Three days after Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said he would be “evaluating everything” in the wake of his team’s 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears, Sirianni reiterated that his play-caller will remain the same.
The Eagles, Sirianni said, spent the weekend — and still are — evaluating everything, but offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo will continue his normal duties as the team begins preparations for its Week 14 game Monday night at the Los Angeles Chargers.
Sirianni declined to go into particulars about what the self-scouting and evaluating over the weekend led to during what amounts to a mini-bye week.
“Everything was being evaluated,” Sirianni said. “We’ll think about some different things that we want to do, all over the place, scheme, everything. I don’t think it benefits us for me to share, in particular, what that is.
“Just know this: We want to get this thing fixed more than everybody. We live it, breathe it, and [are] involved in it every waking second of our lives. So that’s what we’re working on right now.”
The Eagles offense under its first-year coordinator has slipped into a prolonged rut after entering the Week 9 bye on the heels of what appeared to be two breakout performances. The Eagles have scored just 62 points in their last four games combined. They have been unable to establish a running game and the passing game has been inconsistent.
Jalen Hurts talks to Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo during the second quarter of the Oct. 26 win over the Giants.
Sirianni has not shied away from making changes in the past. In 2021, during his first season as head coach, Sirianni stripped himself of play-calling duties in favor of Shane Steichen. In 2023, the Eagles stripped defensive coordinator Sean Desai of third-down planning and eventually demoted him in favor of Matt Patricia.
Sirianni on Monday called those instances “different scenarios.”
“It isn’t just one person,” he said. “It’s the ultimate team game. … We’re working through everything. I have a lot of faith in all the players. I have a lot of faith in all the coaches.
“We got to execute it better, we got to scheme it better, all can be true, and we have to call it better. It’s every area that we need to improve on.”
The 2023 season has been brought up a lot during both of the Eagles’ two-game losing streaks this season. The Eagles, you may not need a reminder, started 10-1 before finishing their season by losing five of six and bowing out in the first round of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion.
“I think you saw a lot of the lessons we learned in ’23 resulted in what happened last year,” Sirianni said when asked Monday what lessons from then he may be leaning on.
“You always take lessons in everything. Sometimes that sting of the loss has even more impact, which is why I’m grateful for adversity and looking for an opportunity to get better from the adversity. Most definitely, those have lasting lessons.”
Sirianni again declined to go into specifics about the lessons he learned, but he said he has those things written down regarding what was learned and how it was learned.
“Those lumps that you take, if you allow them to, can knock you down and keep you down,” he said. “Or, those lumps that you take can let you rise up above everything.
“Right now, of course none of us are doing a good enough job right now. We all have to look internally and get better.”
Police confirmed that Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s house was vandalized early Saturday morning, two days before a viral video surfaced Monday depicting objects being thrown in the direction of a home.
According to the Moorestown Police Department, Patullo’s home was vandalized with multiple eggs at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, hours after the Eagles lost, 24-15, to the Chicago Bears on Black Friday.
Detectives are still working to determine the identities of those involved in the incident, a police spokesperson said.
Patullo, the first-year Eagles offensive coordinator, has shouldered the brunt of the blame for the Eagles’ struggles on offense. A website calling for his firing surfaced. Fans chanted for him to be fired during the game Friday.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reiterated Monday what he said Friday after the game: Patullo will remain the play-caller as the Eagles prepare for their Week 14 game at the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid sounded downright defiant Monday when asked about his team’s dwindling playoff hopes, which took a hit not only last week amid a Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys but over the weekend when other results didn’t go their way.
The reigning AFC champions are 6-6 with five games remaining, and even if the Chiefs win them all, they’ll still need help to return to the postseason. Because when the Steelers lost to the Bills on Sunday, that dropped Kansas City to 10th in the AFC playoff pecking order, thanks in part to a disappointing 3-4 record against the rest of the conference.
Depending on the metrics, the Chiefs have a roughly 1-in-3 chance of playing in the postseason.
“If you’re coming to me,” Reid said Monday, “we’re going to go after you every game, and that’s how we roll. We’re going to tickle your tonsils on every play, every game. But that’s the attitude we’re coming in with, and then you let the chips fall where they may.”
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have been plagued by penalties this season.
