26:25
  it back basically with the talent that they have. They may bring in a
• 26:27
  few pieces here or there again after a lot of these bigger pieces come off
• 26:33
  the board. So I don't know. I think, you know, I
• 26:36
  think this team is sitting sitting okay right now? Yeah, I mean Nola
• 26:41
  is there. I think at this point he's their big splurge. I mean
• 26:45
  what, I God, I would love to think got Yamamoto, but I
• 26:48
  just don't see it, even even like spending on a guy like Jordan Montgomery,
• 26:52
  I would be super happy about it. I think I think they should
• 26:57
  get another starter. I don't think they will, or if they do,
• 27:02
  they're gonna go bargain hunting yep, which you know, who knows, maybe
• 27:04
  it works out, Probably won't, but maybe it does. But yeah,
• 27:08
  they're I don't know, it's it's gonna be a boring offseason. If you
• 27:14
  want them make a splash, I think outside of Nolan, I think you're
• 27:17
  going to be disappointed. They absolutely all Right, Well, we want to
• 27:21
  get into now before we get to our first break here, we want to
• 27:25
  make sure we talk about this Philadelphia Flyers team land as we're shifting over from
• 27:30
  baseball talk to the ice and the fact that this Flyers team they're just not
• 27:36
  what we expected. I mean, we're talking about a team that's been fun
• 27:38
  to watch. You know that they're playing balls to the wall every night,
• 27:42
  regardless of wins and losses. They're leaving arenas you know, basically with their
• 27:48
  head held high consistently night after night, again, regardless of wins or losses.
• 27:52
  This is a team that again has been fun to watch. And you
• 27:56
  can go back in our podcast feed the Table Talk show. I spoke with
• 27:59
  the Ryan Gilbert from Broadstreet Hockey dot Com and the Hockey Gambling Podcast and it
• 28:06
  was a great conversation. But man, so far, Land, this team
• 28:11
  is basically, you know what what John Tortorella just recently said one of his
• 28:15
  infamous quotes. We know he has a lot of them, but after the
• 28:18
  Penguins game, he said, we won this game because we have balls,
• 28:22
  And certainly this is a team that's playing like that. And and we're really
• 28:26
  figuring out a lot of different pieces of this team as the trajectory is moving
• 28:30
  forward with this rebuild. And it's just been a really fun season to watch
• 28:34
  so far. It has been, and I you know, I'm you know,
• 28:41
  may piss some people off that hear this, you know, like I
• 28:47
  did. Like I love what they're doing. I love the way they're playing.
• 28:49
  They're they're successful to a certain extent so far, but there is like
• 28:53
  this just this still little nagging bit of me that's like, do you really
• 28:59
  have have all the high end talent that you need yet? Right? If
• 29:04
  if they were bad this year and got a better pick, wouldn't they be
• 29:10
  better served doing that? Like, you know, I don't know. I
• 29:14
  mean, and again point, if you want to tell me I'm wrong,
• 29:18
  I certainly get it, because you know, nobody wants to live through the
• 29:22
  past couple of years of just watching them get their their skulls caved in every
• 29:26
  night. It's it's rough. I know it. I know it's rough.
• 29:30
  So if you're you know, if you're disagreeing with me, there, trust
• 29:33
  me, I get it. But I just like, yeah, I'm excited
• 29:37
  about Cattergchier and I'm excited about Mitchkoff, but I'm just like, is it
• 29:42
  enough? Like do you need like one more high end guy, whether it's
• 29:47
  on the on the blue line or as a forward before like we we have
• 29:51
  enough high end pieces in place. I just don't know for theirs. But
• 29:55
  you know, outside of that, it's hard to look at this season and
• 29:59
  not being car urged by by the leap that some players have made. And
• 30:04
  you know, you look at a guy like Travis Sanheim that was terrible last
• 30:07
  year for lack of absolutely terrible, he's been He's been really good. You
• 30:14
  know you've seen I mean just night and day Katurier. I didn't think he
• 30:18
  would come back and you know, be able to play at this level.
• 30:22
  I really didn't a guy like Sean Walker who was like, you know,
• 30:27
  k twenty nine year old defense, but we know what he is at this
• 30:30
  point in the league. He's been really good and if they do decide to
• 30:34
  sell, he's a guy that's going to get them something, which I would
• 30:38
  have never guessed. And then you look at the kids like Forrester and York
• 30:44
  and tip It guys like that, and you're just like, man like,
• 30:47
  I'm seeing genuine progress out of these guys. So it's it's been super encouraging
• 30:52
  this season so far. So from that standpoint, I know that, you
• 30:56
  know, I kind of am contradicting myself here, but I can see both
• 31:00
  sides of it. Look, they're they're fun to watch, They're they're just
• 31:03
  better there. It's so much of a better product, they really are.
• 31:10
  And I think, going back to my discussion with Ryan Gilbert this past week
• 31:14
  on the table talk show Lend, the one thing that we really talked about,
• 31:17
  and I think this team has struck a balance with as well, is
• 31:19
  the aggressiveness at which they are playing this year, which we have not seen
• 31:23
  in a long time, specifically last year. But the aggressiveness that they're bringing
• 31:29
  to the ice just about every night. I think it's allowing them from a
• 31:32
  talent perspective to to I don't want to say, just develop more, but
• 31:37
  understanding their own game. And in terms of understanding their own game, as
• 31:42
  they're being aggressive, perhaps new doors of opportunity are opening for them from a
• 31:48
  talent level. Oh my gosh, we're being aggressive. Now I'm able to
• 31:52
  do this. You know, whether you are a defenseman or whether you are
• 31:56
  a forward, whatever that is. I think the aggressiveness of this team that
• 32:00
  has been lacking for so long that's there right now is opening up doors of
• 32:04
  opportunity for this team. And not just individually too, but whether they're trying
• 32:08
  to run certain plays. You know, look, the power play still stinks.
• 32:12
  Penalty kill is fantastic. That really good. The dichotomy of those eighth
• 32:15
  in the league, Yes they are, it's incredible. So, I mean,
• 32:20
  regardless, the aggressiveness at which they're playing is not only welcomed, but
• 32:23
  I think it's allowing them to develop even more. Yeah, and and they've
• 32:28
  they've gotten out of, you know, some of the bad habits that they
• 32:31
  just had. You know, Torderell's I mean, to his credit, you
• 32:35
  know, you can think what you want about the guy, you know,
• 32:39
  in terms of the way he you know, he deals with the media,
• 32:42
  the way he deals with certain players. You know, is he a little
• 32:45
  bit too much of a hard ass sometimes, but you know he's he's ironed
• 32:50
  out a lot of the fundamentals that were lacking even as recent as last year.
• 32:57
  It's just not the sloppy, careless that you've seen over the past couple
• 33:00
  of years exactly. All right, Well, we hope you've been enjoying the
• 33:05
  show here, and if you're new to listening to us, subscribe on whatever
• 33:07
  podcast platform you're on. We'd appreciate that. Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
• 33:12
  rate and review the show as well, and if anything does happen to your
• 33:15
  podcast feed, you can always head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com.
