Andrew Bowe was so irritated by the idea that the NFL might ban the Tush Push that he decided to do something about it.
Bowe, a native of Plymouth Meeting, didn’t have the power that Jason Kelce had, to walk into the room with the NFL owners and make its case, but after a friend of his mentioned that he wished someone would track the Tush Push data, the software engineer had a new project.
“There’s plenty of teams out there that are running it that voted against it,” Bowe said. “I wanted to create a repository of these teams that are kind of hypocritical, in that they’re kind of trying to ban the play, but at the same time they’re running it and actually being almost more successful than the Eagles are this season.”
The site tracks the overall NFL success rate on Tush Push plays, based on a set of criteria, which requires that the player who takes the snap carries the ball, the play goes up the middle and the player receives a push from anyone lined up behind him, with 2 yards or less to go, on either third or fourth down (anywhere on the field), or first or second down within 5 yards of the goal line.
Initially, the process took hours, as Bowe watched games leaguewide to try and find Tush Push attempts. As the season progressed, he built a model that flagged plays that fit those conditions to more easily track the overall success rate of the play across multiple teams. The site allows users to toggle between different teams, and includes a small logo to show whether they voted to keep or ban the play in the offseason.
“It’s gotten only easier over time, so it’s less and less time I’m spending trying to put it up there,” Bowe said. “I’m introducing new features and functionality all the time too. Before, I was only tracking the teams and the overall statistics. Now I’m starting to build up new functionality to see which players are running it the most, which positions are running it the most.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts lines up for the Tush Push play during an Oct. 19 matchup with the Vikings.
The site only tracks the 2025 data, but one of Bowe’s next projects is to go back through the historical data from 2022, the year the Eagles popularized the play, to now and add those numbers into the data set.
Bowe has been an Eagles fan his entire life, and while he ultimately left the area after graduating from Temple, first to New York and later to Raleigh, N.C., he continued making connections thanks to a shared love for Philly sports. He hopes to keep the site going as long as the Tush Push does, and is glad people have been able to use it as a resource.
“[The Tush Push is] such a quintessentially Philly play,” Bowe said. “The Tush Push is super gritty, it’s controversial, but it’s also effective. To me that is quintessential Philadelphia. It really espouses that Broad Street attitude.
“I want to see it live on. I hope that next season they’re not thinking about banning it again, now that other teams are getting successful with it and the Eagles aren’t just the best one on the block these days.”
Since high school, Jared McCain has shared his life on TikTok for his fans. He didn’t expect just how many haters also would come his way.
On Wednesday, McCain, in partnership with Penn Medicine and the Sixers’ Assists for Safe Communities initiative, spoke with students at Level Up Philly about protecting his own mental health.
“Putting myself in different positions helps me with my mental health, and helps me understand what people can go through,” McCain told The Inquirer. “Now, when I go through it, I understand what to do or what not to do. Being in the league is amazing, and now that I’m in, I guess, my real profession, it’s cool that I get to help out around the city, people around me, and people in my DMs, whoever it is, that I can just help out and try and direct them in the best way possible.”
Since entering the NBA in 2024, McCain has experienced the highs of a successful debut and the lows of his season-ending meniscus tear and his season-opening finger injury this year.
As he worked his way back into the lineup, McCain said there’s a huge mental aspect to his recovery that fans may not see. He relies on his friends and family and also works with a psychologist to process those struggles.
“The expectation is, you come back right away, first game, and play exactly how you are. But for me, I was just trying to get out there and feel comfortable enough to jump again and jump off my left leg again,” McCain said. “You’ve done it a million times in training and to be prepared for a game, but it’s never going to replicate actually going and subbing into a game and going full speed.”
“That’s where I’ve got to get off social media sometimes, in the first few games. Even when I’m not playing the best right now, I know it’s going to come back to me, but I always just stay true to myself. I know it’s going to click and I know it’s going to come back as long as I continue to work hard.”
McCain doesn’t run his own Instagram anymore, and he’s never on X, which he believes is “the worst” platform. But he still loves TikTok and tries to keep basketball off his For You page.
But he told the students at Level Up Philly that despite the hate he can get for his TikTok videos, he wants to keep it going to make a positive impact. Negative comments often can overshadow the positive ones, so McCain learned to refocus on the good he was doing instead of falling into the negative.
Students at Level Up Philly listened to Sixers guard Jared McCain talk about his about mental health during an event partnership between Penn Medicine and the Sixers’ Assists for Safe Communities initiative.
