There are a lot of questions surrounding the Eagles after their collapse in Dallas on Sunday, their third loss of the year, and easily their worst.
Here’s what former players and media are saying about the game and where the Birds go from here …
Who deserves the blame?
The Eagles got off to a hot start on offense against the Cowboys, building an early 21-0 lead, and looking like an offense finding the form that had evaded it in previous matchups against Detroit and Green Bay.
But the Birds failed to score a single point after that, going scoreless over the game’s final 40-plus minutes and allowing the Cowboys to come all the way back to win the game, 24-21.
Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton said on First Take on Monday that, despite being extremely high on many of the Birds’ players, it’s concerning that there hasn’t been one game where the Eagles’ offense has truly put it all together and shown what they are seemingly capable of for 60 minutes.
“A team of that caliber, we don’t expect those things to happen to them,” Newton said. “The thing that’s alarming is, the first three drives you score, you come out with a bang, we impose our will. The last eight drives, nothing. The frustration stems from, when are the Philadelphia Eagles are going to put it together, all together?
“You’re starting to say, is it the offensive coordinator? Is it the quarterback? The players? That’s where my frustration comes in. When you have that much talent, and to not have one game — here we are in [Game] 11 — to not be able to say, they figured it out.”
"A team of [the Eagles'] caliber, we don't expect those things to happen." ✍️
So, how concerned should fans be about the state of Kevin Patullo’s offense right now? ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky says very.
“I’m very concerned about the offense, because it’s not good enough to beat good teams,” Orlovsky said. “It will not be good enough to beat a team like the Packers in the playoffs, the Rams in the playoffs, the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs.
“They’re one-dimensional. They’re pass-only success when it comes to the offense’s ability. Their offensive line loses one-on-ones, they’re predictable in the run game, Saquon [Barkley] has not made people miss in space nearly as much as he was last year, and their routes — you can be predictable on offense if you’re creative with your route concepts. They’re not.”
.@danorlovsky7 says he is very concerned about the Eagles' offense 😳
Damien Woody and Rex Ryan agreed on Get Up that the Eagles’ offense was “elementary,” especially compared to more advanced NFL offenses like the Los Angeles Rams or even the Dallas Cowboys. In 2024, the Birds were able to crush teams up front with their offensive line, but Woody, a former NFL offensive lineman, said they can’t do that anymore.
“Their offensive line is nowhere near what it was in previous years,” Woody said.
Prior to Sunday’s game, Nick Foles discussed on his podcast what he sees as the biggest issues with the Eagles’ “superpowered” offense, which hasn’t been able to get into a good rhythm this year.
Dallas Cowboys cornerback Daron Bland defends A.J. Brown in the first quarter at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.
Foles, like Orlovsky, called out the Eagles’ route designs, which haven’t put A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in the best position to get open, which in turn prevents Barkley from finding the holes he found last year. The former Eagles quarterback told co-host Evan Moore that the Birds utilize “simplistic” route trees (or the combination of routes a player can run at a given time) that don’t create space for the players, forcing them to get open and make plays on their own.
“The great teams, those guys are wide-open. Even when I’m watching with [my wife] Tori, she’s like, ‘Why are these guys so wide-open?’” Foles explained. “And I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a complementary route to a deep route. … You need those downfield shots because it puts more pressure on the [defensive backs], it opens up more one-on-one matchups, but you’ve got to have complementary [routes], because then the DB can’t key and can’t guess.
“So the creativity is key as a play-caller, and calling the plays at the right time. … There’s just an art. And I don’t see that this year. I don’t think anyone sees it. Fans that are passionate Eagles fans — because I’ve been to Philly several times — and you hear, every time I run across Philly fans, ’Man, what do you think is going to happen with the offense? What’s going on? Is this Jalen [Hurts]?’ I’m like, ‘Listen, it’s a team thing. Kevin Patullo is probably a great dude, a great coach, but there’s an art to play-calling that not everyone has and it’s not showing up this year.
“They’re in more of a trajectory of the 2023 season … I would argue that they’re more on that trajectory than last year’s trend line, but at the same time, I do know that they have the players.”
Jett Luchanko has been traded. Luchanko, the Flyers’ 2024 first-round pick and the co-captain for Guelph of the Ontario Hockey League, is on the move to the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs. In exchange for Luchanko, Guelph will receive center Layne Gallacher and four future draft picks.
General Manager George Burnett has announced today that the club has traded forward Jett Luchanko to the Brantford Bulldogs in exchange for forward Layne Gallacher and picks.
The trade was expected after the Storm were awarded the 2027 Memorial Cup late last week. Guelph was willing to move Luchanko, one of its top players, to recoup assets that will help it build for next season, when the Storm will participate in the tournament as hosts.
The prestigious trophy, which was originally awarded by the Ontario Hockey Association in 1919, is awarded to the best team in Canadian junior hockey. The annual four-team tournament features the champions of the OHL, Western Hockey League, and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, as well as that season’s host city’s team.
Kelowna, British Columbia, will host this year’s tournament, which will conclude right before the start of the NHL’s Scouting Combine in early June. There’s a good chance the Bulldogs will be there. Coached by Flyers general manager Danny Brière’s former Buffalo Sabres teammate Jay McKee, Brantford sits atop the OHL’s Eastern Conference and has yet to lose in regulation in 23 games (18-0-4-1).
Jake O’Brien, the No. 8 pick in June’s draft, will now be teammates with Jett Luchanko with the Brantford Bulldogs.
After breaking camp for the second straight season with the Flyers, Luchanko skated in four NHL games and did not register a point before being sent back to Guelph on Oct. 27. He has 17 points (two goals, 15 assists) in 11 games for the 11-11-2-0 Storm.
“He’s going to play in the NHL, there’s no doubt about that. Now, how high does he get? That’s really up to him, but it’s in there,” Brière said when Luchanko was sent down. “The speed alone is going to scare a lot of teams eventually — when he gets more comfortable, when he gets more assertive out there. The speed alone is probably his biggest asset. … From our end, we need patience.”
Luchanko, who turned 19 in August, was ineligible to play in the American Hockey League due to the longstanding NHL-CHL agreement, which prevents Canadian Hockey League players under 20 years old from going to the AHL. That rule will change next season when each team is expected to be granted at least one exemption.
With Luchanko unable to play in the AHL or the NCAA, a trade to Brantford will be viewed by many as the next best thing for his development, as he will play alongside better players and in more important games, including maybe the Memorial Cup.
The London, Ontario, native joins a stacked team led by Jake O’Brien, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2025 draft by the Seattle Kraken, and Adam Benák, a fourth-round selection by Minnesota this past summer. Those two rank first and second in the OHL in points, respectively. O’Brien, a playmaking center, was thought to be in consideration for the Flyers at No. 6 before the team landed on Porter Martone.