• 33:19
  We've got all of our shows over there, and again we'd like to
• 33:21
  hear from you in terms of the subject matters we're talking about, or if
• 33:23
  there's anything in the world of sports or Philly sports in particular that you'd like
• 33:28
  to talk about. Email us Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. And
• 33:31
  also you can follow us on the social sites. I said earlier that you
• 33:36
  know, gonna maybe be pulling things back in terms of the Twitter x stuff.
• 33:40
  So I'm on Threads and I've been enjoying some of my time over there,
• 33:45
  mister Jeff Warren, which is also my Instagram handle as well, And
• 33:50
  yeah, the show you can follow on Threads as well, Philadelphia Sports Table.
• 33:53
  You can search us out there. Len, do you want to promo
• 33:58
  Twitter? I mean I don't care, O cares at Len Hunsicker if you
• 34:05
  want, just because I know you're not on the other social media sites right
• 34:07
  at this point. Yeah, yeah, I mean Threads or what is blue
• 34:13
  Sky want? Like, I don't know, I I even Yeah, I've
• 34:15
  not even attempted a foray into either of those. I tried blue Sky for
• 34:20
  a little bit. I tried Mast to Don for a little bit. I
• 34:22
  was like, all right, because when blue Sky you need a certain code.
• 34:27
  You need to be given a code. And I knew somebody that had
• 34:29
  a code, and he was like, do you want me to give it
• 34:30
  to you? And I'm like, yeah, sure, let's try this out.
• 34:32
  I tried it out for a few weeks and I was like I was
• 34:35
  like, no, why, Like why would you want to make it more
• 34:39
  difficult to someone for someone to sign up to your social media service exactly.
• 34:44
  Like I know, I know, like I am not technicologically inclined that much
• 34:50
  at all. I'm not a big I'm not one of these people that spends
• 34:52
  a lot of time on social media. I see people that spend most of
• 34:55
  their day on social media, and for the life of me, I'll I'll
• 35:00
  never understand those people. Right, But even someone like me can look at
• 35:04
  that model and go, well, why are you making it harder for people
• 35:07
  to get on your site? Exactly? Gosh, Well, we are going
• 35:12
  to take a quick break to pay some bills, folks. We will be
• 35:15
  back in just a bit. We're gonna get in some Philadelphia Union talk,
• 35:17
  some college football playoff talk, and some Eagles talk. Stick with us,
• 35:22
  We'll be right back. All right, we are back, Len. It
• 35:25
  is great to be able to talk to you specifically about the Philadelphia Union,
• 35:30
  and you know, usually when you're on the show, we're able to do
• 35:32
  that as Eric could not care less about soccer and MLS. So as many
• 35:39
  of us know that do follow the Philadelphia Union, they are out of the
• 35:43
  playoffs that it was a The letdown of this season was slow. It was
• 35:47
  long, but it's finally over. They lost to Cincinnati this past Saturday night.
• 35:52
  And it was a bizarre season, certainly, not like the twenty twenty
• 35:57
  two season where they were a dominant team where the attention was really focused all
• 36:01
  in one direction. Twenty twenty three rolls around. It's a year where it
• 36:07
  was a combination of you know, Major League Soccer just kind of overshooting with
• 36:12
  their new partnership with Apple, and just a bizarre slow again. You know,
• 36:17
  I don't want to say miserable let down, but it was just it
• 36:21
  was just a letdown in general with this season. When the last time you
• 36:23
  were on we were talking about the fact that the first round of the playoffs
• 36:28
  where it was you know, it was like a best out of three,
• 36:30
  and you were like, you know, what are they doing with this here?
• 36:32
  And you kind of had this feeling that this team who was going into
• 36:37
  Cincinnati as well, uh, without without their best player playing because he directed
• 36:43
  a racial slur and an opponent earlier in the playoffs, and the captain being
• 36:45
  run out of town for no good reason playing his last minutes for the team.
• 36:51
  You know, it just it just wasn't a good end to this season.
• 36:55
  And they're gonna need to reach tool. They're gonna there's gonna be needing
• 36:59
  some retooling done during this offseason, for sure. So I don't know what
• 37:04
  what are your thoughts and reflections on the Union's twenty twenty three season. I
• 37:09
  mean, I don't know. I mean they got to I mean I was
• 37:15
  hoping for a little bit more, obviously, but like it just felt like
• 37:20
  even in the early and middle parts of the season, it didn't seem like
• 37:24
  there was like they had it like like it like it felt like this season
• 37:29
  before, like in twenty twenty two, Like it was excidedly different feeling to
• 37:35
  me than than what happened in twenty two. So, I mean, I
• 37:39
  you could kind of, I don't know, they had that that that smell
• 37:43
  early on of like they're not going to be as good as they were last
• 37:46
  year. So given where they ended up, given you know, getting knocked
• 37:50
  out in the semis of the Eastern Conference, is kind of about what I
• 37:55
  expected. I mean, they want a playoff round, which is great,
• 38:00
  but they were going up against the number one seed in their conference in Cincinnati,
• 38:04
  who then lost in the conference finals to Columbus. But yeah, I
• 38:07
  mean that they got to about to where I thought they would get. But
• 38:13
  now you just, I don't know. You look forward and it's like,
• 38:16
  okay, is there going to be even more transition. I thought that Alejandra
• 38:22
  Badoya, their captain, and Kaile Wagner, their their best defender, were
• 38:29
  as good as gone after the season. Now they're talking, at least to
• 38:31
  Badoia again about bringing him back. They are gonna maybe try to sign Wagner,
• 38:37
  which that might be too little, too late. I think that he
• 38:43
  will probably get interest over in Europe, and I think I think he will.