Level Up Philly is a youth community center in West Philadelphia that serves as a home base for hundreds of students across the city to work on homework, learn new skills, or hang out with friends.
Pastor Aaron Campbell, affectionately called “Unc” and even “Dad” by the students, is the executive director of the center. Level Up Philly supports students from 10 to 25 years old.
More than 40 students came to hear McCain, Campbell, and Penn Medicine emergency doctor Malik Sams talk about mental health. A number of students at Level Up Philly have witnessed gun violence, and Campbell said 15 students at Level Up have been killed in the last three years.
“There is arguably a human rights crisis in Philadelphia,” Campbell said. “We have seen a significant drop in homicides. We’ve seen solutions for the violence, but now there’s another element. The elephant in the room is the PTSD, the psychological impact, and that is also part of what I will call a human rights crisis in Philadelphia, so we have to talk about mental health.”
Students eagerly shared their stories and asked McCain questions, and Campbell loved that the collaboration between the Sixers and Level Up could help the students feel more empowered to speak up about their mental health.
McCain said one of the biggest lessons he’s learned is not to judge, because everyone is going through something that he might not see. Getting to meet the students at Level Up was another way for McCain to gain perspective that he can take with him.
“I was privileged, and I was able to grow up in an environment where a lot of this stuff didn’t happen that these kids go through,” McCain said. “To be able to hear stories of people, of what they’re going through, and people passing in their family, it definitely it humbles you, and you can understand more of what people go through on a day to day, and what they can be projecting at you when something happened at home. Just hearing it has helped me, and it can literally help me in my mental health struggles.”
Ahead of Watch Party PHL opening a new women’s sports venue, The Stoop Pigeon, next year, it is teaming up with the Philadelphia Sisters grassroots organization to release a new beer — the Philly is a Women’s Sports Town Pilsner.
The beer, a relabeled version of Sterling Pig Brewery’s Shoat Pilsner, will be available through the end of January at Sterling Pig Brewery, additional participating bars locally, and online.
They also are selling other “Philly is a Women’s Sports Town” merchandise, a phrase Watch Party founder Jen Leary coined after the announcement that the city would be getting a WNBA expansion franchise in 2030. The phrase blew up after actor Aubrey Plaza wore one of the group’s T-shirts courtside at a New York Liberty game.
Watch Party PHL founder Jen Leary holds the “Philly is a women’s sports town” shirt that went viral after Aubrey Plaza wore it to a Liberty game.
With Unrivaled, the offseason three-on-three women’s basketball league, making its first-ever tour stop on Jan. 30 in Philadelphia and the announcement that Philadelphia will gain a WNBA team, 2025 has been a banner year for women’s sports in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Sisters, which is dedicated to the development of women’s sports in the city from the youth level to the pros, and Watch Party PHL are looking to keep the momentum going in 2026.
Watch Party PHL has hosted a number of watch parties for women’s sports, including the WNBA, women’s college basketball, the NWSL, and U.S. women’s national soccer team. The group is opening The Stoop Pigeon in May 2026. It will join Marsha’s on South Street, which opened in October, as the city’s women’s sports bars.
Here are five things to know about the newest Phillie …
García defected from Cuba
García ultimately charted his path through professional baseball by first playing in Japan for Nippon Profession Baseball’s Yomiuri Giants. On his return flight to Cuba, which connected through Paris, García instead disembarked and boarded a flight bound for the Dominican Republic, where he lived for six months to establish residency and to become an international free agent in 2017. He signed with the Cardinals for $2.5 million.
García appeared in 21 games for St. Louis in 2018, and then was traded to the Texas Rangers in 2019. In his 2021 rookie season with Texas, García appeared in 149 games for the Rangers — he had only played a total of 24 games prior — and made the American League All-Star team, finishing fourth in rookie of the year voting.
If you’re familiar with García already, it’s probably because of his postseason performance for the Rangers in 2023, the year Texas won the World Series, a series the Phillies were one win from reaching before losing two straight to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Garcia, who was named MVP of that year’s American League Championship Series, is a confident player who loves the big stage.
“These types of games, when there’s a lot of emotions, the fans out there, they are rallying for their team, it fuels me,” García told Fox Sports. “It’s motivation that helps me out when I’m playing.”
Former Ranger teammate Marcus Semien, who García now joins in the National League East, said the outfielder was the most confident teammate he’d ever had.