The Chiefs are third in the AFC West as they prepare to play the Texans on Sunday night, and are nearly eliminated from their pursuit of a 10th consecutive division title. Now, their focus is on extending a playoff streak that goes back to the 2015 season, the third with Reid as the head coach, and three full seasons before Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback.
There is reason for hope: The previous time Kansas City was 6-6 was 2017, and it won its last four games to earn a wild-card bid.
“Every season is different,” Reid said. “This is a sport of challenges. That’s what it is. It’s probably a microcosm of life as you look at it. There’s always challenges. … There’s such a small margin between winning and losing that every week is a challenge, a major challenge. That’s how you have to approach it, and you have to be ready for it.”
The biggest challenges the Chiefs are facing right now are of their own making. They’ve been dragged down by penalties and mental mistakes throughout much of the season, including in their 31-28 loss to the Cowboys, when a series of flags during the fourth quarter prevented them from having a chance to pull off a comeback victory.
Kansas City has the fifth-highest total of penalty yardage in the NFL this season.
“We have to make sure we take care of business with the penalties, keep working our fundamentals and techniques,” Reid said. “Not saying I agree with all of them, or half of them [against Dallas]. But they took place. We’re not going to use that as an excuse.”
Nor was Reid willing to make any excuses for the Kansas City pass rush, which has produced just 22 sacks this season, a total that is better than just five other teams. Or a defense that has produced 11 turnovers, a total better than three other teams.
“You’re one or two plays away and that’s what this game is,” Reid said. ”You look at our season, we’re one or two plays off, and we take care of that — whether it’s a penalty at a crucial time, a possible turnover somewhere, or having a chance to create a turnover — we are right in position where if we can figure out those two, three plays, you flip this around.”
Time is running out, though.
And while Reid sounded defiant about the Chiefs’ playoff peril Monday, he also understands the reality of the situation.
“You’re not going to hear a lot of positives from the outside coming in,” Reid said, “so you have to make sure you understand where you really sit, and the opportunity you have sitting in front of you. You know, there’s still opportunities.”
One disgruntled Eagles fan with access to the traffic signs near Lincoln Financial Field chose to display just one message on Monday morning: “Fire Kevin Patullo.”
The broadcast of Friday’s loss to the Bears, the Birds’ second in a row and fourth of the season, caught fans streaming toward the exits after the Bears’ touchdown late in the fourth quarter. But don’t take those early departures for lack of passion.
One fan made a Fire Kevin Patullo website, recounting the Eagles offense’s many struggles so far in 2025.
“We don’t need to pass for 250+ yards a game … but we could,” the site’s intro reads. “We don’t need to rush for 100+ yards a game … but we could. We shouldn’t go 0-8 passing in ANY half … but we did. We should run when we’re up 14 pts in the 2nd half … but we didn’t. We should NEVER run just 1 time in a half … but we did. We shouldn’t run the ball when it’s 3rd and long … but we do.”
Another fan apparently told his new girlfriend that they needed to stop talking until the end of the season, since the Birds have been playing badly ever since they got together.
“I like you a lot so don’t take that as a dismissal, just need to turn our luck around for the Birds and I think you’d understand that too,” he wrote to her on Snapchat.
Like any good Eagles fan, she was fine with it since it was “for the Birds,” she replied. After posting it on Reddit, a few r/Eagles users offered to pay for their next date after the season if the Birds turned their luck around.
Meanwhile, NFL Network analyst Rich Eisen took to YouTube to implore Eagles fans to stay calm, considering the Birds are still 8-4 and extremely likely to make the playoffs.
“I understand, one year, 10-1, making the playoffs and then they got one-and-doned, and you’re afraid that’s going to happen again, because of what I said, of too many mistakes, but everything I just said is fixable,” Eisen said.
With five games left in the regular season, the Eagles are running out of time to fix it.
It really was a Black Friday in Philadelphia after the Eagles suffered another disappointing loss, this one to the Chicago Bears, 24-15.
A few days later, everyone from former Birds to your extended family has spent the holiday weekend talking about where the Eagles offense has gone wrong this year. Here’s what some of the national media are saying …
Nick Sirianni calling plays?