But how Luchanko will be deployed by McKee will be interesting. The focus for the center’s return to juniors was to get him ice time, and there’s only so much to go around.
“Very simple, we want him to play high minutes,” Brière said when Luchanko was sent down. “We liked what we’ve seen. He could have stayed here; he showed that he can play. But we want more than that for him in the long run.
“And we felt at this point it was time for him to start playing high minutes and more of an offensive role, get back to playing power play, killing penalties, facing the top opposition on the other team, on a nightly basis.”
With Guelph, he did have seven power-play assists, and one of his two goals was scored while shorthanded, but the Flyers want to see him shoot the puck more. He had 25 shots on goal across those 11 games with Guelph.
Skating with the Flyers, Luchanko averaged 8 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time, registering one shot on goal and a plus-minus of minus-3. He had just three shots on goal in five preseason games, and an NHL scout told The Inquirer in early October that Luchanko, who is listed at 6-foot, 190 pounds, doesn’t look NHL strong yet and needs to play a harder, more confident game.
“It’s a comfort thing. He just needs to feel comfortable,” Brière said. “I know how you feel as an 18- or 19-year-old. You’re coming in, you’re trying to please everybody around you. You’re on the ice with guys you’ve been watching on TV. You have a Travis Konecny beside you, obviously, you’re going to force a pass there. It’s human nature. That’s just how it is.
“It takes time, and hopefully he’s going to get out of that pretty soon. And we’ve seen him play in juniors. He can shoot the puck. He’s got a good shot. It’s just the confidence that he needs to do it here now.”
Luchanko is expected to also get a chance to work on his game at World Juniors. A Hockey Canada scout was at the game the day after he was sent down, hoping to see Luchanko; instead, he watched Ben Kindel of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who should be joining him in Minnesota when the tournament starts on Boxing Day.
When he is eventually named to the team, Luchanko will represent Canada for the second time at the tournament. He skated last year, averaging 12:22 of ice time across five games, scoring one goal, and while Brière thought “he performed great,” the Flyers were “disappointed” in the small role Canada gave Luchanko. This year, Dale Hunter, who just coached Flyers prospects Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey to the Memorial Cup with London of the OHL, is the head coach for Canada.
Luke Murton just completed his first season as the Phillies’ minor league director. He joins Phillies Extra to discuss the state of the farm system, including the 2026 expectations for Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter, and Aidan Miller, as well as less heralded players to monitor. Watch and listen.
John Borodiak, 89, of Philadelphia, Hall of Fame Argentine American professional soccer player, popular coach and sports center volunteer, and longtime Center City dental lab owner, died Saturday, Sept. 13, of complications from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases at Graduate Post Acute nursing facility.
Born and reared in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of Ukrainian descent, a young Mr. Borodiak was such a star that, in 1960, at 24, he was invited to leave South America and play soccer in the United States for the Ukrainian Nationals in Philadelphia. So, for seven seasons, through 1966, he played fullback for the Ukrainian Nationals and won four American Soccer League championships and four U.S. Open Cup titles.
As a 5-foot-8, 160-pound defensive whiz, Mr. Borodiak didn’t score many goals or race down the field on breakaways. But, said his son, Ivan, also a former pro soccer player: “He was smooth, quick, and good up in the air.”
He played on the 1964 U.S. national team and was inducted into the Horsham-based Ukrainian Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 2017. Over the years, he played against Brazilian superstar Pele and other international stars, and former colleagues called him “a living legend.”
Mr. Borodiak (left) played against Pele (center) and other international stars.
He also played with the Philadelphia Spartans in the National Professional Soccer League and the ASL’s Newark Ukrainian Sitch in 1966 and ’67. He spent the 1968 season with the Cleveland Stokers and 1969 with the Baltimore Bays in the North American Soccer League. He retired after playing a final season with the Spartans in 1970.
He made headlines after a game in 1967 when he blocked the game-tying goal after his goalie was caught out of position. “After I saw [the goaltender) go out, I expected something to happen in that corner,” he told the Daily News. “I moved up there, and the shot bounced off my chest.”
Affable and engaging off the field, Mr Borodiak became a favorite of teammates, fans, and sportswriters. He hosted instructional clinics for young players and, after learning English himself, served as a translator for other players and the media. He spoke Ukrainian, English, Spanish, and Italian.
In 1967, Daily News sports writer Dick Metzgar published his Christmas wish list and asked for “more hustling performers like little fullback John Borodiak.”
Mr. Borodiak (left) passed his athleticism on to his son and grandson.
He helped anchor a Spartans defense in 1967 that Metzgar called “impenetrable” and was known for his aggressiveness. He was ejected for fighting in a game against Baltimore that season, and he told the Delaware County Daily Times that his opponent hit him in the back. “Naturally,” he said, “I hit back.”
He was a team cocaptain in Cleveland and named a NASL all-star in 1968, and his Stokers lost a heartbreaking playoff game to Atlanta in overtime that season. After the game, a disappointed Mr. Borodiak told the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “I’m sorry.”
He rejoined the Spartans in 1970 when they entered the American Soccer League, and The Inquirer covered their big win over the Syracuse Scorpions. “A strong defensive cog, John Borodiak, was added to the Spartans lineup,” The Inquirer said, “and he played fullback in impressive style.”
In a 1969 story after the Bays tied the Dallas Tornado, the Baltimore Sun said: “Borodiak made one of the best saves of the day when he blocked a shot after [the goalie] had been pulled out of the net.” In 1966, he played briefly for Roma in the Eastern Canada Pro Soccer League, and a teammate told the Toronto Star: “Borodiak is a fine fullback and fits in well with our style of play.”
Mr. Borodiak (rear, third from left) and teammates on the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals pose during the 1966 season.
He coached soccer teams after he retired, played with amateur teams into his 40s, and was active for years at the Ukrainian American Sports Center in North Wales.
He earned certification at Temple University in dental cosmetics in the 1960s and owned a lab in the Medical Arts Building in Center City until he retired in 2018. At 50 years, Mr. Borodiak was the longest-tenured tenant ever in that building, his son, Ivan, said.
“He was a wonderful person,” his family said in a tribute, “He was a best friend, a champion, and a legend of his sport and in life.”
Born July, 13, 1936, Ivan Gregorio Borodiak changed his name to John when he came to the United States. He met Betty Pilari in Argentina, and they married in 1962, and lived in Bensalem and Queen Village.
Mr. Borodiak and his wife, Betty, married in 1962.
Mr. Borodiak was generous and gentle, his son said. He enjoyed fishing and car shows, and he built his own Mercedes-Benz from the tires up.
Friends noted his “kindness, gratitude, and warmth” in online tributes. One said: ”He was always a people person, and his smile could light up the darkest room.”