“I think so,” Semien told Fox Sports. “He’s got the swag to go with it. It’s just so good for young players to watch him and how he plays with such confidence to just boost up everybody else. I think a lot of young players could learn from that guy.”
Adolis García won a World Series with the Rangers in 2023.
El Bombi 💡
García’s nickname is El Bombi, which, according to the Dallas Morning News, originated in childhood in Cuba, thanks to a friend who thought his head represented a light bulb, or a “bombillo.”
Baseball is a family affair
His older brother, Adonis García, played in MLB with the Atlanta Braves from 2015-2017. His father also played professionally in Cuba.
García and current Mariners outfielder Arozarena defected from Cuba around the same time. They didn’t know each other well in Cuba, but became close friends in the Cardinals’ minor league system.
“Adolis is kind of like my brother,” Arozarena told The Athletic. “So much (so) that I named him the godfather of my daughter.”
It feels good to play a week of football where the Eagles aren’t the number one topic of the national conversation, doesn’t it?
But some in the national media still had things to say about the Birds after they snapped a three-game losing streak with a 31-0 win over the Las Vegas Raiders …
Injuries catching up with rest of NFC
The Eagles aren’t out of the woods offensively, even after delivering against a weak Raiders team. But with the Cowboys’ loss to the Vikings, the Eagles are just one win or Cowboys loss away from clinching a playoff berth — and becoming the first team to repeat as NFC East champs in 20 years.
But what Week 15 showcased for former Eagle Chris Long is that the NFL is wide-open this season. The Eagles still have work to do, but they’re not the only contender with issues.
“If you’re the Eagles, you kind of feel like, if we can get our [expletive] together, the Rams … might have lost Davante Adams for a little bit … Green Bay’s lost Micah [Parsons], Christian Watson, Tucker Kraft, these are tough injuries to overcome for these other teams,” Long said.
Were the Eagles the biggest winners in Week 15? Damien Woody said on ESPN’s Get Up that he thinks so.
“Obviously, you win the game against the lowly Las Vegas Raiders, but the Dallas Cowboys lost, and you look at some of the other losses in the conference,” Woody said. “If you’re Philadelphia, you come out of this week thinking, if we get our offense back on track and these other teams lose, we’re still in a good spot right now.”
The Birds are one game back of the Bears for second in the NFC and two games back of the Rams, with the easiest remaining schedule of the three. It’s extremely unlikely that the Birds could secure the bye at this point, but second in the NFC is still very much in play.
Jalen Hurts was incredibly efficient against the Raiders, throwing as many touchdowns (3) as incompletions.
Hurts ‘had a statement to make’
After a career-worst performance against the Chargers, Jalen Hurts needed a game like Sunday’s against Las Vegas. Hurts went 12-for-15 for 175 yards and three touchdowns, and was out of the game by the fourth quarter.
Emmanuel Acho said on Speakeasy that he wasn’t ready to say Hurts was fully back, given the opponent, but was encouraged that the Eagles took care of business instead of falling into the trap.
“The Eagles played the second-fastest game in NFL history against the Raiders,” Acho said. “Here’s why that matters, you got in, you got out, you got on with your life. You did what you needed to do and you did it efficiently.”
Former Eagle LeSean McCoy was also impressed with Hurts’ performance.
“I don’t want to say he’s silenced all doubt because it is this Vegas team, but it’s the way he looked,” McCoy said. “He looked really, really good, he looked really confident, like he had a statement to make.”
A quick, stress-free Eagles win? Been a while since we’ve had one of those!
The 31-0 shutout victory over the Raiders went by so quickly (2 hours, 31 minutes) that you could’ve blinked and missed it. In case you want to relive the victory, here are the best moments from the broadcast …
Look, would you love to see him only repping Philly? Sure. But if he keeps playing like he played today — even against a Raiders team that’s “not very good,” according to Fox color analyst Greg Olsen — Hurts can wear whatever he wants.
“That even-keeled personality, I think people sometimes have a hard time understanding how to react to it,” Olsen said. “He can be so calm in the big moments, and when you expect a lot of emotion, you expect a lot of fire, that’s just not his personality. But I do think it serves him so well when things do get rocky and everyone else is riding those emotional ups and downs. He’s just so steady.”
Mistaken identity
After firing former Eagles coach Chip Kelly, the Raiders have a new offensive coordinator — Greg Olson. Olsen wanted to stress during the Raiders’ first offensive drive that they are not the same person.