Should Nick Sirianni step in to call plays on offense for the rest of the season? Sirianni hasn’t called plays since the early days as the Birds’ head coach, before Shane Steichen ultimately took over the reins and didn’t look back.
On NFL Countdown on Sunday, Rex Ryan said that Sirianni should consider it. Alex Smith appeared to agree.
“They don’t outcoach anybody on the offensive side of the ball,” Alex Smith said. “A.J. Brown took a lot of flak a few weeks ago, he was the lone bright spot. He doesn’t look that wrong now. There’s clearly something wrong there on offense.”
“They were in a similar situation last year, when all of a sudden they stopped and said, who the hell are we?” Ryan said. “Get back to running the dang football, whatever it takes. You’ve got to get Jalen Hurts involved. You can scheme, too! Ben Johnson schemed the hell out of them, and you’ve got better players than Ben Johnson does.”
Kevin Patullo has been with the Eagles since 2021 but is in his first season as the team’s offensive coordinator.
Nick Foles weighs in
Nick Foles sees everyone’s frustrations with the Eagles offense, but he’s not ready to pull the plug on offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo just for the sake of making a change.
Foles doesn’t believe Sirianni wants to call plays himself, and the solution to the Birds’ offensive woes in the long term might be outside the building.
So, in the short term, Foles pitched a few potential solutions, including moving Patullo up from the sideline into the booth.
“Being a pass game coordinator, [Patullo’s] role was to be in the box, to be in the booth, to oversee what is happening on the field from an up-above perspective, not being on the sidelines with the players and feeling the emotions from the sideline,” Foles said. “He was in a controlled environment to see coverages, to see plays, and to make recommendations for the passing game.”
Foles is incorrect in saying that Patullo worked from the box as passing game coordinator. He actually worked from the sideline, but the point remains.
Being on the sideline surrounded by the players provides a different perspective than being up in the box, which is also where Vic Fangio calls plays from. It’s a less distracting environment, and it can be easier to make adjustments as the drive develops instead of waiting to watch tape on delay.
“Get out of the sideline, get away from the emotions, because that could be clouding your vision,” Foles said. “You have a different perspective from the sideline. You can’t see the coverages as they’re forming. You can’t see the defensive alignments very well.”
Chris Long agreed with Foles that it’s hard to bring in a new coordinator or replace the coordinator at this point in the season.
Brian Daboll was fired as Giants head coach on Nov. 10.
The Eagles could explore bringing in an outside consultant to help improve Hurts and the offense’s performance, but Long is not sure who stands out as a potential candidate aside from fired Giants coach Brian Daboll.
“You look at a lot of these Eagles coordinators that have had success, they’re not homegrown,” Long said. “The ones that are homegrown, they’re just not working out. You’ve got problems everywhere.”
After Super Bowl LIX, Long said many, including himself due to his connection to the Birds, got a bit too “fanboy-ish” about the Eagles and about Hurts’ skill set, and their shortcomings are in full focus now.
“We get so hyperbolic about everything in pro sports,” Long said. “If we’d all just said, the quarterback’s not a perfect quarterback, you have to build around him … It’s not just the roster, because the roster was in pretty good shape when we rolled it out this year. It’s got to be the scheme, too.”
It’s been almost a month since Travis Konecny stood outside the Flyers locker room in Nashville and was asked where he thought his game was.
Although he had 10 points (four goals, six assists) and was plus-2 in the first 13 games, he still felt his game was coming. “I know that I haven’t had my best stuff yet this year,” he said.
In the last 11 games, he has nine points (one goal, eight assists), but his 17-goal, 65-point pace is well below the 29 goals he has averaged over the last three seasons and his career high of 76 points set last season.
But the end of the season is a long way off, and his track record of leading the Flyers in scoring for five of the last six seasons, including the last four, hints that the best is yet to come.
“I still feel like there’s more for me to give,” he said, sitting in the Flyers locker room at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday. “I feel like there’s parts that have gotten better. I’m trying to find myself in more shooting areas, but I also know playing with [Noah Cates] and [Tyson Foerster], me and Cater are two guys that love being on the hunt, you know, digging and finding pucks.
“And Foery’s going to be more of our trigger guy — and I think everyone would rather that,” he said with a chuckle. “He’s got such a good shot, so trying to balance that out, but also put myself in some shooting opportunity spots, maybe get to the net a little bit more.
