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  • Eagles grades: Nick Sirianni’s conservatism; offense’s complacency costs the Birds at Dallas

    Eagles grades: Nick Sirianni’s conservatism; offense’s complacency costs the Birds at Dallas

    ARLINGTON, Tex. – Instant grades on the Eagles’ performance in their 24-21 loss to the Cowboys:

    Quarterback: C

    Jalen Hurts started hot, but cooled off as the Eagles became conservative after jumping out to the 21-0 lead. He had some big throws down the stretch, but he took a costly sack — the only one of the game — on third down late in the game.

    Hurts completed 27 of 39 passes for 289 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t have a turnover. When there was pressure, Hurts did well to either find a receiver or throw the ball away. He found Saquon Barkley on a scramble drill and picked up 16 yards.

    Sloppy Eagles surrender 21-point lead, fall at Cowboys to end win streak

    Hurts was near perfect on the opening drive, completing five of six passes for 47 yards and a touchdown. And as a runner, he broke a tackle and muscled his way into the end zone on a draw play for the Eagles’ second touchdown.

    Running back: D+

    Early on, the Eagles went heavy through the air and didn’t need the run game. But when they got ahead, it was again tough going for Barkley on the ground. He managed just 22 yards on 10 rushes.

    Barkley was active as a receiver, catching seven passes for 52 yards. But he fumbled in the fourth quarter when Sam Williams stripped him from behind in Cowboys territory. In pass protection, he delivered a nasty chip block that knocked Cowboys defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the ground.

    Receiver / Tight end: B-

    Maybe it was catching passes from Tom Brady during warmups. A.J. Brown was firing on all cylinders to open the game, catching five of six targets for 67 yards and a touchdown on the first two drives. He ended the Eagles’ opening series with a 16-yard grab in the end zone when he beat cornerback DaRon Bland on a skinny post route.

    Brown broke a tackle and picked up yards after the catch on a fourth-quarter 19-yarder. He finished with eight grabs for 110 yards.

    A.J. Brown had one of his best games of the season with eight catches, 110 yards, and a touchdown.

    DeVonta Smith was Brown’s near equal with six grabs for 89 yards. He made a highlight-reel catch in the second quarter, contorting his body to pull in a 41-yarder. Hurts’ heave traveled 54.4 yards in the air and had a 22.9% completion probability, according to Next Gen Stats. On the next play, Smith picked up 10 yards on a jet sweep that went down to the 1-yard line.

    In the third quarter, he came back for a 12-yard grab on third-and-8. Smith and Brown had back-to-back penalties — pass interference and a false start — in the fourth quarter.

    Tight end Dallas Goedert shed a defender on his first catch of the game — a 13-yarder late in the third quarter. Grant Calcaterra caught his first pass since Week 5 for 8 yards.

    Offensive line: C-

    It’s been difficult to get much going on the ground all season against defenses primed to stop Barkley. But that doesn’t excuse the O-line’s run-blocking woes. The unit was better in pass protection, but couldn’t hold up once Hurts was forced to drop often.

    Fred Johnson started in place of the injured Lane Johnson (foot) and had his struggles. He took a costly illegal use of hands penalty in the fourth quarter that brought back a 16-yard throw to Smith. He got beat inside in the first quarter and Barkley was dropped for a loss, and on the next play, false-started.

    A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    Tyler Steen got dusted by Williams up the middle in the fourth quarter and Hurts had to shovel the ball away. The right guard also had a holding penalty on a second-quarter rush.

    Center Cam Jurgens had a key block on Hurts’ 7-yard draw play touchdown. In the second quarter, he was whistled for a third-down false start. Left guard Landon Dickerson just couldn’t block Osa Odighizuwa long enough before Hurts ate the sack.

    Left tackle Jordan Mailata got toasted off the edge by James Houston and Hurts was forced to throw the ball away in the third quarter. A play later, Mailata allowed pressure on the middle and his quarterback was hit as he threw. Matt Pryor lined up illegally as the sixth O-lineman, negating a nicely designed 20-yard play-action pass to Goedert.