His son said: “He was a great man. He never had an enemy, and he overcame every adversity.”
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Borodiak is survived by four grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.
Mr. Borodiak (left) doted on his grandchildren.
Private services were held earlier.
Donations in his name may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave. Floor 17, Chicago, Ill. 60601.
It took 19 minutes for the Cowboys defense to remember it doesn’t stink anymore. Once that happened, they shut down the Eagles and saved their season.
“If anything could go wrong, we had it happen to us, against one of the best teams there is,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
He stood outside a jubilant home locker room in a royal blue suit, relieved that the last six weeks of the season had not been rendered meaningless. The Cowboys roared back from a 21-0 deficit Sunday and won, 24-21, on a last-second field goal.
“We came back from it and won the game when our backs were against the wall,” Jones said.
Their backs aren’t exactly clear of the wall, and they’ll be spotlighted for the next three weeks. They host a desperate Chiefs team Thanksgiving afternoon, visit Detroit on Thursday Night Football, then host Minnesota on Sunday Night Football.
Frankly, after their first two-game winning streak of the season, they seem up to it.
Dak Prescott threw for 354 yards and the receiving tandem of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens made unreal catches. But the 41-minute shutout the defense pitched gave the man who runs this 5-5-1 team real reason for hope.
“A balanced effort with a defense carrying things,” Jones said, and paused. “I wouldn’t have dreamed that could have come out of my mouth six weeks ago.”
Six weeks ago, Jones’ defense was the worst in the league. Not only had it been ravaged by short-and long-term injuries, it hadn’t recovered from the trade of edge rusher Micah Parsons to Green Bay just before the season began. That was a trade made necessary by Jones’ latest botched offseason contract talks, which also resulted in the crippling contracts of Prescott and Lamb.
Further fallout: Jones had to spend first- and second-round picks in a deadline trade for Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, who went to the last three Pro Bowls. Williams, 27, is under contract through 2027, but the impact he’s made the last two weeks has been, to use Jones’ malaprop, “Incremental.”
We’ve covered Jerrah for 35 years. He meant “instrumental.” He continued:
“We had to have something at this level of excellence on run-stopping that he brought to the table.”
Brady has been instrumental in the hiring of staff, including retread head coach Pete Carroll and failed Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator who was fired Sunday after 11 games. The Raiders reportedly are on the hook for the remainder of Kelly’s three-year, $18 million contract, the amount it took to pry Kelly away from the coordinator job at Ohio State.
More evidence that Kelly — who also failed in San Francisco — might be able to manage lesser beings in the NCAA, but he clearly lacks the depth to coach the elite, independent athletes in the NFL. Also more evidence that Brady, who reportedly met with Kelly at least twice a week to discuss strategies, is unable to manage the roles he now fills.
The Raiders are 2-9 and also fired special teams coordinator Tom McMahon on Nov. 7.
Colts cooled, Chiefs saved
It was the sort of win that would have made Shane Steichen the Coach of the Year favorite and would have earned Jonathan Taylor the sort of MVP buzz that fellow running back Saquon Barkley enjoyed last season.
Alas. The coaching award now looks destined for Mike Vrabel, who has resuscitated the Patriots (10-2).
Instead of winning at Kansas City and further diminishing that dynasty‘s postseason odds, the Colts blew a 20-9 lead and went three-and-out in their last four possessions, including one overtime drive, as the Chiefs avoided a losing record with a 23-20 win.
The Chiefs are 6-5 and still outside of the playoff picture due to tiebreakers. But in two weeks they play Houston, one of the teams ahead of them in the wild-card race.
Lionhearted
Jahmyr Gibbs’ career-high 264 yards from scrimmage, including a 69-yard touchdown run on the first play of overtime, pushed the Lions past the Giants. Like the Chiefs, the Lions are on the outside of the playoff roster looking in, but they too play one of the teams in front of them when the Packers visit Thursday to begin the Thanksgiving slate of games.
Extra points
Consider it stolen valor: Rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Prime Time’s nepo-famous son, won his first game with a modest performance and stole the headlines from Cleveland’s defense, which recorded 10 sacks against the Raiders. … MVP favorite Drake Maye, whom Stephen A. Smith bizarrely called a “liar” for saying he doesn’t watch Smith’s ESPN morning show, First Take, led New England to its 10th win. He beat Joe Flacco and the Bengals, who plan to have franchise QB Joe Burrow back Thanksgiving night in Baltimore. Burrow has missed nine games with a toe injury, and the Bengals have now lost eight of them. Ja’Marr Chase was suspended for the game for spitting on Steelers corner Jalen Ramsey last week. … The Giants, who fired head coach Brian Daboll on Nov. 10, on Monday fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen after they blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter for the fifth time. They lost to the Lions in overtime and fell to 2-10. … The Ravens are back atop the AFC North after a fifth straight win, the last four under the helm of Lamar Jackson, who’d missed three games with a hamstring injury.
"[Drake Maye] is a liar…First Take is the number one morning show..don’t tell me you a athlete and you don’t know that. Don’t tell me you a athlete and you don’t know that Cam Newton is on this show. You lying." – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/kaxxptSMpY
Jared McCain called for a Dominick Barlow screen, then created the space to get to his spot and elevate for a mid-range jumper.
The 76ers’ second-year guard has long identified that “bump middie” as one of his favorite types of shots. And that first-quarter bucket ignited McCain’s best performance — in statistical production and in mobility — since returning from a nearly 11-month absence following knee and thumb surgeries.
It was evidence of the positive steps McCain has taken since going on a G League assignment — and an encouraging longer-term sign for a Sixers team already utilizing guard-heavy lineups this season.
“I felt really good today,” McCain said after the game. “I felt like I got a little burst for my first step. Just continue to build off each game, the more minutes I play.”
He played only five minutes during last Monday’s home victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Then he finally made his first shot in Wednesday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors, a moment of “pure joy” captured when he threw his arms out and yelled in celebration. He then cleared another medical checkpoint by also playing the second half of a back-to-back the following night at the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring eight points and looking “a little bit more like we needed him to play,” coach Nick Nurse said.
Sunday afternoon, the still-uber-popular McCain was greeted with exuberant cheers upon entering the game late in the first quarter. After his first bucket, he got downhill for a finger-roll layup and flexed after burying a game-tying three-pointer late in the second quarter. A third-quarter deep shot from the top of the key pushed his point total into double figures for the first time this season. Another three-pointer got the Sixers within 102-96 early in the final period, before Miami’s final surge.
An acceleration in McCain’s reacclimation would be a plus for a Sixers team already thriving while playing three-guard lineups.
Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, and Edgecombe have boasted a plus-14.6 net rating (and have averaged 121.1 points per 100 possessions) while sharing the floor for 213 minutes in 15 games, often in closing lineups. Before the season, Nurse even floated experimenting with four guards on the floor together. But if Edgecombe’s calf issue lingers, McCain could immediately slide into such personnel combinations.
This long recovery process has taught McCain — who was an early Rookie of the Year front-runner before suffering a torn meniscus in mid-December — to practice patience and recognize “small wins.” Being able to walk again after surgery. Or play in an NBA game. Or take a hit from a defender and still step back onto his left foot and fire a shot.
He proclaimed earlier this week that there was “no such thing as garbage time” while regaining comfort on the floor. And even after he missed his first nine shot attempts over four games since debuting Nov. 4 at the Chicago Bulls, he said he did not believe in slumps.
“I put in the work,” McCain said after shootaround last Monday, “so I know it’s going to show whenever it needs to.”
Aiding that recent progress has been a switch from a bulky knee brace — “every time I dribbled, it felt like I was about to fall over,” McCain said — to a compression sleeve called Incrediwear. He also said he is unbothered by the brace he continues to wear on his shooting hand, though: “I try not to put any negative energy in the universe talking about the thumb.”
So what are McCain’s next incremental goals?
Sixers guard Jared McCain drives to the basket against Miami’s Dru Smith on Sunday.
Defensively, he wants to improve at running full speed to close out on a shooter, then push off his left leg to change direction to cut off another player. Offensively, his first step with the ball in his hands still can get quicker.
And after Sunday’s game, Nurse reemphasized the importance of McCain’s three-point shooting, after he made 38.3% of his 5.8 attempts in 23 games as a rookie and shot 41.4% from long range during his one college season at Duke. That floor-spacing can be particularly valuable when Maxey relentlessly attacks the rim.
“I know I keep saying that,” Nurse said, “but we do need that production from him.”
As Sunday’s halftime clock ticked down, McCain was one of the first players out of the Sixers’ locker room.
He uses that additional time to get his knee moving again, after sitting during the break. But he also aims to mimic part of the routine of future Hall of Fame sharpshooter Stephen Curry, who said he visualizes shots falling before the third quarter begins.
“I just want to get loose again,” McCain said. “So I try to come out as early as possible and get my reps up, and see the ball go through the net.”
McCain is still not back to the player he was before his surgeries and lengthy absence. But Sunday marked his best game since his return, an important step for him and the Sixers.
“I just want him to keep being aggressive and keep being himself,” Maxey said of McCain earlier this week. “ … It’s going to take some time. I think [we need to] just keep pushing confidence into him.
“Just remind him who he is, and remind him what he does.”
Nick Sirianni takes blame for Eagles’ penalty outburst
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has some words for an official during the the fourth quarter of his team’s 24-21 loss to Dallas.
The Eagles matched their high for penalties in the Nick Sirianni era with 14. As mentioned, seven of them were on the offense and a few of them wiped out key plays.
The Eagles had three false starts. They also had an illegal formation penalty out of the jumbo package with Matt Pryor on the field as an extra blocker.
Sirianni said it’s “hard to sustain the success of a game when you have those.”
It has made a struggling offense’s problems even worse.
“Anytime it’s penalties like that, or any time it’s ball security, or any time it’s the fundamentals, or something within ‘tough, detailed, together,’ I’m going to put that on myself,” the Eagles head coach said Monday. “Just point blank, I have to do a better job of coaching it and finding different ways to make sure it gets through.”
Were Eagles surprised by Cowboys’ five-man front? Depends who you ask.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts scrambles in the second quarter before completing a pass to Saquon Barkley.
Landon Dickerson said after the game that the Eagles were surprised by Dallas’ frequent use of a five-man front. Jalen Hurts said “that’s how they’re built now” after the Cowboys acquired Quinnen Williams and retooled their defense.
The front gave the Eagles fits at times, especially as they tried to establish a run game that never got going. Saquon Barkley rushed 10 times for 22 yards.
Dallas showed that five-man front a week earlier vs. Las Vegas. So, were the Eagles prepared for it or were they not?
“You go into every week and you’re trying to play the game in your mind as much as you possibly can, not just with how you call it but how you plan it for practice as well, and how you plan for drills,” Nick Sirianni said Monday. “The walk-throughs, the practice, your drill work, you’re trying to identify what you think and what you’re always trying to do is say, ‘how many reps do I need to devote towards this? How many reps do I need to devote towards that?’ And you try to make educated guesses there.”
Which is to say …
“We devoted time for all of them,” Sirianni said. “We knew they had that in their package and their plan. They played a little bit more there, even than anticipated. So, of course, as coaches, you say to yourself ‘Well, I wish I would’ve gave them a couple more reps on this one.’
“Now, you’re limited as far as how many reps you actually have at walk-through, at live, at drill work. … No one’s ever going to pitch a perfect game here. Looking back at it, yeah, sure, I wish I would’ve given us a couple more reps there.
“We prepared for the things that we thought we were going to get, some more than others, and then sometimes it doesn’t play out that way when you look at it after the game.”
Nick Sirianni sticking with Kevin Patullo as Eagles’ play-caller
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts returning to the bench and celebrating with Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Arlington , TX.
One day after the Eagles’ offense stalled and was shut out after building a 21-0 lead 18-plus minutes into the game, Nick Sirianni said the Eagles are “searching for answers” for their ailing offense.
But the head coach said there won’t be any changes to who is calling plays.
“I haven’t considered that,” Sirianni said when asked on Monday if he had considered taking play-calling duties away from offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
“It’s every piece of the puzzle: coaching, playing, execution, scheme, everything. We’ve got to be better in all those aspects. And so yesterday, I thought Kevin did a good job of calling it. Obviously, he’s going to want some plays back, just like every player and myself, we all want plays back.”
The Eagles hurt themselves with self-inflicted wounds. Of their 14 penalties, seven were on the offense. Two of them erased gains of 16 and 20 yards that had a major impact on the game. But even still, the offense that looked dynamic and creative for the first few series’ went silent. The Eagles didn’t get past Dallas’ 38-yard line in the second half.
What gives Sirianni confidence that the Eagles can make a course correction this late in the season?
“I feel like we’ve got the right people, as players, as coaches, that have had success,” Sirianni said. “And we’re all searching for answers to make it more consistent. There are some good things, obviously there are some not so good things. And we’ve got to find the things that we really can hang our hat on, and then the complements that come off of that.”
Watch: Nick Sirianni addresses reporters on Monday
// Pinned
// Timestamp 11/24/25 2:59pm
Safety Drew Mukuba suffered leg fracture, likely headed to IR
Rookie Andrew Mukuba was injured in the Eagles’ loss to the Cowboys.