“But I mean, overall good. Our team’s playing well, our line’s playing good, and just keep building off little things like that, and everything will fall into place.”
It does feel like his game is coming a little more lately. He scored the game-winner in a shootout against the New York Islanders on Friday and notched two assists Saturday in the win against the New Jersey Devils.
Flyers right wing Travis Konecny says he wants to find himself in more shooting opportunities.
Many noted it was probably his best game of the year as he was active across all zones and made several heads-up plays. One assist was on a two-on-one with Matvei Michkov, who had just come out of the penalty box. The other was a shot by Konecny that beat Jacob Markström but was later changed to a Michkov goal as it went off the winger in front.
Konecny, 28, has bounced around a little bit this season. After starting the season alongside Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippett, he was moved to a line with Sean Couturier and Michkov, his linemates at the end of last season. The line played well, but Konecny had only two goals and 13 assists in the 25 games after the 4 Nations Face-Off.
But now he’s back with Cates, with whom he played consistently in 2022-23 during Cates’ first full season, and Foerster.
According to Natural Stat Trick, they may trail in chances for (60-84) but have outscored the opposition by 5-0 in the 73 minutes, 34 seconds they’ve played together across the season. Pretty sure everyone prefers the latter.
“His game’s starting to come, less turnovers, he’s making more solid decisions,” coach Rick Tocchet said of Konecny. “There’s times when he’s taking the puck to the hole and shooting it, where before you take it, he’s looking to pass.”
“So I’m seeing a lot more conviction in the game, where I’m going to play inside and things like that, instead of playing outside. And he’s a pest out there too, that’s when he’s at his best.”
While Konecny will say that the Flyers get amped for every game, there may be a little more oomph for him Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins (7 p.m., NBCSP). In 34 career games against the Keystone State rivals, Konecny has 13 goals and 29 points. He scored in the Flyers’ 3-2 shootout win against the Penguins in October and was named the first star of the game.
Breakaways
Dan Vladař will start in net Monday for the Flyers. Sam Ersson was in goal for the win in October. … Tocchet said that while the forwards would be the same, he wasn’t sure whether Egor Zamula or Noah Juulsen would be the sixth defenseman. … Flyers prospect Shane Vansaghi was named to USA Hockey’s preliminary roster for World Juniors. The tournament will be played in Minnesota beginning on Dec. 26. … Defenseman Adam Ginning cleared waivers Monday and has been assigned to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. … Beginning Monday night, fans can bring new unwrapped toys to every home game in December. The toys will be donated to the Salvation Army.
Things aren’t getting better; they’re getting worse. The theme doesn’t just apply to the Eagles’ Black Friday loss to the Chicago Bears. It fits the narrative of the entire 2025 season. With five games to go, there’s little reason to hope or expect significant change to take place, particularly on the offensive side of the ball – unless…
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Olivia Reiner take a look at what the Eagles’ seemingly inherent flaws mean for the homestretch of the season, and how they could affect the fate of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
unCovering the Birds is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts. Look for new episodes throughout the season, including day-after-game reactions.
If you want to keep beating your head against the wall, keep expecting Jalen Hurts to turn into Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen.
If you want to preserve your sanity, however, just accept Hurts as a complementary player.
That’s not an insult. It’s objective analysis. He’s playing a little bit better than his draft projection, which, on the NFL’s website in 2020, read thus:
“Slow recognition of early throw opportunities. Leaves slants and crossers behind targets. Misses check-downs. … Quick to drop his eyes when pressure mounts. … He’ll struggle to beat NFL defenses from the pocket.”
Granted, these were the most negative aspects of Hurts’ profile, which projected him as a second-round pick who might one day develop into a competent starter. Which, to date, is exactly what he became.
Look around the league. Philadelphia is lucky to have him.
He’s a competent starter with a few special gifts. He is a tireless worker, a steady hand on the tiller, a fine runner, fearless, tough, accurate, with exquisite touch on deep passes. He is not the total package. To expect him to be so only courts disappointment.
Eagles first-year coordinator Kevin Patullo might not be calling all the best plays, and his sequencing might be imperfect, but the consensus among analysts and several Eagles sources is that Patullo’s not the problem. Hurts is missing wide-open receivers, sometimes missing multiple receivers on the same play, even when he’s not pressured.