    Defensive line: C+

    The D-line started hot, but relented in the second half when forced to play so many snaps. Running back Javonte Williams was still held to 4.4 yards a carry on 20 rushes. In terms of the pass rush, the unit never got to quarterback Dak Prescott.

    Outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips was kept in check for the first time since becoming an Eagle. He didn’t have a single tackle. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter somewhat made up for the spitting incident that got him ejected in the first meeting. The defensive tackle flashed multiple times. But it wasn’t enough.

    The Eagles defensive line, led by Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, did not record a sack on Sunday.

    Edge rusher Jalyx Hunt would have beaten Tyler Guyton on a rush if the left tackle didn’t kick him, resulting in a tripping penalty before the half. Hunt missed a run tackle attempt in the third quarter. Nolan Smith just hasn’t looked himself since coming back from a triceps injury. Brandon Graham couldn’t hustle off the field quickly enough before the Eagles were flagged for too many men on the field. The penalty brought back a Nakobe Dean interception. Earlier in the game, Graham got washed out on a Williams 20-yard run.

    Moro Ojomo left briefly with an injury, but returned. He had a relatively quiet day. Jordan Davis dropped Williams for a 4-yard loss in the third quarter, but he didn’t do much on his rushes.

    Linebacker: B

    Nakobe Dean had another third-down sack when he blitzed and bowled over Williams in the third quarter. He later drew a holding penalty on another rush. Dean was in coverage when Williams couldn’t hang onto a fourth-down pass. A drive later, he was flagged for illegal contact. Dean might not have gotten deep enough on Prescott’s 17-yard pass to tight end Jake Ferguson just before the half.

    Zack Baun recovered a fumble when receiver KaVontae Turpin slipped and clipped a teammate in the second quarter. He missed an open-field tackle on Ferguson in the second quarter. Williams zipped through Baun for a 12-yard gain in the third quarter. Baun let an interception slip through his hands a few plays later.

    Cornerback: C

    Prescott threw for over 350 yards and tossed two touchdowns against a secondary that got banged up. Adoree’ Jackson was in coverage when Pickens caught a 1-yard touchdown before the break. Jackson left with a concussion after Pickens caught a 24-yard pass in front of him in the third quarter. Cooper DeJean, who plays outside corner in base personnel, stayed there in nickel after Jackson left. He came up and made a tackle against the run not long after the switch.

    DeJean allowed Lamb to catch a 50-yard pass in which he was also flagged for interference. The Eagles wanted offensive PI. Kelee Ringo was called upon soon after, but also committed a pass interference penalty.

    Cooper DeJean had an up-and-down game in coverage and was beaten once deep by CeeDee Lamb.

    Earlier, DeJean might have abandoned his zone when a scrambling Prescott found Turpin for a 48-yard reception just before the half. Michael Carter took his first snaps in the slot with DeJean outside. He had good coverage downfield on his first snap.

    Unlike in the first meeting, Quinyon Mitchell played the boundary side of the field rather than follow Pickens. He allowed Ferguson to pick up a first down after he stiff-armed Baun. Mitchell had a pass break-up on Lamb in the third quarter, but was flagged for pass interference on the next down.

    Safety: C+

    Reed Blankenship assisted on six run stops in the first half and intercepted Prescott in the end zone with a diving grab for his first pick of the season. Blankenship missed Turpin in the open field on his 48-yard catch and may have allowed too much space underneath for Ferguson to catch a 17-yarder that set up Dallas’ first touchdown.

    Blankenship left in the third quarter and was replaced by Sydney Brown. Prescott dove over him on his 8-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. The quarterback had success going at Brown in the Cowboys’ game-winning drive.

    Drew Mukuba got run over and lost tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford on his 4-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.