“Not me, I am not calling plays for the Raiders,” Olsen said. “Olson with an O.”
After retiring in the offseason, Brandon Graham came back mid-year, and earned his first sack of the season on Kenny Pickett in the first quarter.
But quarterback Philip Rivers stole some of his thunder, coming out of retirement at 44 and making his first start since 2020 for the Colts against the Seahawks on Sunday afternoon.
“This is the year of retired guys coming back,” Fox play-by-play commentator Joe Davis said. “Philip Rivers saw Graham come back and said, why can’t I?”
“There’s old, and then there’s Philip,” Olsen joked.
Of course, when you think of snow games in Philadelphia, you think of the famous Santa game. But given how the Birds had been playing coming into Sunday’s game, you’d be forgiven for feeling more like the Grinch.
But thanks to the Birds’ shutout victory, even the Grinch’s heart may have grown a few sizes …
To what I imagine was the delight of the fans freezing at the Linc, the Eagles played one of the shortest games in franchise history, clocking in at 2 hours, 31 minutes, give or take a minute.
But it could have been a contender for the all-time record for shortest game, set in 1996 at 2:29 by the Colts and the Chargers. Of course, ad space is king, and a long ad break just seconds after the two-minute warning stretched the game out just enough to block the Birds from setting an NFL record.
Bobby Brink was blunt about the Flyers’ 4-3 shootout loss to Carolina.
“We were pretty bad,” Brink said of the second period that saw the Flyers’ 2-0 lead evaporate Saturday night at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. “We just lost battles, didn’t support each other. Stopped taking it to them. Let them take it to us.”
The Flyers jumped out to an early lead in the first period. Brink scored the first goal of the game with a snipe off a Trevor Zegras zone entry, and Zegras capped off his excellent first period with a goal of his own, burying a feed from Konecny behind the net.
The Canes’ man-on-man coverage system is notoriously suffocating defensively, and the Flyers felt it in the second period, struggling to break the puck up the ice and generate any consistent offensive zone time.
Flyers center Christian Dvorak leaps over teammate right wing Bobby Brink’s first period goal past Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov on Saturday.
Ty Murchison, playing his third game in place of the injured Cam York, turned the puck over on a breakout to former Flyer Shayne Gostisbehere. He fired one quick pass to Nikolaj Ehlers, who sniped the puck over Samuel Ersson’s shoulder to put Carolina on the board. With just over five minutes to go in the period, Canes defenseman Alexander Nikishin tied it with a huge slap shot from the blue line.
“Carolina is a pressure team,” said Flyers coach Rick Tocchet. “You’ve got to go at them with pressure. I think we backed off. We started to stop skating. We need some wall play. If we made a couple wall plays, we would have had two or three three-on-ones, but Carolina puts a lot of pressure. I think they’re the worst team when it comes to odd-man rushes. So that’s when you really need to dig in.”
The Flyers improved a bit in the third period, but still struggled to get on the board.
“It was better than the second, but I don’t know, we’ve got to have a better effort than that,” Brink said.
Late in the third, Seth Jarvis snuck past the Flyers’ defense and easily tucked the puck in one-on-one against Ersson. That might’ve been just the kick the Flyers needed, because just 23 seconds later, Carl Grundströmtook advantage of a two-on-one opportunity and beat Pyotr Kochetkov to tie the game at three on just the Flyers’ second shot of the period.
Grundström was called up on Dec. 2 in place of the injured Tyson Foerster, and is on a three-game point streak, including the game-winner in San Jose and the game-tying goal against Carolina.
“He can skate, and he’s not afraid to get inside,” Tocchet said. “When you’re a player in the NHL and you can skate and you’re an inside player, you can pay the mortgage, that’s how you do it. I think that he wants to stay here. You can tell. What a couple of big goals for us so far.”
Forcing overtime on Saturday wasn’t enough for the Flyers, who fell in the shootout for the first time this season after five wins.
The Flyers’ three-on-three struggles continued, with their best chance coming off a two-on-one opportunity from Zegras and Konecny, but Zegras flubbed the pass, allowing Kochetkov to make an easy save, and Ersson made a strong save on Jordan Staal with just seconds to play.
Zegras had his first shootout miss of the year. Brink, Konecny, and Michkov also missed, and Jackson Blake won it for Carolina in the fourth round.