• 38:47
  And then Julian Carnza as well, one of their forwards. He is
• 38:52
  another one who's who's gonna get a lot of interest over in Europe. And
• 38:55
  I think both those guys are gone, and that, you know, kind
• 38:59
  of makes you think, okay, what's happening next year in terms of you
• 39:04
  know, where's the punch coming from? You still have Daniel gilesdog, which
• 39:07
  is great, but you you almost and you still have Michael Uwa, who
• 39:14
  you know, I don't know. I I thought we were gonna get more
• 39:16
  out of him when from when he first came over. But you kind of
• 39:22
  wonder if okay, the guys they bring up through their academy. You know
• 39:25
  the guy a guy like Quinn Sullivan. Are the young guys like Quinn Sullivan
• 39:30
  and Chris Donovan and Jack McGlynn. Are those guys that you know are going
• 39:37
  to be the future of this team in terms of, you know, adding
• 39:39
  some scoring punch because it's got to come from somewhere, and I don't quite
• 39:44
  know where it's going to be. And you know, I don't pay attention
• 39:46
  to the Union's junior program, so I don't you know, maybe they have
• 39:52
  a couple guys in their academy that are coming up that are going to be
• 39:55
  good players that they're gonna that are gonna play for them. The Unions EMMA
• 40:00
  across you know, Major League Soccer is they don't spend a lot of money,
• 40:04
  but they're constantly churning out good, good kids out of their academy that
• 40:07
  go on to play for the Union and do well and then go on to
• 40:10
  Europe, which is great. I mean, it's great to be seen as
• 40:14
  that kind of organization, but that pipeline's got to keep coming then, so
• 40:19
  in order for them to be successful going forward, because they're not inner Miami,
• 40:23
  who's signing messy and and you know Rasquats and even that, I think
• 40:29
  they're they're talking about signing Louis Suarez, and it's just like, where where
• 40:32
  do they have all this money from that? Nobody else in the league is
• 40:37
  doing this yet, yet they're getting all these famous soccer players. I don't
• 40:43
  understand how one team is doing that and nobody else is doing it. I
• 40:46
  I don't understand enough about this about MLS's you know, salary system or whatever
• 40:52
  with the designated players. But I don't know. I don't know what's happening
• 40:57
  there. But look, the Union are notoriously known as a team that's not
• 41:00
  a big spender there. They're promoting from within. That's their mo and you
• 41:06
  know, eventually, you just hope that that the that the well doesn't run
• 41:09
  dry, because if it does, they're screwed because they're not going to spend
• 41:13
  their way to to you know, prominence exactly. I mean you look at
• 41:17
  some of the younger talent too, you know, who may have had some
• 41:21
  promise with this team. Andres Perea, you know, he showed early promise,
• 41:25
  but he fell into curtain's doghouse early and he was loaned away, you
• 41:31
  know. So I mean you take a look at what this team is,
• 41:35
  what they need, and I think this team still has enough talent returning in
• 41:39
  twenty twenty four to be relevant again. But but it's one of those things
• 41:45
  where it's like, well, how far are they really going to go?
• 41:46
  You know, It's like, yeah, I think they're going to be relevant,
• 41:50
  and I think in the Eastern Conference they're certainly not going to be a
• 41:52
  bottom team with the talent they have. But but they're they're they're going to
• 41:57
  need to make some moves. And again you talking about that particular, you
• 42:00
  know, talking about their their development of younger players. We're gonna need to
• 42:05
  see that this coming season if they're if they're gonna make any sort of contention,
• 42:08
  Yeah, it's gotta happen because I mean, again, they're not big
• 42:13
  spenders. It's notice who they are, right all right? Well, uh,
• 42:16
  that's enough soccer talk, Enough Philadelphia Union talk, now, Len,
• 42:22
  let's get into some college football playoff talk. Holy cow, you would have
• 42:25
  thought the world was gonna end this past week in the college football world when
• 42:30
  undefeated Florida State did not get into the college football playoff and yet Alabama,
• 42:37
  who has one loss on the season, they did, and it's interesting and
• 42:43
  I put in the I put in our agenda here, len you know,
• 42:46
  is the college football playoff of sham and stuff. And I think what's interesting
• 42:51
  is that, you know, we're finally seeing I think, and we've probably
• 42:54
  have seen it before, just how you know what, the record really doesn't
• 43:00
  necessarily mean one hundred percent that you're going to be getting in, and we're
• 43:04
  certainly seeing that this season. And I do wonder if this is a reflection
• 43:07
  of last year's dud of a national championship game, that Georgia TCU game.
• 43:13
  If you remember, folks, my gosh, it was what a terrible game
• 43:16
  it was. What was it? Sixty five to seven? I think I
• 43:20
  know TCU only had one touchdown. It was terrible. And it's interesting to
• 43:25
  see where this college playoff is going because I'll tell you right now, the
• 43:30
  twelve team playoff structure that's coming right around the corner. Whoo. It is
• 43:36
  desperately needed to reboot this college football playoffs. Oh my gosh, Lynd.
• 43:40
  But like, honestly, I feel bad for Florida State. I really do.
• 43:45
  And I never thought i'd say that in my lifetime, given how I
• 43:47
  hated Florida State. In the nineties so much. But look, they were
• 43:52
  undefeated. Alabama gets in with a loss. It's uh, this is how
• 43:57
  businesses run. I guess, right, buddy, Well, before we get
• 44:00
  into it, I guess I want to ask you. You know, Okay,
• 44:04
  you are the playoff selection committee this year? Who are your four teams?
• 44:09
  My fourth team would have been Florida State, It would have been been
• 44:13
  the other three, And it would have been Florida State too, because the
• 44:15
  record is the record. Yes, they're not going to have a certain they're
• 44:17
  not going to have Why why are you playing a regular season? Yeah?
• 44:22
  Exactly. If that's what you're gonna do. If you're gonna have a team
• 44:24
  that goes undefeated and wins their conference and you're you're not gonna let them in,
• 44:30
  why did you even bother playing a regular season? It's a business decision
• 44:35
  here, That's what it is and and and it is and we're gonna get
• 44:38
  into that. But but you mentioned something that I also feel in that it's
• 44:43
  it's funny to me because it creates, uh, you know, the phrase
• 44:46
  of strange bedfellows. Florida State, like you is a team that I really
• 44:52
  have never liked yet I feel bad for them. Yeah, Michigan is a
• 44:55
  team that I despise. Yet I hope they beat Alabama by thirty honestly,
• 45:02
  And I know you're probably never going to feel that way because you hate Horrible
• 45:07
  so much. I hope they embarrass the hell out of Alabama. I don't
• 45:13
  understand why we have to have an SEC team like it's their birthright, right.
• 45:19
  I'm sorry, I just I just don't. I don't get it.
• 45:22
  And that to me is Greg Sank, the commissioner of the SEC, and
• 45:28
  the relationship of TV and money between the SEC and ESPN. I think all
• 45:36
  of that pull and influence. I think it's politics and that's why that happened.
• 45:39
  So it's funny because like I'm getting worked up over like, there's so
• 45:46
  few of these teams that I actually like. The only team in this four
• 45:52
  that I don't completely outright dislike is Washington. Washington, right, Washington to
• 45:57
  win because probably because they're the furthest away and they're the you know, basically
• 46:01
  the you know, the least and any and even them like leave like leaving
• 46:06
  the PAC twelve and you know, being like, well wait a minute,
• 46:10
  we want to do this injunction against you know, Oregon State and Washington State.
• 46:14
  We don't want them having all the decision making power in the Pac twelve,
• 46:17
  even though we're leaving, like go screw yet that school is the most
• 46:23
  palatable option to me. That that tells you everything you need to know about
• 46:28
  college football. Absolutely. Look, I'm with you, especially with regard to
• 46:31
  Michigan because like this, this is my like fantasy dream here. Even though
• 46:37
  Michigan's gonna be on the football field, I'm gonna make believe it's another team.