    Tom Brady backs Kevin Patullo’s offense, Jalen Carter’s trash talk, and more from Eagles-Cowboys broadcast

    Special teams: C

    Xavier Gipson’s fumble in the fourth quarter should have been a gift to the Cowboys. He probably shouldn’t have fielded the punt at the 2-yard line in the first place. Gipson got hurt on the play and had to be carted inside.

    Kicker Jake Elliott missed a 56-yard field-goal attempt wide right in the fourth quarter. Punter Braden Mann came up huge in the third quarter with back-to-back impressive boots. He had a 58-yarder that flipped the field and dropped a 48-yard spinner that Sydney Brown downed at the Cowboys’ 4. The Eagles had a player step out of bounds on Mann’s 76-yard touchback punt late in the game.

    Will Shipley averaged 26.5 yards on four kick returns.

    Coaching: D-

    This one’s on Nick Sirianni. The coach’s conservatism finally cost the Eagles. It was a close game, but there’s no excuse for coughing up a 21-point lead against a team that kept shooting itself in the foot. The Eagles were sloppy with 14 penalties — tied for the most of the Sirianni era. That’s on the coaching.

    Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo had a nice start, and a not-so-great finish. Repeated first-down runs after the 21-point lead were ill-advised. He continued to dial up successful plays in the red zone. Hurts’ draw play score came off a new wrinkle: a three-tight end set that shifted into an empty backfield.

    Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio‘s unit folded under the weight of the offense’s ineffectiveness and injuries. The defense delivered a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter after Gipson’s fumble, but it relented in the end.

  • Tom Brady backs Kevin Patullo, Nick Sirianni gets fed up with refs, and more from Eagles-Cowboys broadcast

    Tom Brady backs Kevin Patullo, Nick Sirianni gets fed up with refs, and more from Eagles-Cowboys broadcast

    Well, that was a disaster.

    The Eagles went up 21-0 early in the game but allowed 24 unanswered points from the Cowboys to lose, 24-21, Sunday in Dallas. If you turned the game off in rage after the Eagles’ second-half fumbles and miscues, here’s everything you missed on the Fox broadcast …

    Sloppy Eagles surrender 21-point lead, fall at Cowboys to end win streak

    Brady backs Eagles offense

    Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing offense have earned a lot of critics through the first 10 games of the season. The Birds ranked 28th in passing yards per game coming into Sunday.

    But one person who’s not criticizing Hurts and Kevin Patullo’s offense? Tom Brady.

    “You hear critiques about the style of the passing offense, that it’s remedial, I totally disagree,” Brady said. “He’s got a lot of full-field reads, he’s looking to the right, he did a great job earlier in this game on that comebacker to Saquon Barkley, scanning the field. He just doesn’t put the ball in harm’s way, and that’s what you need from your quarterback.”

    Brady continued to praise Hurts during the game. He also complimented Hurts’ chemistry with A.J. Brown, despite the discourse off the field in recent weeks.

    “It doesn’t look like there’s any issue to me,” Brady said.

    Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown had a touchdown called back because he didn’t get his second foot down before touching the pylon.

    Pylon cam

    It didn’t occur to me that the pylon cam wasn’t in the actual pylon, and that there was a separate pylon that contains the camera.

    But after Brown’s near touchdown was called back because he didn’t get his second foot down before touching the pylon, the instant replay clearly showed two pylons, just inches away from each other.

    “Really good skills to differentiate the actual pylon from the pylon cam,” play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt said. “Could have knocked them both down.”

    “We have way too many pylons down there. A.J. did a great job,” rules expert Dean Blandino said.

    Is it necessary for the pylon cam to also be shaped like a pylon? Feels like there could be a clearer way to differentiate.

    A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    Carter’s trash talk

    Jalen Carter lasted longer than five seconds on the field in the rematch vs. the Cowboys — unlike his early ejection in the season opener for spitting on Dak Prescott.