The Flyers won’t have much time to marinate in what went wrong, with another matchup against Carolina in Raleigh on the docket for Sunday night. They hope they can get another period like the first, and to avoid a repeat of the second.
“They were doing a good job of coming down on our wingers on the wall,” Zegras said. I thought in the D-zone, some faceoff stuff we’ve probably got to clean up. I think just build off that first period, because I thought we were doing some good stuff.”
Up next
The Flyers will play Carolina at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. The game will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
The Eagles are looking to snap a three-game losing skid on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. After the disaster at SoFi Stadium against the Chargers, the Birds are desperate to get back in the win column against a 2-11 Raiders squad without its starting quarterback.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Sunday’s game …
How to watch
The game will kick off on Fox at 1 p.m. from the Linc. Joe Davis and Greg Olsen will call the game from the booth, with Pam Oliver on the sideline.
If you’d rather listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick call the game, the radio broadcast can be found on 94.1 WIP, and if you’re not heading to the Linc, but want to watch the game with your fellow Birds fans, here are a few spots to check out.
The Eagles beat the Rams in the snow in the divisional round of the playoffs last year. It doesn’t look like the snow will be a factor, but the wind and cold could be.
Eagles vs. Raiders weather
The National Weather Service is calling for 2-4 inches of snow in the Philadelphia region on Sunday, but it is expected to move out of the area well before the Eagles game kicks off in South Philly. Temperatures are not expected to climb above 30, and the wind chill will likely be in the teens thanks to 15-25 mph winds.
The big injuries for the Eagles are again along the offensive and defensive lines. The Birds will be without right tackle Lane Johnson, who will miss his third game with a Lisfranc injury. The team is 0-3 in his absence. The Eagles will also be without defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who will miss his second straight game after undergoing a procedure on his shoulders.
The Raiders will be without quarterback Geno Smith, paving the way for backup Kenny Pickett to make his first start since Week 17 of last season, when he was a member of the Eagles.
Out
QB Geno Smith (shoulder/back)
WR Alex Bachman (thumb)
T Kolton Miller (ankle)
Questionable
S Jeremy Chinn (back)
C/G Jordan Meredith (foot)
TE Ian Thomas (calf)
Eagles vs. Raiders odds
The Eagles are favored by 11.5 points at FanDuel and 12.5 at DraftKings as of Friday afternoon, with a projected total of 38.5 points at both sportsbooks. For more information on prop bets, check out our betting roundup.
The Rams and Seahawks are tied for the best record in the NFC heading into Week 15.
Eagles playoff picture
With four games remaining in the regular season, the 8-5 Eagles hold a two-game lead over the rest of the NFC East and hold the third seed in the NFC. Elsewhere in the division, the 2-11 Giants and 3-10 Commanders are both eliminated from playoff contention. The Cowboys, at 6-7-1, are the only remaining NFC East team in the hunt, but even with an Eagles win and a Dallas loss, the Birds cannot clinch a playoff berth this week.
NFC East standings
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Meanwhile, in the race for the top seed in the NFC — and the lone first-round bye — the Eagles have some work to do. They’re two games behind the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams, and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker thanks to their Week 3 win.
However, even if the Rams falter, the Eagles are also two games behind the Seattle Seahawks, who are in second in the NFC West and the top wild-card team. The San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, and Chicago Bears are also each one game ahead of the Eagles in the win column. The Eagles only hold the tiebreaker over the Packers.
NFC standings
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Can the Eagles offense turn things around against the Raiders?
Story lines to watch
How will Jalen Hurts bounce back from a career-worst performance in L.A.? He plans to stay the course.
“I take the approach I’ve taken for a while, and it’s seemed to work,” Hurts said Wednesday. “I think right now it’s just a matter of being more detailed, more focused.
“When you put forth the work, put forth the effort, good things happen when you need them to happen. That’s my mentality. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am today.”
Outside the Eagles facility, however, a debate over whether the team should bench Hurts has dominated airwaves, locally and nationally. According to Jeff McLane, it’s a question that has some merit after Hurts’ third straight loss. Others — like Nick Sirianni, who called the idea “ridiculous” earlier this week — aren’t as convinced.
Jake Elliott’s missed field goal against the Chargers proved critical, but the Eagles’ end-of-half conservatism has become a trend.
The defense has been lights out while the other side of the ball has struggled. Jordan Davis still believes in the Eagles offense.