• 46:39
  I'm just gonna make believe. I'm gonna make believe it's like Coastal Carolina
• 46:43
  or something or like LSU. I don't care. I'm just gonna make believe
• 46:45
  it's another team against Alabama, and maybe I can root for them because I
• 46:51
  hate I mean, I hate Alabama too. I would love to see whoever
• 46:54
  Alabama's opponent is beat them. But I hate it. It's Harbaugh. I
• 46:59
  hate it. Yeah, I mean, under almost any other circumstances, i'd
• 47:02
  be rooting against Michigan. But in this game, and listen, they don't
• 47:07
  have a great track record in the playoffs, so who knows me, maybe
• 47:09
  they trip over themselves again and lose. That's entirely possible. But yeah,
• 47:15
  god, I I I want them to curb stop Alabama. The old the
• 47:22
  old. Uh. Maybe I shouldn't even mention this. I was gonna say
• 47:24
  the old American history acts. Yeah, yeah, I I yeah, I
• 47:30
  have. I'm I'm so just so fatigued with the SEC. I just and
• 47:38
  I know culturally that that is the heart of college football. You know,
• 47:44
  those those people down there in the small towns, they don't have pro sports
• 47:49
  to root for, and it's the you know, the culmination of the rooting
• 47:52
  interest. So I get it. I get that down there, it's more
• 47:55
  of a quote unquote religion. But I just I'm higher to that conference.
• 48:00
  Yeah. And it's weird because you know, you look, okay, you
• 48:06
  look at the if they went to do twelve teams this year, and you
• 48:13
  know, going with you know where the teams are going to be next year
• 48:15
  in the conference, you'd still have five SEC teams, yeah, and five
• 48:20
  Big ten teams yeap, out of the twelve conferences they are. Yeah,
• 48:25
  I hate I hate that. I just I'm sorry, Like they're they're doing
• 48:31
  everything they can to push me away. They really are. Oh man,
• 48:35
  don't go away yet, don't go away. There's gonna be some good football.
• 48:37
  I think. I think there's gonna be just football in the future.
• 48:40
  Yeah, I don't know. I hate that the Pac twelve is gone.
• 48:45
  I hate you know, I hate large twenty team conferences spread from sea to
• 48:51
  Shining Sea. Yeah, I hate it. I give me, give me
• 48:53
  a nine or ten team conference. I wish that the I wish the ten
• 49:00
  would have brought along cow in Stanford and gone to twenty teams and you kind
• 49:04
  of had a ten team East Division and a ten team West Division. You
• 49:07
  play nine conference games against the teams in your division, and you have the
• 49:12
  three non conference games there. Yeah, that's perfectly balanced. Yeah it is.
• 49:15
  Or the or the Big twelve. Bring on Oregon, Satan, Washington
• 49:21
  Satan, do the same thing. Yeah, have twenty teams and do that.
• 49:23
  Like why you could make this easy and not leave anybody out in the
• 49:28
  cold. But that's you know, I don't know. I wonder what kind
• 49:31
  of football. Yeah, yeah, I wonder that's me like actually caring about
• 49:35
  you know, schools features and their ability to make you know, make a
• 49:38
  profit. Well, I care about what good state. Yeah, I care
• 49:42
  about what good football is going to be in the future too. Because you
• 49:44
  know, I've been thinking about the fact that you know, we're going to
• 49:45
  be seeing you know, Pen We're gonna see Penn State playing usc U,
• 49:50
  c l A. And I'll tell you right now, these these these these
• 49:53
  teams coming over from another conference to the Big Ten, they're gonna get kicked
• 49:59
  in a fa when it comes to facing Iowa's defense, Penn State's defense.
• 50:05
  You know, they're gonna they're gonna get kicked in the nuts. Tell you
• 50:07
  here's the problem with that. They also get to play Iowa's offense. Well,
• 50:10
  that's true. Who couldn't score on your local high school team? That's
• 50:15
  true. That's a that's a double edged side right now. But I'm just
• 50:20
  saying, like these teams that are coming over from the Pac twelve, like
• 50:22
  they're gonna, they're gonna they're gonna be facing some real stiff competition in terms
• 50:27
  of defense. You really think so, you think they're gonna walk in and
• 50:30
  Penn State's gonna walk all over Oregon. Not necessary in Washington, not necessarily,
• 50:35
  but I think it'll I think I think I think their status is number
• 50:39
  three in the Big Ten is in pretty deep trouble. If Franklin doesn't get
• 50:44
  this turned around. Yeah, yeah, I mean I I I feel like
• 50:47
  we're at the ceiling with them, where it's like, ok, ten and
• 50:50
  two, we lose the same two teams every year, and that would be
• 50:52
  the status quote going forward. But now if you're bringing in some of these
• 50:57
  other schools, he better step his yea. Otherwise you better get used to
• 51:02
  some you know, eight and four seasons. And you know, I don't
• 51:07
  know, yeah, I don't know. If you saw my tweet from a
• 51:09
  couple of weeks ago and I was like, you know what, you know,
• 51:12
  Penn State, you know, losing two games on the season, but
• 51:15
  you know, like part of me wishes that it was just like a two
• 51:19
  and ten season and that the two wins were Ohio State and Michigan, because
• 51:23
  I feel like I would take that. I'd be I'd be raising the banner
• 51:27
  of a victory if it was exactly if they just went and ten from you
• 51:35
  know, the next like two years, but those two wins each season would
• 51:37
  be Ohio State and Michigan, I would I would just be in my glory.
• 51:42
  It'd be so nice. It would be great because the way would submarine
• 51:45
  those two teams in the polls. Yes, yes, it would you guys
• 51:47
  lost this, this terrible two and ten team. Yes, all right,
• 51:52
  buddy, I'm gonna let your head out of here. I know somebody's got
• 51:55
  to guess. I'm sleep here. I know it's a busy time for you.
• 52:00
  Yes, sorry, I have to get up at one in the morning.
• 52:02
  Doork. No, God bless You're welcome. I know I appreciate it.
• 52:07
  I didn't mean it like that. I really didn't anyway. All right,
• 52:10
  buddy, I'll let you go. Folks. We're gonna take a quick
• 52:13
  break, and when we come back, tons of Eagles talk coming your way.
• 52:15
  Stick with us. All right, we are back. Let's get into
• 52:20
  some Philadelphia Eagles talk. We got a great guest. How are they gonna
• 52:22
  rebound from that terrible loss against the San Francisco forty nine ers. It's what
• 52:27
  we're throwing down on the table and now on the table joining us this week
• 52:34
  to get into this Philadelphia Eagles team. What is happening is Week fourteen is
• 52:38
  right around the corner, and what is gonna happen with this team in the
• 52:42
  future, because there are some changes kind of happening for sure, and just
• 52:46
  within Eagles Nation, how we're thinking about this team. As we're moving forward.
• 52:50
  Here we have from Fan Nation Eagles Today, an SI channel. We've
• 52:54
  got the one and only egg Crats. How you doing, Buddy, doing
• 52:59
  great? Great, Jeff, Thanks thanks for having me. Hey Man,
• 53:00
  it's great to talk to you. Always enjoy having you on the show.