    That doesn’t mean he cooled down with the trash talk. After Prescott’s red zone interception, Carter had a few choice words for Prescott, which got caught on the broadcast.

    Sirianni gives it to the refs

    Nick Sirianni was not pleased with the officials after a DeVonta Smith offensive pass interference call early in the fourth quarter.

    “What the [expletive] are you doing?” Sirianni appeared to scream to the official.

    “Nick is definitely letting the ref know. ’It didn’t look like what it was. We weren’t trying to pick him,’” Brady joked.

    The refs followed that up with a Brown false start in the fourth quarter, so clearly they were not intimidated.

    Eagles punter Braden Mann had to re-punt late in the game because of a penalty on Kelee Ringo.

    Confusing re-kick

    Brady and Burkhardt were confused after the Eagles had to re-punt the ball on fourth down, after Braden Mann booted one more than 70 yards.

    The pair theorized the kick potentially hit the scoreboard, which is an automatic re-kick, but after reviewing the tape, they couldn’t figure out where that could have happened.

    Eagles grades: Nick Sirianni’s conservatism; offense’s complacency costs the Birds at Dallas

    “If it hits the scoreboard, that’s basically a do-over,” Burkhardt said.

    It turned out, the Eagles had committed a penalty on the play, and the Cowboys elected to have the Birds attempt another punt. It worked, and Dallas got better field position the second time around.

    “They had a player going out of bounds on the play, the Cowboys took a penalty and elected to re-kick,” Blandino said.

  • A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    ARLINGTON, Texas — For the first 30 minutes, the Eagles did everything necessary to win a key game in a hostile stadium. They looked like a team worthy of a title defense.

    For the next 30 minutes, they did everything necessary to give it away. They looked like a team unworthy of even a division title.

    Two lost fumbles.

    Two huge passing plays.

    Fourteen — 14! — penalties, their most this season by five, and tied for the most by the Birds since Sirianni took over in 2021.

    It was, to borrow A.J. Brown’s descriptor from two weeks ago, a (bleep)-show after the first 18 minutes. Cam Jurgens’ false start crippled one drive. An illegal formation stymied another. Brandon Graham couldn’t get off the field fast enough, and that negated an interception. On consecutive snaps to start the fourth quarter, DeVonta Smith committed offensive pass interference and A.J. Brown false-started, so a promising drive ended in a long field goal miss. In the middle of the fourth quarter, at the Cowboys’ 28, Fred Johnson turned second-and-7 into second-and-17; Saquon Barkley fumbled on the next play.

    By the time Dak Prescott found George Pickens for 24 yards with 35 seconds to play, all the good that had been done — the offensive breakout of the Eagles’ passing game, the stinginess of the defense early — all of it had been undone.

    Safeties Andrew Mukuba and Sydney Brown pull down Cowboys receiver George Pickens after he made a big catch over the middle.

    Brandon Aubrey kicked a 42-yard field goal as time expired Sunday, leaving the Birds 24-21 losers. They now face a short week and a Black Friday afternoon game against a hot Chicago Bears team whose 8-3 record mirrors their own.

    It looked like the Eagles had their Thanksgiving turkey at halftime, perhaps drowsy with tryptophan as they sleepwalked through the Texas evening.

    “All it is is a lack of focus,” said left tackle Jordan Mailata. “First, look internally, because that’s the only way we can move forward.”

    Focus? Focus? From a veteran team that won a Super Bowl nine months ago? Focus, in a game against a losing team that you beat in September — a game that would virtually wrap up the NFC East title with six weeks to go?

    “We’ve got to make sure we’re mastering the things that require no talent,” coach Nick Sirianni said, trotting out one of his most careworn aphorisms.

    Mailata and quarterback Jalen Hurts said the same thing. Give him credit: Even if Sirianni can’t manage to scheme a running game, he can manufacture a maxim and embed it.

    Mottoes won’t win another Super Bowl.