Eagles rookie safety Drew Mukuba suffered a right leg fracture in the waning moments of Sunday’s loss, sources confirmed to The Inquirer.
ESPN and the NFL Network were first to report.
Mukuba will likely be heading to injured reserve.
The second-round pick was injured after making a tackle on Dallas wide receiver George Pickens. He was helped into the locker room without being able to put pressure on his right foot, and was later seen in a walking boot and with crutches.
The Eagles lost both of their safeties to injury before the game ended. Earlier in the game, Reed Blankenship suffered a thigh injury and did not return.
Sydney Brown filled in for Blankenship and played 26 snaps. It’s unclear if Blankenship will miss Friday’s game vs. Chicago.
The Eagles are thin at safety and have only those three on the active roster. Andre’ Sam is on the practice squad, and Marcus Epps is on injured reserve.
Cooper DeJean and Michael Carter II would be potential options if the Eagles need a fill-in for Blankenship.
You can check out the rest of the Eagles’ injury updates, here.
Brady has been instrumental in the hiring of staff, including retread head coach Pete Carroll and failed Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator who was fired Sunday after 11 games. The Raiders reportedly are on the hook for the remainder of Kelly’s three-year, $18 million contract, the amount it took to pry Kelly away from the coordinator job at Ohio State.
More evidence that Kelly — who also failed in San Francisco — might be able to manage lesser beings in the NCAA, but he clearly lacks the depth to coach the elite, independent athletes in the NFL. Also more evidence that Brady, who reportedly met with Kelly at least twice a week to discuss strategies, is unable to manage the roles he now fills.
The Raiders are 2-9 and also fired special teams coordinator Tom McMahon on Nov. 7. They visit the Eagles on Dec. 14.
The Eagles will face St. Joseph’s Prep grad D’Andre Swift, a former Eagles running back, when they host the Bears on Friday.
After the epic collapse, the Eagles face a short turnaround as they prepare to host the Chicago Bears on Black Friday. The two teams last met during the 2022 season, a 25-20 road win for the Birds.
This time around, the game will be in Philly as the Eagles attempt to bounce back from an embarrassing loss to their division rivals. Meanwhile, the Bears are heading into Friday’s game on a four-game winning streak, including their latest over the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday. Despite the divergent results, sportsbooks are favoring Philadelphia by a touchdown, with the Eagles opening Week 13 as seven-point favorites.
Nick Foles has a theory about the Eagles’ offensive struggles
Nick Foles was the first Eagles quarterback to win a Super Bowl title.
Even before Sunday’s game, Nick Foles seemed to have a theory about why the Eagles “superpowered” offense hasn’t been able to get into a good rhythm this year. It’s the playcalling, according to the former Eagles QB, and a lack of creativity.
Foles called out the team’s route designs, which haven’t put A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in the best position to get open, which also prevents Saquon Barkley from finding the holes he found last year. The former Eagles quarterback told cohost Evan Moore that the Eagles utilize “simplistic” route trees (or the combination of routes a player can run at a given time) that don’t create space for the players, forcing them to get open and make plays on their own.
“The great teams, those guys are wide open. Even when I’m watching with [my wife] Tori, she’s like, ‘Why are these guys so wide open?’” Foles explained. “And I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a complementary route to a deep route. … You need those downfield shots because it puts more pressure on the [defensive backs], it opens up more one-on-one matchups, but you’ve got to have complementary [routes], because then the DB can’t key and can’t guess.
“So the creativity is key as a playcaller, and calling the plays at the right time. … There’s just an art. And I don’t see that this year. I don’t think anyone sees it. Fans that are passionate Eagles fans — because I’ve been to Philly several times, and you hear, every time I run across Philly fans, ’Man, what do you think is going to happen with the offense? What’s going on? Is this Jalen?’ I’m like, ‘Listen, it’s a team thing. Kevin Patullo is probably a great dude, a great coach, but there’s an art to playcalling that not everyone has and it’s not showing up this year.
“They’re in more of a trajectory of the 2023 season. … I would argue that they’re more on that trajectory than last year’s trend line, but at the same time, I do know that they have the players.”
Snap count takeaways: Jihaad Campbell’s decreasing playing time
The Eagles were forced to dip into their depth chart on defense due to multiple injuries during their 24-21 loss to the Cowboys.
But another player saw his playing time decrease even more Sunday.
Here are some notes and thoughts on the Sunday snap counts.
Jihaad Campbell’s playing time continues to decrease. Nakobe Dean’s play has forced Vic Fangio’s hand, and the Eagles don’t really need Campbell taking snaps on the outside. Campbell played just 11 snaps, and his snap total and snap share (15%) were lows for the season. Campbell told The Inquirer recently that he’s handling the change well and sees the bigger picture.
A rare thing happened Sunday: The Eagles started and finished a game with the same offensive line. All five linemen played 100% of the snaps.
But Lane Johnson’s absence and Fred Johnson’s start at right tackle led to the Eagles using the jumbo package less. Matt Pryor came on the field for that package just twice Sunday.
Tank Bigsby has been running well for the Eagles when given a chance, but the running back was on the field for just three snaps Sunday, five fewer than Will Shipley.
Reed Blankenship’s thigh injury led to Sydney Brown playing 26 snaps. Michael Carter II (25) also saw an increase in work after Adoree’ Jackson (26) left with a concussion.
Brandon Graham played just eight snaps Sunday, the same number as last week vs. Detroit. Meanwhile, Nolan Smith’s workload increased from 22 snaps last week to 40 this week as he works his way back from a triceps injury.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley rushed for just 22 yards Sunday.
There was a disagreement in the visitor’s locker room at AT&T Stadium, 20 minutes and 20 feet apart.
“I’m in a little funk right now,” Saquon Barkley said at his locker stall after he totaled just 22 rushing yards on 10 carries, his lowest output in a game with at least 10 carries since 2022.
Jordan Mailata doesn’t agree.
“He’s not in a funk, man,” Mailata said. “He’s hard on himself. … It’s on all of us up front.”
One thing the running back and left tackle could probably agree on, though, is that what happened Sunday — the Eagles blowing a 21-point lead in a 24-21 loss to the Cowboys — would never, could never, have happened to the 2024 Eagles.
The Eagles lost for a lot of reasons Sunday. They beat themselves with 14 penalties, which tied a high in the Nick Sirianni era. They raced to a 21-0 lead behind an opened-up and aggressive playbook and then went too conservative. They didn’t apply enough pressure on Dak Prescott. They struggled covering Dallas’ one-two punch at wide receiver, especially later in the game with a banged-up secondary.
But they lost Sunday, too, because of their yearlong problem running the football. Yes, they tried to — and sometimes with great success — get their passing game going against one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, but they have consistently struggled this season to control a game and control the clock with what was their greatest weapon in 2024: a running game that broke records. This, with almost the same personnel.