• 53:05
  And you've been doing some great stuff again over at Eagles Today. And yeah,
• 53:09
  and I wanted to get into one of your recent pieces actually because we
• 53:13
  haven't really talked about on this podcast yet, the acquisition of Shaq Leonard and
• 53:17
  you recently wrote about that acquisition the Eagles just recently made. And again,
• 53:22
  just want to get into this right off the bat here in terms of what
• 53:25
  he's going to bring to this defense. I mean, they certainly need something
• 53:30
  there in the middle of the field for sure. And look, you know,
• 53:34
  Shaq Leonard's probably not going to be putting up any sort of Pro Bowl
• 53:37
  numbers like he used to, but he really could be an added value at
• 53:40
  this position I think for the rest of the season. And obviously how he
• 53:45
  Roseman believed so too, or he wouldn't have been targeting him to bring him
• 53:49
  into the fold. I said on our postgame podcast this past week that I've
• 53:52
  actually been missing TJ. Edwards as of late, and I think this season
• 53:58
  we're seeing not having that specific talent in the middle of the field. How
• 54:02
  it's been a detriment to this Philadelphia Eagles defense. So I'm wondering what kind
• 54:06
  of difference do you think Shack Leonard is really going to make in terms of
• 54:08
  the Eagles, you know, rushing defense and also in coverage as well.
• 54:14
  Yeah, I've kind of been with you with TJ. Edwards. You know,
• 54:17
  I miss him as far as him being a key part of that defense.
• 54:22
  But you know, looking it's all water under the bridge at this point,
• 54:25
  right, so you have to move forward with the decisions you make.
• 54:29
  And the Eagles went, you know, they didn't put a lot of resources
• 54:31
  into the position. They were hoping they would get more from the Kobe Dean.
• 54:37
  Of course, that hasn't worked out. It looks like his season is
• 54:38
  probably over. He played in five games this year, and they were really
• 54:44
  counting on a you know, a big workload for Dean. So now you're
• 54:47
  scrambling, right. They brought in Zach Cunningham playing pretty well, you know,
• 54:51
  they brought him in and during a training camp he got hurt. So
• 54:53
  now the Eagles were really thin at depth at linebacker. So Shack Leonard got
• 55:00
  cut by the Indianapolis Colts, and you have to ask yourself why he listened
• 55:05
  to the culture in the AFC hunt for a playoff spot. They're seven and
• 55:07
  five, they're battling to getting those playoffs, so you think if Leonard could
• 55:12
  have helped them, they would have kept him. But you know, we
• 55:15
  got a chance to talk to Shaq earlier in the week here heading into the
• 55:20
  Cowboys game, and the fascinating thing to me was is, you know,
• 55:23
  he had two back surgeries. I think people know that his most recent one
• 55:29
  was last November, really eight year ago, and he said that he couldn't
• 55:34
  even run for about six months after that surgery. So you think about that,
• 55:38
  he probably wasn't running until May. Okay, and here we are in
• 55:43
  December now, six months later, and he's playing football. You know,
• 55:46
  he played in great games with the Colts. Yeah, made sixty five tackles.
• 55:51
  I mean, he's he's still trying to find that rhythm again that that
• 55:55
  you know, made him a three time Pro Bowl All Pro player. You
• 56:01
  know, so that's kind of a question mark. You know that back surgeries
• 56:05
  are obviously very serious, and to have two of them and come back after
• 56:09
  just a year, here we are after the second one, to me,
• 56:13
  is pretty amazing that he's playing at all and playing at a relatively high enough
• 56:17
  level to come on to this Eagles team. And I think he's going to
• 56:22
  play a role. I mean, he brings length. If you look at
• 56:24
  his wingspan, yeah, it's you know, very very long. And that's
• 56:29
  something that should help in the past, the past defense game, which you
• 56:34
  said the Eagles really need something. You know, that middle of the field
• 56:37
  has been pretty vulnerable against you know, teams that know how to exploit it.
• 56:43
  We saw the forty nine ers do it. We saw them break tackles
• 56:45
  on short throws. You hope Leonard can bow up and make tackles. But
• 56:51
  I think he's going to play a pretty big role, you know, early
• 56:55
  on. Now. I think Zach Cunningham is progressing. He was listed as
• 56:59
  a limited part participant on Wednesday and practice. Yeah good news, Yeah,
• 57:05
  for sure, you know, And the Eagles ended up cutting Christianellis, who
• 57:08
  made his first start against the forty nine ers and you know, really really
• 57:13
  rough duty to have to make your first career start after years against a team
• 57:16
  like that. Predictably, it didn't go all that well. But Elis is
• 57:22
  a special teams guy and he's very good at that, and he's a he's
• 57:24
  a pretty nice guy too, and I would suspect they'll try to get him
• 57:29
  back to the practice squad and give him his three elevations at some point.
• 57:31
  But you know, right now, Nick morro is going to be the man
• 57:35
  in the middle when he really had a rough game against the forty nine ers.
• 57:39
  But I think Cunningham and Leonard maybe they rotate back and forth in at
• 57:45
  the mic position, that middle linebacker spot. But I think it'll be a
• 57:47
  rotation, kind of like when the Kobe Dean came back after missing some games
• 57:52
  earlier in the season and then got hurt again. Maybe he was a part
• 57:54
  of a rotation with those two other guys. So I expect Leonard to have
• 57:59
  kind of a simile. I don't think he's going to come in and play
• 58:01
  one hundred percent of the snaps, but I think he'll play, you know,
• 58:06
  enough to hopefully make a difference for this team because they need help at
• 58:10
  absolutely you know, and I think that's what we all need. Expectations need
• 58:15
  to be tempered as it pertains to Shack Leonard for sure, but I want
• 58:20
  to shift over to Jalen Hurts here ed, and I really do wonder how
• 58:25
  Jalen Hurts his knee is affecting him since he injured it weeks and weeks ago.
• 58:30
  At this point, I mean, it really seems as though it's taken.
• 58:34
  It's it's affecting, you know, perhaps the Eagles scheming in terms of
• 58:37
  the offense, because the RPO game just really hasn't been there. We're looking
• 58:43
  at a stale offense, it seems. So I'm wondering how much do you
• 58:47
  think his knee is actually hindering this offense's ability to get creative, gather momentum,
• 58:53
  sustained drives. I know Jalen Hurts doesn't want to talk about his knee,
• 58:57
  He's made that very very clear. But I really am wondering how much
• 59:00
  of this is affecting not just him, but affecting again that that creative aspect
• 59:06
  of this Eagles offense and how they can just gather momentum and sustained drives.
• 59:12
  Yeah, you know, you don't see that same explosion that you would normally
• 59:15
  see from him when he kind of gets loose, even on the quarterback draws
• 59:20
  that they seem to love to run. There just doesn't seem to be that
• 59:22
  burst that he used to have. Now. You know, part of that
• 59:25
  could be the knee. But I also think that defenses are playing him differently.
• 59:30
  I mean, you look at some of these if you go back and
• 59:32
  watch film from these games, there's a spy on him. You know,
• 59:37
  there's somebody just that you know, devoted to watching what Hurts does, and
• 59:40
  whatever he does, that spy goes right with him. So you know,
• 59:45
  that has made it more difficult. So teams are playing him differently, that's
• 59:49
  part of it. So yeah, it has been a factor when we talk
• 59:52
  about the run game. It's been a struggle in the run game most of
• 59:57
  the year. I mean, they were ranked first to the first four weeks
• 1:00:00
  in the running game as a team, and now they've slipped to eighth.