    The win saved the Cowboys’ season, for the moment. Now 5-5-1, the ’Pokes have won two in a row; have made their abysmal defense respectable; and have a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

    Seriously? Sure.

    For all of the Eagles’ mistakes, the Cowboys made the plays winning teams make. They didn’t wilt down by three touchdowns. Prescott is now 10-5 against an Eagles franchise that is in the middle of the best decade in its history. He entered with gaudy numbers against the Birds, and burnished them with 354 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and, yes, another win.

    Hurts fell to 5-4 against his archrival, and, despite a fine statistical performance — the Eagles’ inconsistent passing game showed its head for 45 minutes or so — he chose to wallow in the defeat.

    “Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough,” Hurts said.

    Quinyon Mitchell looked like an All-Pro vs. the Lions. His Florida family and friends were there to see it.

    The loss will lead to more questions about an Eagles offense that has been under siege all season.

    Hurts passed for 289 yards, threw for a touchdown and ran for two more, but he sputtered after the first half. Malcontent receiver A.J. Brown caught a season-high eight passes for 110 yards, but virtually disappeared after the first half.

    It was a magnificent first 18 minutes.

    It was a pathetic final 42.

    Eagles cornerback Cooper Dejean keeps Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott out of the end zone in the fourth quarter.

    Both Barkley and punt returner Xavier Gipson fumbled in the fourth quarter.

    Cornerback Cooper DeJean gave up a 48-yard bomb to CeeDee Lamb, which led to Prescott finding tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford for a touchdown from 4 yards with about two minutes to play in the third to make it 21-14. DeJean then gave up a 41-yard bomb to Pickens, which led to Prescott running 8 yards to tie it at 21 early in the fourth.

    But the Cowboys went nowhere after Barkley’s fumble and punted, which led to Gipson’s gaffe, which eventually led to fourth-and-goal from the Eagles’ 2-yard line, which led to Dallas’s inexplicable decision to go for it with less than four minutes to play against an offense that had been enfeebled for the second half.

    Prescott threw incomplete from the Eagles’ 2. He threw short of the goal line to tight end Jake Ferguson.

    With two minutes left, the Eagles faced third-and-2 from their 37. Two Tush Pushes, right?

    Nope. Straight drop back. Hurts couldn’t pull the trigger, took a 13-yard sack, gave the ball back to Dallas, and watched as the Cowboys saved their season.

    The only question:

    Did the Eagles give theirs away?

    Lane Johnson’s absence means more ‘bleep show’ offense for Eagles
  • Sloppy Eagles surrender 21-point lead, fall at Cowboys to end win streak

    Sloppy Eagles surrender 21-point lead, fall at Cowboys to end win streak

    ARLINGTON, Texas — Everything’s bigger in Texas, including Eagles collapses.

    After going up by 21 points early in the second quarter, the Eagles gave up their three-score lead to the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas scored 24 unanswered points, capped by a 42-yard Brandon Aubrey walk-off field goal to give the Cowboys the 24-21 victory and end the Eagles’ win streak at four games.

    A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    The Eagles’ implosion was their own doing. They incurred 14 penalties, which tied the largest total in a single game in Nick Sirianni’s five-year tenure as head coach.

    Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ first loss since falling at the Giants in Week 6.

    Defense dissipates

    The Eagles defense came out strong in the first half for the most part, limiting the Cowboys to just seven points.

    They dominated the turnover battle over the game’s first 30 minutes. Zack Baun had a fumble recovery early in the second quarter after Cowboys wide receiver KaVontae Turpin fumbled a handoff at the Eagles’ 31-yard line. The fumble recovery eventually set up a Tush Push touchdown from Jalen Hurts to extend the lead to 21-0. On the Cowboys’ first trip to the red zone of the afternoon, Reed Blankenship picked off Dak Prescott in the end zone on a pass intended for CeeDee Lamb.