Jason Kelce wasn’t a fan of the “positivity rabbit” that popped up in the Eagles locker room last week. It was gone after their loss to the Chargers.
One number to know
8-1: Pete Carroll’s all-time record against the Eagles as a head coach. Carroll has beaten the Eagles five times at Lincoln Financial Field and went undefeated against the Birds as head coach of the Seahawks. The Birds’ only win over Carroll came in 1998, when he coached the Patriots.
Jeff McLane: “This is as close to an ideal get-back opportunity that Hurts and the offense could have at this stage of the season. Las Vegas has a decent defense and I suspect all the problems on that side of the ball won’t be solved. But you can’t lose if the other team doesn’t score points, and an Eagles’ shutout is in play. Really.” | Prediction: Eagles 24, Raiders 9
Jeff Neiburg: “I think the Eagles did enough positive things offensively Monday to convince me they won’t have trouble moving the ball Sunday. They just need to avoid turnovers. Easier said then done, of course.“ | Prediction: Eagles 27, Raiders 11
Olivia Reiner: “This is a game the Eagles should win, even in the offense’s current state of disarray. But don’t expect it to be a blowout. It’s going to be cold and windy at the Linc (remember how the Eagles fared in those conditions against the Bears?), so it seems unlikely that this game is going to be high-scoring if the weather gets ugly. Perhaps that works to the Eagles’ advantage, seeing as they’ve been practicing in an icebox all week and the Raiders are living it up in temperate Las Vegas.” | Prediction: Eagles 20, Raiders 13
Here’s a look at the latest from our columnists, starting with David Murphy, who thinks talk of benching Hurts is short-sighted, but not as crazy as it sounds.
David Murphy: “You know what’s really, truly, magnificently ridiculous to think? That any quarterback could play as poorly as Hurts has played in back-to-back losses to the Bears and the Chargers without prompting some level of discussion about whether or not he should continue to start. As good as Hurts has played in his two Super Bowl appearances, that’s how bad he has played over the last couple of weeks.” Read more.
Marcus Hayes: “[A.J. Brown] was getting fewer and fewer looks. The ball just wasn’t finding him. He wanted the ball more. Hell, I wanted him to get the ball more. After all, with due respect to the golden oldies and one year of Terrell Owens, the Eagles have never had a receiver quite like him. But getting it to him has spelled disaster.” Read more.
Mike Sielski: “The Eagles are an excellent defensive team, and that is all, and that is not enough, not even close. Not with an offense like this. Not with this team’s tendency to commit untimely and inexcusable penalties. Not with so many questions that don’t get answered and so many problems that don’t get solved.” Read more.
Kenny Pickett started the Eagles’ Week 17 game against the Cowboys last season.
What the Raiders are saying
Pickett, who is plenty familiar with the Eagles as a player and a fan, is looking forward to starting against his former team Sunday — and has a bit of an idea what to expect.
“They’ll be ready to go,” Pickett said. “They have a hell of a team, there’s not a ton of new faces on that team, there’s a lot of really good players, I know the coaching staff, and how prepared they’re going to be for the game, so it’s a great opportunity.”
On what he took away from his Eagles experience: “Seeing what it looks like to be world champions, the dedication, the commitment from every position group, it was really player-led — that was a really cool thing. I think we had a great veteran leadership and a lot of those guys are still there.”
On the potential snowy weather: “I’m a Northeast guy, so this is new to me, going out and practicing in December and it’s 60 degrees every day. It’s unbelievable here, but I’m more used to when it hits November, December for it to be more like what it’ll be on game day, so I’m pretty familiar with it.”
Nationally, this week’s main character was Hurts, who took the mantle from offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. Things didn’t get off to a good start for the Eagles quarterback, with many, including ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, placing blame for their latest loss squarely on Hurts’ shoulders.
“You can’t make that throw,” Smith said of Hurts’ game-sealing interception in overtime. “You’re in field-goal range, in a position to tie. You know how much is on the line.”
“Do your job,” former Eagle Emmanuel Acho said on his Speakeasy podcast. “… He’s been average all season, and he was atrocious today. He was the reason they lost today.”
Nick Sirianni called the idea of benching Jalen Hurts “ridiculous.”
However, by the end of the week, Smith found himself on the other side of the debate, explaining why Hurts would continue starting to those calling for him to be benched.