Eagles secondary will limp into Black Friday matchup against the Bears
Eagles safety Reed Blankenship limps off the field in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss.
It is still a little too early to speculate, but the Eagles could be looking at a makeshift secondary for a pivotal Black Friday game vs. the Chicago Bears (8-3) in just four days.
The unit was decimated during Sunday’s defeat.
Adoree’ Jackson, who left the Eagles’ Week 7 game in Minnesota and missed their Week 8 home game vs. the New York Giants due to a concussion, suffered another head injury Sunday. He was being evaluated for a concussion and never returned to the game.
The Eagles opted to roll with Cooper DeJean on the outside in the nickel package and put Michael Carter II in the slot. DeJean was burned twice on deep passes. The Eagles also tried Kelee Ringo for a few snaps, and on his first he was flagged for pass interference.
The Eagles also lost both safeties. Reed Blankenship left the game first with a thigh injury, and later, Drew Mukuba was injured on the final Dallas drive. Mukuba had to be helped into the locker room by Dom DiSandro and a team trainer and couldn’t put weight on his right foot. He was later seen in a boot and using crutches.
It’s unclear how severe any of the injuries are — though you can make some assertions regarding Mukuba. Still, there’s a non-zero chance the Eagles enter Friday without either of their safeties.
What would happen? The Eagles don’t have much safety depth. They could try using Sydney Brown and DeJean, or maybe Brown and Carter, who has the ability to play safety.
Safety Marcus Epps is on injured reserve, and the Eagles also have Andre’ Sam on the practice squad.
If DeJean is used as a safety, that would diminish the corner position. That unit, with DeJean at safety and Jackson in concussion protocol, could have Quinyon Mitchell and Kelee Ringo or Jakorian Bennett outside with Carter in the slot.
Whoever is captaining the Eagles offense veered off course Sunday
Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo and Jalen Hurts during Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys.
The Eagles couldn’t run the ball again, and yet, after they jumped out to a 21-0 lead, Saquon Barkley rushed on four first downs in the next five possessions.
He gained a total of five yards on the carries.
The play-calling defied logic after the offense had used an 8-18 run-pass ratio to score touchdowns on their first three drives. Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo powered down the engine, but make no mistake, it was coach Nick Sirianni who was at the commands.
He’s the driver of the Eagles’ conservatism this season and it finally caught up to his team, who coughed up a 24-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
There were myriad reasons for the Eagles falling to 8-3. Two uncharacteristic turnovers. Fourteen penalties — many of them unforced. And an injury-marred defense that succumbed under the weight of the offense’s ineffectiveness.
But Sirianni and Patullo turtled up when they should have pounced on the Cowboys’ sloppiness. Running the ball into five-man fronts — more on that mystery later — was puzzling. The lack of aggressiveness before the half and in fourth-down situations weren’t as egregious, but decisions in those situations were emblematic of the overall timidness.
“We just weren’t very efficient as an offense in that second half,” Sirianni said. “I didn’t really feel that we took our foot off the gas.”
It’s been the tale of the Eagles’ offense for the past three months. They have spurts or even an entire half of efficiency. But consistency has been fleeting. The game plan opened with quick passes from quarterback Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown, and eventually a downfield shot to DeVonta Smith.
There was diversity in the calls and innovation in the red zone. But the Cowboys adjusted and the Eagles failed to counter.
Wide receiver Xavier Gipson was hurt in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys.
With 35 seconds remaining in the game, safety Drew Mukuba went down after George Pickens’ 24-yard catch. On Monday, Jeff McLane reported that he’s headed to IR after suffering a leg fracture.
Safety Reid Blankenship left the game in the third quarter after injuring his thigh while making a tackle.
Wide receiver Xavier Gipson went down with a shoulder injury following his fourth-quarter fumble on a punt return. He was carted from the medical tent to the locker room. After the game, Gipson was in the locker room with his right arm in a sling.
Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson suffered another head injury Sunday. He was being evaluated for a concussion and never returned to the game.
NFC playoff picture: Eagles drop out of the top spot
An Eagles fan reacts to the Birds’ loss against the Cowboys Sunday.
The Los Angeles Rams’ (9-2) blowout win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-5) Sunday night bumped the Eagles (8-3) down to the No. 2 spot in the NFC.
The Birds’ last-second loss to the Dallas Cowboys (5-5-1) dropped Philly’s odds of landing the No. 1 seed (and a first-round bye) down to 33%, according to the New York Times playoff simulator.
The Eagles will face the Chicago Bears (8-3) on Friday, with the winning team gaining a crucial tiebreaker as the top NFC teams remain bunched together in the standings.
While they aren’t scheduled to play the Seattle Seahawks (8-3) this season, the Eagles currently hold the tiebreaker with a better conference record (7-2 vs. 4-3).
The San Francisco 49ers (7-4) could also quietly improve to eight wins with a win against the Carolina Panthers (6-5) Sunday night. While that would give the 49ers a better conference record than the Birds (8-2 vs. 7-2), the Eagles would remain in the No. 2 spot because San Francisco trails the Rams in the division.
We also had our first playoff elimination — the New York Giants (2-10), who lost to the Detroit Lions (7-4) Sunday.
It’s the earliest playoff exit for the Giants since 1976 and the soonest a team has been eliminated since the New York Jets in 2020, according to NFL playoffs analyst Joe Ferreira. The Giants also became just the 11th team since 1990 to be eliminated from playoff contention before their bye week.
NFC standings
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As for the NFC East, the Eagles’ magic number remains four.
Despite Sunday’s loss, the Birds still hold a 2.5 game lead over the Cowboys in the division with six games remaining. The New York Times gives the Eagles a 98% chance to win the NFC East, so long as they can avoid a 2023-level collapse.
The Cowboys kept their playoff hopes alive, almost assuring their Thanksgiving matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs (6-5) will be the most-watched regular season NFL game in league history.
The Washington Commanders (3-8) were on their bye Sunday, but with Jayden Daniels sidelined, their playoff chances are barely better than the eliminated Giants.
NFC East standings
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Refs were off the mark again during Eagles-Cowboys
Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith talk with the ref after offensive pass interference call in the fourth quarter Sunday.
Can we go a single week without a bad penalty impacting a game?
During the Eagles’ loss to the Cowboys Sunday, Cooper DeJean was called for pass interference on a 48-yard Cowboys pass that seemed very clearly to be offensive pass interference by CeeDee Lamb. Though neither Tom Brady nor Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira seemed to notice.
“A little hand fighting,” Brady said during the broadcast.
The Eagles also benefited from a roughing the punter call that gave them a free first down in the first quarter. The ball was tipped, which should have negated the penalty, but the refs missed it and the Cowboys didn’t challenge.