But no sane entity in the Eagles’ organization, to my extensive knowledge, is wishing for Hurts to be replaced by Tanner McKee, who has yet to take a meaningful snap in a meaningful game since being drafted in the sixth round three years ago.
Hurts played his best in 2022, which was his second season with offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, now the coach in Indianapolis. He was superb at times in 2024 under Kellen Moore, who’d coached and coordinated Dak Prescott for five years in Dallas; Prescott had a similar pedigree and projection as Hurts.
This year the Eagles hoped Hurts would develop past the need for an experienced coordinator. He has not.
Have there been streaks over the years in which Hurts looks like a star? Sure. Has he produced in several big games? Absolutely.
Jalen Hurts’ second season with offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, in 2022, perhaps gave a false sense of what the quarterback was capable of.
But the league clearly caught up with him after that first Pro Bowl season in 2022, when his legs were as much as a weapon as his feet. He is running far less frequently this season, on pace for 119 runs, which would be his career low as a starter. The player we’ve seen for large stretches of the 2023, 2024, and 2025 seasons matches that NFL.com draft profile better than it matches the Super Bowl LIX MVP.
Hurts isn’t the superstar owner Jeffrey Lurie and the Jordan Brand wish he was. Rather, he’s at the right place at the right time. He finds himself surrounded by elite talent on both sides of the ball, led by a very good coaching staff, with the NFL‘s best owner and its best GM. Together, they make it work. They win, a lot. But when good defenses set their minds to making Hurts beat them, and disguise their defenses, winning is less certain and much uglier. That’s what has happened in 2025.
There are other issues, of course. Chief among them: Twelve games in, the projected starting offensive line has yet to start and finish consecutive games, and probably won’t do so for at least three more weeks. The defense started poorly but has improved. Saquon Barkley isn’t as explosive, and his debut as an Eagle in 2024 was the best season a back has ever had, and that provided the best sort of camouflage for Hurts.
Most big-money quarterbacks are asked to be the best player, but Hurts’ real job is to complement players who are better at their job than he is at his, when compared with players who play their positions. Led by Barkley, those players include, without question, receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and linemen Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, and Lane Johnson. Tight end Dallas Goedert and center Cam Jurgens might qualify, too.
That’s no insult to Hurts. It’s really a compliment to Howie Roseman, who acquired them all, including Hurts, at excellent draft and salary values.
Howie Roseman surrounded Jalen Hurts — a complementary piece — with stars like A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
It’s true that a better quarterback would not be diminishing prime years of Brown, Smith, Barkley, and Goedert. But Hurts isn’t going anywhere. He is the darling of Lurie, who insisted on both the drafting of Hurts in 2020 (which devastated franchise QB Carson Wentz) and the unnecessary, $255 million contract extension in the spring of 2023, after which Lurie said Hurts already was one of “the great ones.”
The “great ones” don’t miss receivers, misdiagnose defenses, and make decisions too late to matter. Not this often.
He’s only 27. Maybe Hurts can be great yet. Giants bust Daniel Jones is thriving in his seventh season now that he’s in Indianapolis. Jets bust Sam Darnold resurrected his career in Minnesota in 2024, his seventh season, and he’s even better this season in Seattle. Browns bust Baker Mayfield found new life in his sixth season with his fourth team, Tampa Bay, where he’s gone to the past two Pro Bowls.
That’s not much solace here on the homestretch of a muddled, 8-4 season in which the offense still hasn’t played four quarters of proficient football against a good defense.
The Eagles, as defending champs, have endured a hellish schedule, one that includes losses to unexpectedly good teams like Denver and Chicago. Hurts has yet to deliver the sort of wire-to-wire performance you would expect from a quarterback averaging $51 million per season (even though that ranks just 11th in the NFL).
What 2025 has proved is that Hurts, today, is a pretty good quarterback who can win you games if things fall just right. If that’s not good enough for you, well, too bad.
You can get angry, and you can beat your head against that wall, but nothing’s going to change except the level of your headache.
The Cult of Analytics
You never start an argument with an analytics zealot because you will always lose. They have data and numbers and history. They generally ignore intangibles such as momentum, atmosphere, competition, site, and psyche.