    Reed Blankenship picked Dak Prescott off in the end zone but later left the game due to injury.

    Unsurprisingly, Vic Fangio’s unit wouldn’t remain flawless against the league’s second-ranked scoring offense. This time around, the Eagles defense couldn’t put a Band-Aid over the listless offense that couldn’t sustain drives in the second half.

    Late in the second quarter, Turpin generated a 48-yard catch-and-run, breaking multiple tackles over the middle of the field. That play eventually led to the Cowboys’ first touchdown, a 1-yard pass to George Pickens with Adoree’ Jackson in coverage to make the score 21-7, Eagles.

    The Eagles bent but didn’t break in the third quarter, as Aubrey missed a 51-yard field goal attempt.

    But the Eagles defense got banged up in the second half. In the third quarter, Jackson entered the concussion protocol and Blankenship went down with a thigh injury.

    Cooper DeJean took over on the outside with Michael Carter slotting in as the nickel cornerback. The 22-year-old DeJean was tested heavily, getting called for defensive pass interference on a pass intended for Lamb in the third quarter, which was declined because the receiver made a 48-yard catch.

    Lamb drew another defensive pass interference two plays later, this time against Kelee Ringo, who came in for a play at outside cornerback. Ringo didn’t see the field again on defense. The Cowboys scored on the following play, a 4-yard pass to tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford to make it 21-14.

    DeJean was also in coverage for Pickens’ 43-yard catch down the left sideline early in the fourth quarter. That explosive play led to yet another Cowboys touchdown, an 8-yard Prescott carry to tie the game at 21-21.

    The Cowboys had an opportunity to pull ahead late in the fourth quarter after Xavier Gipson’s fumble on a punt return at his own 8-yard line. However, the Cowboys opted to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the Eagles’ 1-yard line instead of settling for a field goal. Prescott’s short pass to tight end Jake Ferguson was incomplete, leading to a turnover on downs.

    Ferguson began to make up for the incomplete pass with less than a minute remaining in regulation. He caught a 19-yard pass over the middle of the field with Sydney Brown trailing behind him. Brown, the 25-year-old safety, had entered the game in relief of Blankenship.

    That play, plus a 24-yard catch from Pickens two plays later, set up Aubrey’s game-winning field goal.

    Saquon Barkley lost a fumble on what was another tough rushing day for the running back.

    Second-half offensive struggles

    The Eagles offense was far more conservative after their three straight touchdown drives to start the game. With 17 seconds remaining in the first half and two timeouts, with the drive starting from their own 28-yard line, the Eagles opted for a handoff to Saquon Barkley.

    He gained just 1 yard and both teams returned to their respective locker rooms, the Eagles squandering a potential opportunity to put Jake Elliott in position to kick a field goal.

    The Eagles posted just 28 net yards of offense on their first three drives after halftime, punting on all three.

    After the game, Sirianni pushed back at the notion that the offense became more conservative after going up three scores.

    “I didn’t think so,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, we’re always trying to be a balanced attack. So I just think, again, we’ll have to look at ourselves and look at the schemes and we’re going to have to look at the execution and see what the issues were. We just weren’t very efficient as an offense in that second half. I didn’t really feel that we took our foot off the gas.”

    The group suffered from a litany of self-inflicted wounds. DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown incurred back-to-back penalties early in the fourth quarter — an offensive pass interference and a false start, respectively. The Eagles couldn’t overcome the 25-yard deficit, leading them to settle for a 56-yard field goal attempt from Elliott. The Eagles kicker missed, giving the Cowboys the ball back at their 46-yard line.

    Jake Elliott missed a long field goal that would have put the Eagles ahead, 24-14, in the second half.

    The offense seemingly had a spark halfway through the fourth quarter, moving the ball 45 yards down the field (a 19-yard Brown reception made up nearly half that total). But Fred Johnson’s illegal use of hands penalty killed their momentum, bringing up second-and-17 from the Cowboys’ 38.