The Cowboys tipped (blocked) the punt on which the roughing penalty retained the ball for the #Eagles, but Ryan Flournoy, who blocked it, must not have told his coaches, since they didn't ask for a replay. https://t.co/ofAWDx60s8
Poor officiating wasn’t limited to the Eagles-Cowboys game. Over in Kansas City, CBS analyst Tony Romo blasted the refs over a phantom offensive pass interference penalty called on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“This is the worst call I have seen all year,” Romo said.
Tony Romo called this OPI on Travis Kelce "the worst call I have seen all year" 😳 pic.twitter.com/yVQxKd6OBd
Chip Kelly was in his first season as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator.
The Eagles won’t get to face their former head coach after all.
The Las Vegas Raiders fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly following a 24-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns, the team announced Sunday night.
“I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders,” head coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. “I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.”
The Raiders hired Kelly away from Ohio State in February, where he served as offensive coordinator and helped push the Buckeyes to a national title. He was reportedly being paid $6 million a year. He also served as the head coach of UCLA and spent one season with the San Francisco 49ers after the Eagles fired him with one game left in the 2015 season.
The Eagles face the Raiders in Week 15 on Dec. 14.
Chicago Bears up next on a short week for the Eagles
Caleb Williams and the Bears will face the Eagles on Black Friday.
No rest for the weary.
The Eagles (8-3) will be back in action in just a couple of days, taking on the Chicago Bears (8-3) the day after Thanksgiving on Amazon’s Black Friday game.
The Bears are coming off a narrow win against the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5), where Caleb Williams threw for three touchdowns and Aaron Rodgers didn’t play due to a fractured left wrist.
The surprising Bears have now won four straight games behind the league’s second-best rushing offense, averaging 142.3 yards on the ground per game. Former Eagles running back D’Andre Swift leads the team with 649 yards rushing, through he was stonewalled Sunday by the Steelers, limited to just 15 yards rushing on eight carries.
The Eagles have faced the Bears just twice over the past seven seasons (2019 and 2022) and won both games, though they were close.
While Thanksgiving games have been a tradition for decades, it’s just the third season the NFL has scheduled a game on Black Friday, which will stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Eagles couldn’t run the ball again, and yet, after they jumped out to a 21-0 lead, Saquon Barkley rushed on four first downs in the next five possessions.
He gained a total of 5 yards on the carries.
The play-calling defied logic after the offense had used an 8-18 run-pass ratio to score touchdowns on its first three drives. Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo powered down the engine, but make no mistake, it was coach Nick Sirianni who was at the commands.
He’s the driver of the Eagles’ conservatism this season and it finally caught up to his team, which coughed up a 24-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
There were myriad reasons for the Eagles falling to 8-3. Two uncharacteristic turnovers. Fourteen penalties — many of them unforced. And an injury-marred defense that succumbed under the weight of the offense’s ineffectiveness.
But Sirianni and Patullo turtled up when they should have pounced on the Cowboys’ sloppiness. Running the ball into five-man fronts — more on that mystery later — was puzzling. The lack of aggressiveness before the half and in fourth-down situations wasn’t as egregious, but decisions in those situations were emblematic of the overall timidness.
“We just weren’t very efficient as an offense in that second half,” Sirianni said. “I didn’t really feel that we took our foot off the gas.”
It’s been the tale of the Eagles offense for the past three months. They have spurts or even an entire half of efficiency. But consistency has been fleeting. The game plan opened with quick passes from quarterback Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown, and eventually a downfield shot to DeVonta Smith.
There was diversity in the calls and innovation in the red zone. But the Cowboys adjusted and the Eagles failed to counter.
“They tried to take away some of the things that we were throwing to A.J. and Jalen did a good job on some of those, getting the ball down to Saquon [Barkley] in the flat,” Sirianni said. “Just a little different variations of how they played the coverages from what I’m seeing on the fly.
“Hats off to them.”
Saquon Barkley had another substandard day on the ground for the Eagles attack.
But this wasn’t a comparable defense to that of the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, who held the Eagles to 16 and 10 points in the previous two games. The Cowboys’ defense entered Week 12 ranked 31st in expected points added per drive, 30th in points per drive, and near the bottom in most other statistical categories.
They’ve had marginal improvement after the trade for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, partly due to a schematic change. Coordinator Matt Eberflus started utilizing more five-man fronts — with Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa also in the interior — to help a unit that was last in the NFL in rush success percentage.
“I think that’s just how they’re built now, given the three interior defenders they have,” Hurts said. “They want to keep their best guys on the field, and it’s very effective, and it was something that we didn’t handle as good as we like to.
“So good opportunity to build if that’s something that teams show us.”
Eagles guard Landon Dickerson had a different take on Dallas’ five-man front.
“It’s not usually, typically something they were running a whole lot,” he said, “and turns out that was their flavor of the day.”
But opponents haven’t been vanilla in defending the Eagles ground game all season. They’ve been exotic and the offensive line has yet to find a blocking scheme to counter extra bodies in the box.
“I think a big thing is … time on task,” Dickerson said. “Obviously, you can’t run every play to every defense during the week, so I think we really just have to [home] in on having a game plan for every defense that a team has run, and every possible defense that they could run, and make sure that we can execute against all of them.”
This is who the Eagles are on offense now. They used to run the ball at will, especially when matched up against nickel defenses. But the O-line isn’t as strong because of injuries, a personnel change at right guard, and age.
And Barkley, who gained 22 yards on 10 tries and had a costly fumble as a receiver, just doesn’t seem to have the same pop. He said he’s healthy, but he’s clearly wearing down from all the attention.
“I’m tired of the excuse of people trying to stop the run game,” said Barkley, who’s gone from last year’s 5.8-yard rushing average to 3.7. “I don’t really subscribe to that. Just got to be better. Got to make plays.”
Jalen Hurts put up good passing numbers against the Cowboys and scored two TDs on the ground, but also had some notable negative plays.
And that goes for Hurts, as well, who should be able to check out of bad runs vs. heavy fronts. But more than anything, he needs to make defenses pay when they’re light in the secondary, and he and the pass offense didn’t do it enough.
The quarterback’s numbers don’t look so bad on paper: 27 of 39 for 289 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. Hurts also rushed for two TDs. But given the chance to lead the Eagles on a game-winning drive, he took a third-down sack after holding the ball for four-plus seconds.
“There’s nothing more you can ask for than to have the ball in your hands to go out and drive and finish the game on your terms, and we had an opportunity to do that,” Hurts said. “And I didn’t do enough.”
But this loss was more on the coaches. Fourteen penalties — for 96 yards — matched a high in the Sirianni era.
“You always put that on me,” Sirianni said. “If there’s stuff that like that that we spend time going over, obviously, I’ve got to get my message across better. So that’s got to be on me.”