This matters this week because of the meaningless yet fiery debate, fueled by superb (if somewhat self-anointing) NFL analyst Greg Olsen, surrounding the Eagles’ decision to try a two-point conversion with more than three minutes to play, trailing by nine, to make it a seven-point game. It failed. That meant the Eagles needed two more possessions to win, which was unlikely considering the limited time remaining. It made more common sense to kick the PAT and make it an eight-point game.
Nick Sirianni said, “I’m always going to go for a two in that scenario,” citing his personal research on the matter over several years. Sirianni is winning at a legendary clip, so maybe his studies show something publicly available that analytics do not. Those analytics give a slight edge to doing what Sirianni did.
But what Sirianni did virtually assured the loss. By doing so, it removed any real incentive from the defense, which had already been on the field 14 minutes more than the offense. The most realistically hopeful scenario after the missed two-point try was for the defense to hold, for the Eagles to score a TD, then for the Eagles to recover an onside kick, which happens at only about a 5% rate in the last two seasons.
Olsen and his tribe used X/Twitter to preach their message, which, predictably, incensed the anti-analytics barbarians.
The 2 pt conversation is this
Philly trailed by 15
That’s a 2 score game slightly less than 50% of time (2pt success rate)
It’s a 3 score game the remaining %
You want to know as early as possible how many possessions you need.
Nobody’s any good, right? The Eagles lost at home to the Bears, who are the NFC’s top seed. The Colts lost at home to the Texans, the mighty Rams lost in Carolina, the Chiefs lost at Dallas, and Jacksonville’s 8-4, the third seed in the AFC, behind the No. 2 Patriots and the No. 1 Broncos. And both the Chiefs and Lions would miss the playoffs if the season ended today, just like nobody predicted.
There’s a new king in the NFC, and it’s the team that strolled into Lincoln Financial Field on Black Friday, ran all over the Eagles, and silenced the critics — this writer included — who said its 8-3 record was fugazi.
Yes, if the season ended today, all roads would lead to the shirtless final boss, Ben Johnson, and his 9-3 Chicago Bears. And if that pole positioning holds, they’ll have earned it. Chicago’s final five games look like this: at Green Bay, home vs. Cleveland, home vs. Green Bay, at San Francisco, home vs. Detroit.
In other words, the Bears are holding on to that top seed in a similar way Jalen Hurts held onto the football during that fourth-quarter Tush Push on Friday.
There are six teams in the NFC now with eight or nine wins, and the Eagles — despite the sky falling on Philadelphia and Nick Sirianni fairly being asked about his offensive coordinator’s job status — are one of them.
Only two teams have an easier schedule the rest of the way than the Eagles, according to Tankathon, and neither team is in the aforementioned group.
How likely is the No. 1 seed for the Eagles? FTN Fantasy puts the chances at 3.3%. Not great. But not quite the one-in-a-million odds Christmas faced in Dumb and Dumber.
In fact, considering FTN puts the Eagles’ playoff chances at 93.3%, there’s a better mathematical chance this collapse ends with the Eagles blowing the NFC East and missing the playoffs than the Eagles turning it around and securing the No. 1 seed.
Still, that latter scenario seems pretty unrealistic given the schedule ahead. The Eagles could be facing a Chargers team without Justin Herbert, then they have the lowly Raiders and their minus-129 point differential. After that, the remaining three contests are a difficult road game at Buffalo sandwiched by two Commanders games.
The magic number — any combination of Eagles wins and Cowboys losses — to clinch the NFC East is four. FTN Fantasy has the Eagles at 91% to win the NFC East. The Eagles control their destiny there.
As far as the No. 1 seed goes, it’s out of their hands, thanks to Chicago’s 281 rushing yards and another stinker from one of the highest-paid offenses in the NFL.
As 76ers public-address announcer Matt Cord rolled through Sunday’s starting lineup, an in-arena camera caught Joel Embiid jogging down the hallway that connects the locker room to the tunnel. He then met his huddled teammates, who bounced and threw their arms in the air while engulfing the former MVP.