“Jalen Hurts ain’t going to be benched,” Smith said Thursday on First Take. “The backup quarterback’s name is Tanner McKee, right? We all know Tanner McKee ain’t playing. We just know this, OK? Down the line, in the future, sure, but this year, Tanner McKee is not going to replace the reigning defending Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP.”
Here’s what else the national media had to say about Hurts this week …
Dan Orlovsky: “I was probably the most critical person of Jalen Hurts early in his career. He … was the MVP of the Super Bowl. And 10 months later — 10 months later from doing that — we’re going, ‘Do you think we should bench the quarterback?’ … Do you know how stupid of a question that is?”
Colin Cowherd: “The truth is, the more Jalen Hurts throws, the worse Philadelphia is. Those are the facts.”
LeSean McCoy: “Did he play bad? Yes. Did he play horrible? Hell yeah, but he ain’t no four-pick-type quarterback. He had a bad game. A lot of quarterbacks have that.”
When the Las Vegas Raiders roll into town on Sunday, they’ll be led by an old friend — former Eagles backup quarterback Kenny Pickett, who’s set to start in place of the injured Geno Smith.
Here’s what Pickett and the rest of the Raiders had to say about the Eagles ahead of Sunday’s game …
‘They have a hell of a team’
The Birds, losers of three straight, will be desperate for a get-right game against the 2-11 Raiders.
Pickett, in his first start of the year, is expecting the Eagles to be ready.
“They’ll be ready to go,” Pickett said. “They have a hell of a team, there’s not a ton of new faces on that team, there’s a lot of really good players, I know the coaching staff, and how prepared they’re going to be for the game, so it’s a great opportunity.
“Seeing what it looks like to be world champions, the dedication, the commitment from every position group, it was really player-led, that was a really cool thing,” Pickett added. “I think we had a great veteran leadership and a lot of those guys are still there.”
With the weather set to reach below-freezing temperatures and snow on the horizon, the Raiders, out in sunny Las Vegas, are preparing for their coldest game of the season so far.
But for Pickett, who spent his college and most of his NFL career in Pennsylvania, he’s used to it.
“I’m a Northeast guy, so this is new to me, going out and practicing in December and it’s 60 degrees every day,” he said. “It’s unbelievable here, but I’m more used to when it hits November, December for it to be more like what it’ll be on gameday, so I’m pretty familiar with it.”
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll shown during a game against the Chargers on Nov. 30.
Carroll on the Tush Push
Despite the never-ending discourse, the Eagles haven’t been nearly as successful on the Tush Push in 2025 as they have in years past.
That hasn’t stopped the play from being a lightning rod of controversy and a point of focus for opposing coaches, including Raiders head coach Pete Carroll.
“If you notice it’s the surge, and the defense does everything they can to throw their bodies at that thing, and then it’s the second surge that usually gets the first down,” Carroll said. “ … It’s the initial, and then it’s the second push that makes the difference.”
Kids heading in for hockey practice at Scanlon Recreation Center in Kensington on Wednesday were hit with a big holiday surprise.
Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim and Sixers guard Quentin Grimes were both on hand to gift $15,000 worth of hockey and basketball equipment, including new skates, helmets, and basketballs, through a partnership between the two teams and Bank of America. Gritty was also on-site in a Santa costume, of course.
“Sports is such a connector,” said Jim Dever, Bank of America Greater Philadelphia’s president. “No matter what your socio-economic level is, sports is just that. For us to make some dreams come through in an area that — certain sports are very expensive, so if we can help bridge that gap in some way, it’s just a great positive.”
After distributing the gear, Grimes joined the prepractice pizza party, and interacted with the kids before they started their skate.
“It’s the holiday season, I love giving back,” Grimes said. “I love being around the youth and to try to inspire them and give them some inspiration to always chase your dreams, and to give back for the holidays. It was really good, really fun.”
Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim hopped on the ice to skate with some of the young athletes taking part in the Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education program at the rink on Wednesday.
Then, Sanheim hopped on the ice to skate with some of the young athletes taking part in the Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education program at the rink for a free skate.
“It’s an expensive sport, so it’s hard for kids to get into, and so for us to allow them to have the gear to do it, it makes it easier for them to take it up,” Sanheim said. “I really hope that they enjoy it just as much as we do. We love the sport, and we were at their age when we started and took it up. So I hope we create hockey players out of this.”
Wednesday’s donation was the first of a series of equipment donations across the Philadelphia area as part of the partnership between the Flyers, Sixers, and Bank of America, with equipment purchased from C&M Sporting Goods in Havertown.