Two offensive penalties negated catches for 20 and 16 yards in the second half. On the first, Matt Pryor was flagged for lining up in an illegal formation.
“I believe I was supposed to line up off the ball,” Pryor said. “Miscommunication going in. So it’s just something that I have to catch onto the formation that we call and make sure we’re aligned.”
Lane Johnson’s absence due to a foot injury forced Fred Johnson in at right tackle and meant Pryor filled the latter Johnson’s role as a sixth O-lineman. But why wasn’t he prepared in that moment?
Sirianni called the high number of penalties “uncharacteristic,” but the Eagles’ 84 penalties are the seventh-most in the NFL, and have consistently put them behind the sticks. The offense added three more three-and-outs to its league-worst total. Sirianni’s game management is seemingly an admission that he knows his once-potent unit is substandard.
Given the ball with 17 seconds left in the half and two timeouts at the Eagles 28, Sirianni had Patullo call a running play. Barkley gained a yard running off left tackle.
“We tried to run it to see if we could bounce one out of there and see what happened after that,” Sirianni said, and noted the Cowboys “had their timeouts, as well, and that kicker can make it from long range. We had a 21-7 lead.”
The score remained the same early in the third quarter when the Eagles punted on fourth-and-5 at their own 48. The Cowboys cut the margin in half two series later. Early in the fourth quarter, Sirianni elected to have Jake Elliott attempt a 56-yard field goal on fourth-and-5. The kicker missed wide right.
Jake Elliott’s rare field goal miss helped magnify the Eagles’ issues, and conservatism, on offense.
Both decisions can be justified. But they were indicative of a coach who has increasingly played not to lose. Even that philosophy can be defended to some degree. Sirianni won eight of his first 10 games that way.
Losing to the 5-5-1 Cowboys shouldn’t be the end of the world. The Eagles control their NFC East destiny, if no longer for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. A win over the 8-3 Bears on a short week would right the ship.
But after 11 games, it’s difficult to see the offense at the wheel, and whether there’s someone competent on the bridge.
“I’m not going to make any sweeping judgments right this particular time,” Sirianni said. “I think it was a wide variety of things. Obviously, at the end of the day, we didn’t coach well enough, we didn’t play well enough.”
How did the Eagles collapse Sunday in Arlington, Texas? Let us count the ways …
They coughed up a 21-point lead to the Dallas Cowboys. Their running game vanished. They fumbled the ball away twice in the fourth quarter. Dak Prescott passed for 354 yards against their defense. And they had 14 penalties, which tied the largest total in a single game since Nick Sirianni began coaching them.
So it was Cowboys 24, Eagles 21, thanks to Brandon Aubrey’s 42-yard field goal as time expired. A four-game Eagles winning streak ended with a thud.
This one’s on Sirianni, Jeff McLane writes in his grades on the game. The coach’s conservatism finally cost the Eagles, who were sloppy with all those penalties. That’s on the coaching.
Tom Brady praised Jalen Hurts in Fox’s coverage of the game, but Hurts and the offense went nowhere in the second half.
“All it is is a lack of focus,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said of the Birds’ sorry effort. “First, look internally, because that’s the only way we can move forward.”
Focus? Marcus Hayes wonders how the team could not do that when it could have virtually wrapped up the NFC East title with six weeks to go.
Now the Eagles will need to turn things around quickly with the 8-3 Chicago Bears heading to Lincoln Financial Field for a game on Black Friday.
New York City FC goalkeeper Matt Freese stops a shot on goal during the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Union.
New York City FC bounced the Union out of the MLS playoffs with a 1-0 victory Sunday night at Subaru Park. Matt Freese, a former backup goalkeeper for the Union from Wayne, did in his old team, making four saves. The Union earned the Supporters’ Shield as the team with the best record in MLS, but they were shut out at home for just the second time this season.
NYCFC advances to face Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami squad in the Eastern Conference final on Friday.
Men’s winner Melikhaya Frans, left, of South Africa and women’s winner Anna Oeser, of Brookfield, Conn., cross the finish line at the Philadelphia Marathon.
On a brisk Sunday among 17,000 contestants, Melikhaya Frans of South Africa captured the 32nd annual Philadelphia Marathon title in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 57.74 seconds. A former Boston College runner, Anna Oeser of Brookfield, Conn., won the women’s title.
Sixers guard Jared McCain looks for a way around Miami’s Dru Smith on Sunday.
The good news for the Sixers: Jared McCain had his best game of the season Sunday against the Miami Heat, finishing with 15 points. The bad news: Their big men could not contain 7-footer Kel’el Ware and 6-foot-9 Bam Adebayo in a 127-117 loss at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The home team played without former MVP Joel Embiid for the seventh straight game, and rookie VJ Edgecombe sat out, too. Injuries continue to hamper the Sixers, who sank to 9-7.
Flyers goaltender Dan Vladař stops the puck in the second period against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
At the 20-game mark this season, the Flyers are 11-6-3 and sit in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Three of their four lines scored Saturday in a 6-3 rout of the New Jersey Devils. On defense, the pairing of Jamie Drysdale and Emil Andrae held the Devils scoreless when they were on the ice.
In goal, Dan Vladař has emerged as the team’s clear No. 1, sporting a 2.42 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. Jackie Spiegel has seven takeaways from an impressive win.
Sports snapshot
Villanova’s Ja’briel Mace scores a touchdown in a victory against against Sacred Heart on Saturday.
Big ’Nova win: The Wildcats move a step closer to the Big 5 final with an 88-58 women’s basketball victory over Temple.
Phillies eyeing Japan: They’ve been shut out from signing a Japanese player to a major league deal, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
On this date
Hall of Fame matchup: Wilt Chamberlain (right) of the Warriors and Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics.
Nov. 24, 1960: Wilt Chamberlain pulled down an NBA-record 55 rebounds for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 132-129 loss to the Boston Celtics.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Jeff McLane, Jeff Neiburg, Olivia Reiner, Marcus Hayes, Gabriela Carroll, Owen Hewitt, Keith Pompey, Jackie Spiegel, Scott Lauber, Katie Lewis, Greg Finberg, Dylan Johnson, and Colin Schofield.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
Happy Monday as we head into a holiday week. Bella will bring you the newsletter on Tuesday. Thanks for reading. — Jim
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was fired Sunday night after yet another rough offensive performance.
Kelly’s dismissal came less than four hours after the Raiders were beaten 24-10 by Cleveland. Las Vegas allowed the Browns to sack Geno Smith 10 times.
“I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders,” coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. “I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.”
Kelly was the biggest-name assistant hired by Carroll, who’s in his first year coaching the Raiders after leading the Seattle Seahawks for 14 seasons.