• 1:00:05
  And part of that has to be the Hurts isn't really that plus one anymore.
• 1:00:08
  You know, running backs are getting contacted very quickly when they get the
• 1:00:13
  ball because they're not worried about Jalen Hurts kind of you know, faking that
• 1:00:17
  handoff and sweeping the corner like you saw last year. So running backs are
• 1:00:22
  having you know, they're seeing more of a restricted space when they get the
• 1:00:27
  ball. They're not running three or four yards before getting hit for the first
• 1:00:30
  time. They're getting hit pretty quickly. So I think it's more than the
• 1:00:35
  knee though. I think that's a bunch of you know, I think it's
• 1:00:37
  defenses playing him differently, you know, things like that. So listen,
• 1:00:43
  I don't think he played a really good game in the past game against the
• 1:00:45
  forty nine ers. I think he was surprisingly he was hesitant, you know,
• 1:00:50
  guys, he had some guys open, but he just held the ball
• 1:00:52
  too long. I think he was hesitant to pull the trigger. And I'm
• 1:00:54
  not sure exactly why, you know, but certainly he's got to be a
• 1:01:00
  little bit quicker with his reads than he was on Sunday against the forty nine
• 1:01:04
  ers. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and you talk about, you know,
• 1:01:07
  the running game and how the running game is really altered with this Eagles
• 1:01:09
  team during the course of this season, and I look at the offensive line.
• 1:01:14
  I look at the offensive line as of late, an offensive line that
• 1:01:17
  was number one in the league to start the season, and look, they
• 1:01:22
  are a very good offensive line. There's a lot of talent there, and
• 1:01:24
  we know that the Eagles bread and butter is in the trenches. But going
• 1:01:30
  back looking at some of these games, you know, you see certain guys
• 1:01:32
  missing blocking assignments every now and again and again. They just don't look like
• 1:01:37
  that dominant Eagles O line that we've been so used to seeing. And I'm
• 1:01:39
  wondering what you have been seeing as you're breaking down this offense and how this
• 1:01:45
  line seems to actually have kind of taken a step back in some ways.
• 1:01:51
  Yeah, you know, it's a good, good point. I mean that
• 1:01:52
  the offensive line to me, hasn't played up to you know, we all
• 1:01:55
  thought they were the best offensive line in football. I don't think that's been
• 1:01:59
  the case here this season. And listen, I think Jason Kelsey at center
• 1:02:05
  is still playing at a pretty high level to the point where he may not
• 1:02:08
  retire again. He might come back next year. I mean, he's playing
• 1:02:12
  at that kind of level. But I think Landon Dickerson, who was a
• 1:02:15
  Pro Bowl player last year, I'm not sure he's played at the same level.
• 1:02:19
  And of course Cam Jurgens is playing guard for the first time now.
• 1:02:22
  He played the first month of the season when the team was running the ball
• 1:02:25
  to the point where they were ranked first and rushing, and then he missed
• 1:02:29
  five games and now he's been back for three and this will be his fourth
• 1:02:32
  game since he's been back, when they go to Dallas on Sunday night.
• 1:02:37
  But you know, so some continuity hasn't been there. Isaac Ciamalo was a
• 1:02:42
  big part of that offensive line and in terms of skill set, but also
• 1:02:45
  he helped set the you know, the blocking schemes with Kelsey. They kind
• 1:02:51
  of worked very well in tandem. And you know, Jordan Malatta hasn't played,
• 1:02:55
  I don't think up to the same level that we all thought he would.
• 1:02:59
  And Lane Johnson though, has been I think terrific. You know,
• 1:03:02
  he did a great job against Bosa of the forty nine ers yet Sunday.
• 1:03:07
  But you're right, I think this line for some reason, and I can't
• 1:03:10
  put my finger on it, either has not played up to the level that
• 1:03:15
  we expected going into the year. Yep, absolutely well from a box score
• 1:03:22
  perspective. You know, as we're moving forward with the conversation here, you
• 1:03:24
  know, the defensive front really hasn't been getting the job done in my opinion,
• 1:03:29
  and again this is only from a box score perspective. Ed two sacks
• 1:03:34
  and three quarterback hits on Brock Purty this past week, one sack, four
• 1:03:37
  quarterback hits on Josh Allen. One sack against Patrick Mahomes in that game against
• 1:03:44
  the Chiefs that they did end up winning. What have you been seeing that
• 1:03:47
  has contributed basically to the lack of this kind of pass rush and really completing
• 1:03:53
  these plays and being able to bring down the quarterbacks, being able to get
• 1:03:58
  into the defensive back or the offensive backfield here. You know, the defensive
• 1:04:02
  front just hasn't been able to finish plays. What are your thoughts? Yeah,
• 1:04:08
  listen, they do a good job getting pressures. I think they're one
• 1:04:11
  of the top five teams in the league and generating pressure. Yeah, but
• 1:04:16
  but sack numbers aren't there. And I listen, Pat Mahomes was only sacked
• 1:04:20
  twelve times coming into that game. They got to him once, but I
• 1:04:25
  think they affected him, you know, with some other throws. Josh Allen,
• 1:04:30
  my goodness, what a great game he played. You know, he's
• 1:04:32
  such a big, tough guy to bring down. I mean it was it
• 1:04:35
  was kind of fun to watch. You know, even if you're an Eagles
• 1:04:40
  fan, you had to appreciate that kind of quarterback play Josh Allen brought and
• 1:04:45
  he's just so hard to bring down. And he's a guy that doesn't get
• 1:04:46
  sacked a whole lot either. Now you could pressure him into some stuff and
• 1:04:49
  the Eagles did a good job. They got a key interception from him,
• 1:04:54
  James Bradbury picked one off that helped them go ahead in that game late.
• 1:04:59
  But that that wasn't as much pressure as it was just a good, you
• 1:05:02
  know, defensive call by showing to side to kind of bracket Stefan Diggs to
• 1:05:06
  get that interception. So you know, the sack numbers haven't been quite what
• 1:05:13
  they were obviously, but you'd expect that, right, I mean, seventy
• 1:05:15
  sacks last year is just crazy ridiculous, But I think they're still doing a
• 1:05:20
  good enough job putting pressure on Hassan Reddick has nine and a half sacks,
• 1:05:25
  another half a sack and he'll be this will be four straight years with double
• 1:05:29
  digit sacks for him. Best value probably in the league, right. I
• 1:05:32
  mean that when you consider the contract and how he signed him to last year,
• 1:05:36
  I think it's only fifty fifteen and a half million per year. You
• 1:05:41
  know, that's a bargain for guy that can do what Hassan Reddick. But
• 1:05:45
  listen, you're right about some of the you know, you'd like to see
• 1:05:47
  the sack numbers higher. And you look at Josh Sweat, who you know
• 1:05:51
  hasn't really gotten home as much as you'd like to see these last couple of
• 1:05:56
  games. Now, he was working against Trent Williams for the forty nine last
• 1:06:00
  week, and you know we saw him lineup off sides, we saw him
• 1:06:02
  jump off side and say decent amount of penalties over these past couple of weeks
• 1:06:06
  here. Yeah, but I mean that's just trying to get ahead of true
• 1:06:10
  Williams. Because Williams is so darn good playing that left tackle spot. But
• 1:06:15
  Sweat is playing that. This is a concern is these guys are playing a
• 1:06:18
  lot of snaps. You know, Josh Sweat's playing like seventy plus percent of
• 1:06:24
  the snaps. Last year, he was just over fifty percent. He was
• 1:06:27
  fresh. You know, he had eleven sacks, which was a career high.