    On the following play, Hurts dumped a short pass off to Barkley while under duress. Cowboys defensive end Sam Williams knocked the ball out of the running back’s grasp and linebacker Kenneth Murray recovered it at the Dallas 33.

    While the Cowboys failed to take advantage on the following drive, they got a gift of their own on the ensuing Eagles punt return. Gipson coughed up the ball deep in his own zone and Cowboys long snapper Trent Sieg corralled it at the Eagles’ 7-yard line.

    Once again, the Cowboys couldn’t score following the turnover. But Hurts took a 13-yard sack from defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa on third-and-2 at the Eagles’ 37-yard line, forcing them to punt.

    With the Eagles’ run game practically nonexistent this season, Barkley couldn’t salt away the contest in the second half as he had so many times last season. He finished the game with 10 carries for 22 yards (2.2 yards per carry is a single-game season low for Barkley). Four of those carries (for a total of 5 yards) came on first down on the five possessions that followed their 21-0 lead.

    The Eagles would do some celebrating early, but the good times would not last beyond halftime.

    First-half flourish

    It was a tale of two halves for the Eagles offense. Through the first 18½ minutes of the game, the Eagles passing game was practically unrecognizable from their performances in the last two weeks against the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions.

    Hurts surpassed the 135 passing yards he mustered last week against the Lions in the first half alone. The 27-year-old quarterback threw early and often, going 13-of-19 for 163 yards and a touchdown in the first 30 minutes.

    Tom Brady backs Kevin Patullo’s offense, Jalen Carter’s trash talk, and more from Eagles-Cowboys broadcast

    In the first half, Brown hauled in five receptions on six targets for 67 yards and a 16-yard touchdown, which occurred on the Eagles’ opening drive and gave them a 7-0 lead. Brown beat Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland on a post route to haul in Hurts’ throw in the middle of the end zone.

    The play marked Brown’s first touchdown in more than a month (Oct. 19 against the Minnesota Vikings). Against a zone-heavy Cowboys defense, the Eagles targeted the intermediate middle of the field to great success, especially on in-breaking passes to Brown.

    The Cowboys defense also gave the Eagles a few early holiday gifts in the form of self-inflicted wounds. A roughing the kicker penalty on Dallas against punter Braden Mann gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs on their second possession. Hurts took advantage of their misstep, especially on a third-and-5 conversion when he connected with Brown for a 22-yard completion on an in-breaker.

    The chunk play ultimately helped set up a Hurts 7-yard touchdown on a quarterback keeper, putting the Eagles up, 14-0. Hurts later added the Tush Push touchdown to give the Eagles the 21-0 lead and what would turn out to be their final points.

    Smith’s acrobatic 41-yard reception on third-and-12 from the Eagles’ 48-yard line helped set up the push sneak at the goal line. But the offense couldn’t sustain its first-half firepower.

    “Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough,” Hurts said of the passing game’s strides in the first half. “I think everything that we’ve been able to do hasn’t been a lack of capability. We’ve got a lot of confidence in how we can go out there and play. Ultimately, we can’t focus on that. … I can only focus on the things that we can control that didn’t go our way.”

    Eagles wide receiver Devonta Smith is tackled by Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson in the third quarter.

    Injury report

    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.

    With 35 seconds remaining in the game, Drew Mukuba went down after Pickens’ 24-yard catch. The rookie safety left the locker room after the game on crutches, not putting any weight on his right foot, which was in a boot.

  • Kaytron Allen’s record-breaking game highlights Penn State’s rout of Nebraska; support grows for Terry Smith

    Kaytron Allen’s record-breaking game highlights Penn State’s rout of Nebraska; support grows for Terry Smith

    STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton etched their names into Penn State history on Saturday as the Nittany Lions handily defeated Nebraska, 37-10.