Embiid was back — again — from a nine-game absence because of an issue in his right knee. He described his first half as successful and his second half as “a little rough,” while totaling 18 points, four rebounds, and two assists in a season-high 30 minutes in a double-overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Before training camp, Embiid said he was prepared to face unpredictable health flare-ups that would force personal restarts throughout the season. He stressed the need to navigate them methodically and with positivity.
So how would he evaluate his ability to put that mentality into practice?
“It was OK,” Embiid said at his locker after the game. “Obviously, like I said, it’s going to happen, so you can’t put your head down and whine about it. Keep working hard and trying to get back at it as close as possible.
“What can we do? The only thing you can do is keep doing the right things, focusing on the right things, and go from there.”
Sunday’s return meant the 10-9 Sixers’ max-contract players Embiid, Tyrese Maxey (44 points, nine assists, seven rebounds), and Paul George (16 points, seven rebounds, four assists, five steals) — plus third overall draft pick VJ Edgecombe (seven points, two assists, two steals) — played together for the first time. And though Kelly Oubre Jr. (knee) and Trendon Watford (thigh) remain out, it was the closest the Sixers have gotten to a “normal” top of the rotation — at least in the first half, before minutes restrictions became a factor.
Joel Embiid passes to Tyrese Maxey, who led the Sixers with 44 points against the Hawks on Sunday.
That it took until Game 19 to achieve this was unfortunate for Embiid, who said he was “actually getting back to myself” just before reporting soreness in his right knee the morning of a Nov. 11 home game against the Boston Celtics.
His day-to-day status turned into nearly three weeks, including recent toggles between questionable to play and out. Embiid said Sunday that uncertainty was due to how his knee responded to on-court sessions.
He was initially ruled out for Sunday’s game on the NBA’s official injury report, before getting upgraded to questionable in the afternoon. He stepped onto the court for his pregame warmup about 45 minutes before tipoff, then was officially announced as in the starting lineup.
On the Sixers’ first possession, Embiid took his defender off the dribble to get to his spot for an elbow jumper. He hit a baseline fadeaway in the second period, then two more textbook mid-range shots. At halftime, he had 11 points on an efficient 4-of-6 shooting in 13 minutes.
Coach Nick Nurse said he was pleased with how Embiid created offense and open space for teammates in a variety of ways. He set pin-down screens, or began possessions in the corner while George and Dominick Barlow ran pick-and-rolls in the middle of the floor. He executed dribble handoffs with Quentin Grimes. And though he could lean on his exceptional two-man chemistry with Maxey when the game got tight down the stretch, Embiid reiterated his desire to contribute to the Sixers’ faster-paced, passer-friendly offense.
“I can make nine of those 10 shots [off the short roll] every single time,” Embiid said. “It’s easy to get there. But I think it’s also better when everybody else is involved and we play together.”
Added Maxey: “It’s different, because he’s still really good. We’ve still got to get him the ball. We’ve also got to run our stuff. … We haven’t really practiced with that group [with George and Edgecombe], so it’s kind of hard. But that’s no excuse. I think we did a good enough job to win the game.”
When Maxey’s heroic game-tying three-pointer forced overtime, Embiid said he “fought hard” to play in the extra frame. He missed both shot attempts during that stretch but helped Barlow protect the rim on a Jalen Johnson miss with 5.3 seconds to go.
Embiid then “wasn’t allowed” to stretch his minutes restriction further to play in the second overtime. It was an obvious absence because of the “simple” package of plays the Sixers can run through the big man even while he is limited physically. Nurse noted that smaller players attempted to set screens for Maxey, but they “couldn’t hardly get up there because of the physicality” of the Hawks.
“I still felt like there’s something I could have done,” Embiid said, “just being on the floor.”
Embiid said he will not judge his progress on his shot-making but by how he moves laterally and jumps. Though a hesitancy (or inability) to get airborne for rebounds was obvious, Embiid said Sunday’s effective first half was a “good step” on which to build.
And the need for another personal restart is no surprise to Embiid.
“If anybody thinks that I don’t want to play every game, that’s their problem,” he said. “But I think, this year, I’ve shown that I would do anything just to play one game of basketball. … You’ve just got to trust what you’re doing, and in God, and be OK with the fact that whatever happens, happens.
“If I have something [that] happened to me like it happened, what can I do? Just go out and rehab, and come back as soon as possible. That’s the mindset.”