• 1:06:31
  He's got I think six and a half this year, maybe seven and
• 1:06:33
  a half. But you wonder if playing all these snaps could be taking its
• 1:06:40
  toll on a guy like Josh Wett and maybe even Hassan Raddick, who's playing
• 1:06:45
  more snaps than last year. But the problem is is these games have been
• 1:06:47
  close that they've played this year, so these guys are playing more snaps,
• 1:06:51
  but also because they don't have really a guy in that rotation. Nolan Smith
• 1:06:57
  has not really kind of developed like I thought he would to have more of
• 1:07:00
  a role. They traded Derek Barnett who wasn't really contributing much anyway, and
• 1:07:04
  Brandon Graham is on the well on the other side now of thirty. So
• 1:07:10
  really they don't have the kind of depth that you know, maybe you would
• 1:07:13
  like to have on the edge. They got it to tackle, and I
• 1:07:16
  think you're starting to see them lineup Jalen Carter a little bit more on the
• 1:07:19
  outside to kind of maybe give Reddick and Sweat some blows and you let the
• 1:07:25
  twenty three year old kid go out there, yeah and play at it,
• 1:07:29
  you know, on the edge. So that's kind of what's hampering them,
• 1:07:32
  I think, is the depth. I think these guys might be playing a
• 1:07:34
  little bit too many snaps, and you hope they can find their second win
• 1:07:39
  here as we hit the home stretch. Absolutely all right, folks, talking
• 1:07:42
  agag krats from Fan Nations Eagles Today over at SI follow him on Twitter at
• 1:07:48
  kratz e. I don't think you're on threads. Sorry at this point,
• 1:07:51
  buddy, I don't think you are right. No, I am. He's
• 1:07:59
  like, He's like, don't yes, Yeah, how many platforms do I
• 1:08:02
  need? You know, try to extricate myself some of these platforms. Well,
• 1:08:08
  look, as we're moving along talking about the defense here, Ed,
• 1:08:11
  you know, I feel like the defensive secondary for this Eagles team has been
• 1:08:14
  very up and down all season. We've seen it game after a game,
• 1:08:16
  you know, whether it's inconsistent play at times from Sleigh and brad Berry.
• 1:08:20
  You know, I haven't really heard Bradley Roby's name called to too often after
• 1:08:25
  the Eagles acquired him, you know, with the exception of the Travis Kelce
• 1:08:29
  turnover in Kansas City. Kevin Byard, however, he's been positive in terms
• 1:08:34
  of his addition and that acquisition. He's been playing some pretty good football.
• 1:08:39
  How would you assess some of the inconsistencies that we have seen with this Eagle
• 1:08:44
  secondary and can they get some more consistency in the future. Well, you
• 1:08:49
  hope the more they play together that that will come. I mean this has
• 1:08:54
  kind of been you know, like a makeshift secondary. Yeah, kind of
• 1:08:59
  a seat that you're paying this type thing. You know. Ruby comes in,
• 1:09:01
  I don't know, six weeks ago, maybe maybe a little longer.
• 1:09:05
  So he comes in as the season's underway. He plays two games and he
• 1:09:10
  gets hurt and missus three and now he's back. Buyard gets brought in at
• 1:09:15
  the trade deadline, you know, so he's kind of a new addition to
• 1:09:18
  that back end, and I just think they need to learn to communicate better.
• 1:09:23
  You know, Slay listen, I think he struggled. You hope that
• 1:09:28
  you know, age isn't catching up to him, but it wouldn't be surprising
• 1:09:30
  if it is. It's a long season, and last year around this time
• 1:09:34
  he even admitted that it's a long season and you tend to wear down a
• 1:09:39
  little bit. My hope coming into the year was they would develop a third
• 1:09:43
  cornerback that they could use and give Slay, you know, a little bit
• 1:09:45
  of break in games, so he's not playing one hundred percent of the snaps
• 1:09:49
  to kind of keep him fresh as the season goes on, because right now,
• 1:09:53
  I just think he's a little maybe worn down, a little tired.
• 1:09:56
  Yeah, hasn't played his best football, James bradbur He's been kind of up
• 1:10:00
  and down, which is surprising coming off you know, his second team All
• 1:10:03
  Pro last year, so he hasn't played to that same level. And this
• 1:10:10
  past defense has shown that it's been been hard. I mean they were first
• 1:10:14
  in the league and defending the pass last year. They only gave up one
• 1:10:16
  hundred and seventy yards. A season ago, on their way to the Super
• 1:10:20
  Bowl, they were ranked first. Rarely happens for them. This year they're
• 1:10:25
  ranked twenty ninth. I mean, they're near the bottom of the league in
• 1:10:28
  past defense and they're giving up about two hundred and sixty to seventy yards per
• 1:10:32
  game, and that's that's that's a big difference. I mean, you're one
• 1:10:35
  hundred yards in the passing game. Yeah, But again, I think some
• 1:10:40
  of it has to do with the communication aspect. Is they're still trying to
• 1:10:44
  figure out how to communicate with each other. And you would think, hey,
• 1:10:47
  it shouldn't be a big deal, right, but you know, it
• 1:10:49
  kind of is. You know, for whatever reason, these guys need to
• 1:10:53
  kind of know where they're going to be on each play, and they're still
• 1:10:55
  trying to figure out where they need to be and then they got to figure
• 1:10:58
  we're out where else where somebody else has to be that. That's not as
• 1:11:01
  easy as you think it is. It takes time, Yep, it takes
• 1:11:03
  time. So you hope that they can stay healthy and that as these next
• 1:11:08
  four, you know, five games go on, that they get better in
• 1:11:12
  that aspect and they can you know, make some stops in the passing game.
• 1:11:15
  Third down has been the biggest issue. Yes, I mean, they're
• 1:11:17
  not doing a good job getting off the field. They're dead last and you
• 1:11:21
  know, giving up third down conversions and that needs to get better. And
• 1:11:26
  again I think a lot of that has to do with the pass defense.
• 1:11:28
  If that gets better, I think that number will get better. Yeah,
• 1:11:30
  the third down stat that you just put out there, and it's it is
• 1:11:34
  very concerning, especially as we're going into this week fourteen matchup against the Dallas
• 1:11:39
  Cowboys, second time they're going to be playing them this season. So to
• 1:11:44
  end things here, wanted to know your overall thoughts on how the Eagles are
• 1:11:47
  going to make it out of Dallas here, how they're going to perform after
• 1:11:51
  this NFC matchup as well, given their schedule seems to be a quote favorable
• 1:11:57
  schedule. Anything can happen in this league. I mean, the Eagles lost
• 1:12:00
  to the New York Jets, for God's sake earlier this year. Yeah,
• 1:12:04
  but I think this particular game coming up, it's going to be so critical
• 1:12:08
  for the Eagles and for the Cowboys in terms of forward momentum here. So
• 1:12:13
  what are your thoughts heading into this Sunday? A tough game obviously, I
• 1:12:16
  mean Dallas has had ten days off. Yep, will have had ten days
• 1:12:19
  off, same as the forty nine ers when they came to town. They
• 1:12:23
  had to ten days off. And you know, when you're talking about December,
• 1:12:26
  to have ten days off, that's like you know, finding a gold
• 1:12:29
  bar and your stocking, you know. I mean it's just huge, you
• 1:12:31
  know, celebrate that. So that's a big advantage. And of course Dallas
• 1:12:36
  has won fourteen straight games at home, four in a row. The Eagles
• 1:12:41
  haven't swept the regular season against the Cowboys since twenty eleven. They haven't won
• 1:12:45
  in Dallas since twenty seventeen, So listen, all those trends are really conspiring
• 1:12:51
  against the Eagles in this one. So it would be very tough to pick
• 1:12:56
  the Eagles. But then you look at the other side of it. They
• 1:12:59
  haven't lost two games in a row with Jalen Hurts at quarterback. Now,
• 1:13:02
  they did last year, but Minshew was at the quarterback. So it's been
• 1:13:08
  really since the middle of twenty twenty one that they've lost to in a row
• 1:13:12
  with Hurts. So that's a good sign for the Eagles, right. Rarely
• 1:13:15
  do the Eagles play a bad game one week and come back and play a
• 1:13:19
  bad game the next week, So you know, I expect them to play
• 1:13:24
  better. Will it be good enough against you know, a very motivated Cowboys
• 1:13:28
  team who feel like they should have won that first game here in Philadelphia.
• 1:13:31
  I don't know, But then you mentioned the schedules. Listen, if the
• 1:13:35
  Eagles lose them in Dallas are tied right in the standings, the Eagles I
• 1:13:40
  think, would hold the tiebreaker based on their better record in the NFC.
• 1:13:44
  Yeah. Boy, that's like the third criteria. You know, you don't
• 1:13:46
  want it to come down to that. So the Cowboys still have to play
• 1:13:50
  after this game, they go to Buffalo and then Miami and then they have
• 1:13:55
  to host the Lions, who are nine to three, So that is a
• 1:13:57
  pretty tough road for them. Whereas the Eagles, they go to Seattle,
• 1:14:00
  a team they haven't beaten since two thousand and eight. Jason Kelcey, that's
• 1:14:04
  the only team he has not beaten in his career. Coming into the year.
• 1:14:09
  The Chiefs were on that list, but he checked that box earlier this
• 1:14:12
  year but never won against the Seahawks. So that's tough game too. You
• 1:14:16
  got to, you know, just flex to Monday night. It's a Monday
• 1:14:18
  night game. Now, tough place to play. That twelfth Man is legendary
• 1:14:24
  in Seattle. It's a long plane trip. But then after that it does
• 1:14:28
  soften. You have the Giants twice. Now listen, it's an NFC East
• 1:14:31
  game. Anything can haven't look at the commanders, look kind of commanders,
• 1:14:33
  how tough they play. So you can't say, oh, we're going to
• 1:14:38
  just roll the Giants, even though they did last year. You still got
• 1:14:41
  to put your time in and you know, you can't take those games for
• 1:14:43
  granted. And you have the Cardinals, you know, who have Kyler Murray
• 1:14:46
  getting a little bit better I think each week after coming back from the ACL
• 1:14:49
  tear. So you should win those games, but you can't say, Okay,
• 1:14:53
  they're gonna win them. But assume they would. So that's three wins.
• 1:14:57
  So if they lose to Dallas and then they take care of business over
• 1:15:00
  the last four they still get the fourteen wins which they had last year.
• 1:15:04
  But it's it's not going to be easy Sunday in Dallas. It starts there
• 1:15:08
  and that's a that's a tough game. Absolutely, they win this one,
• 1:15:12
  you know, then they probably will be the first nfcast team to repeat since
• 1:15:15
  they did it back in three and four. Yep, that's a long draft,
• 1:15:20
  having you know, different champions every single year in that time, so
• 1:15:26
  you know, the Eagles were trying to break that. If they can find
• 1:15:28
  a way in Dallas, I think they're on their way to doing that.
• 1:15:30
  It's going to be tough, for sure. It's going to be a great,
• 1:15:32
  great matchup to watch. I think it's going to be a lot closer
• 1:15:35
  than this San Francisco forty nine Ers game from this past week. But it's
• 1:15:40
  going to be interesting to watch for sure. And again, folks, egg
• 1:15:43
  Crats from Fan Nations Eagles today over at SI and an SI channel, And
• 1:15:47
  it was great to talk to you as always, Ed, you are always
• 1:15:50
  so kind to come on the podcast here and I hope that you'll come on
• 1:15:56
  down the road we can talk more Eagles, more football. I'd love to
• 1:15:58
  have you back on my friend. Hey, I love to do it.
• 1:16:00
  Jeff, thanks thanks again for having me and have a great, great holiday
• 1:16:04
  season. Thank you you as well. I love talking to Ed, such
• 1:16:09
  a plethora of knowledge when it comes not only to this Philadelphia Eagles team,
• 1:16:14
  but just the varying dynamics within the NFC, within the game of professional football.
• 1:16:18
  So many thanks again to Ed. And as I mentioned folks at the
• 1:16:24
  beginning of the show, going on a little vacation with my family and we're
• 1:16:29
  gonna be cruising down to the Bahamas. Cannot wait for that no Eagles postgame
• 1:16:33
  podcast show for the next two weeks, and I also I think the next
• 1:16:40
  two weeks anyway. I gotta see the following week's schedule, but we are
• 1:16:44
  going to have some content that will be scheduled for next week. Very much
• 1:16:46
  looking forward to that conversation with our guest, and yeah, it gonna be
• 1:16:51
  interesting Eagles game. I mean, I've got to follow the score and stuff
• 1:16:54
  on my phone, of course, but I was talking with Lenn I just
• 1:16:58
  I don't know if the Eagles are gonna be able to pull this one out
• 1:17:00
  out seriously in terms of momentum, in terms of who's hungrier, who appears
• 1:17:04
  hungrier at this point, Let's be honest, seems like the Dallas Cowboys are
• 1:17:08
  a little hungri or anything can happen on any given Sunday in the NFL.
• 1:17:12
  We know that we say that all the time, but there are certain trends
• 1:17:15
  that Ed specifically was talking about that you know that we have to keep in
• 1:17:20
  mind. So with that being said, everyone, you all take care.
• 1:17:24
  Philadelphia Sports Table dot com is where you can get all of our podcasts.
• 1:17:28
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• 1:17:30
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• 1:17:33
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• 1:17:38
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• 1:17:42
  take care, everybody. We'll catch you next time.