    After Zakee Wheatley and Amare Campbell stuffed Nebraska’s fourth-down attempt on the game’s opening possession, Penn State (5-6, 2-6 Big Ten) used a seven-play, 98-yard drive to take an early lead it never relinquished.

    On a night dominated by the Nittany Lions offense, Allen rushed 25 times for 160 yards and two touchdowns to set the program’s all-time rushing record. The senior running back stands alone with 3,954 career rushing yards after breaking Evan Royster’s program record of 3,932 set in 2010.

    Kaytron Allen becomes Penn State’s career rushing leader as Nittany Lions pound Cornhuskers 37-10

    Allen said he wanted to make a difference for his team. And under the lights of Beaver Stadium, he did just that.

    “We witnessed greatness from Kaytron Allen tonight,” interim coach Terry Smith said. “Penn State has been playing football for an awfully long time, so to be the number one rusher in the history of this place is an impressive thing.”

    Singleton added two touchdowns to tie Saquon Barkley for the most total touchdowns in Penn State history (53). He finished with 51 receiving yards and 44 rushing yards.

    The Nittany Lions scored on six of their nine offensive drives en route to a 27-point victory. After two winless months, the team has rallied around Smith’s leadership to keep its bowl-game hopes alive.

    “[Smith] brought us back together. He put all the broken pieces back together,” senior linebacker Dominic DeLuca said. “He did everything he could for us to fight and to change our culture. He’s a true Penn State guy. Everyone’s behind him, everyone wants to play for him.”

    Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith (right) shown with athletic director Pat Kraft following their 37-10 win on Saturday night.

    Terry Smith fever is alive

    Beaver Stadium fans led multiple “Terry! Terry!” chants before, during, and after the Nittany Lions’ victory. Several Penn State players, including cornerbacks A.J. Harris and Audavion Collins, held up “Hire Terry Smith” signs as they ran off the field.

    After his team’s first home victory since Sept. 13, Smith said he has “always been a head coach.” He told his players in recent weeks he wants the head-coaching job at Penn State — a message Dani Dennis-Sutton said motivated him and his teammates to “win for Coach T.”

    Smith is beloved within the program. His players have bought into his messaging to turn a six-game slide into a two-game winning streak.

    And after a turbulent two months filled with heartbreaking losses and a coaching change, Smith finally got his moment on the same field he has spent 16 seasons as both a player and a coach.

    Drew Allar says his season-ending injury and the firing of James Franklin ‘still doesn’t feel real’

    “I’m very motivated by the support. My players love me unconditionally. I love them unconditionally,” Smith said. “I had the amazing opportunity today to walk in with my granddaughter and experience people chanting her grandfather’s name. Very few people get an opportunity to experience [that].”

    One by one, Penn State’s entire offensive line shared why Smith should be the program’s next head coach. Left guard Olaivavega Ioane praised him for “leading the team out of a dark time.” Sixth-year center Nick Dawkins lauded Smith’s honesty.

    Anthony Donkoh, the team’s starting right guard, was one of several players who pointed to a “Hire Terry Smith” sign postgame. Donkoh said players got the signs from fans and wanted to show support for the man known as “the truth-teller” inside the Lasch Building.

    “It just makes it a no-brainer for [Smith] to be the head coach,” Donkoh said. “The players are saying it, and the community around them is saying it. You have your guy. You don’t have to look anywhere else for who the head coach should be.”

    Penn State running back Nick Singleton led the team with 51 receiving yards against Nebraska on Saturday night.

    An offensive explosion

    Through its first seven games, Penn State’s inability to generate explosive plays hindered its offensive production. But on Saturday against Nebraska (7-4, 4-4), explosive plays were plentiful.

    The Nittany Lions generated three plays of 30 or more yards in the first quarter alone. On the team’s opening drive, Koby Howard caught a 31-yard pass before Allen’s 50-yard scamper set up tight end Andrew Rappleyea’s first career touchdown.

    Penn State still has a shot at a bowl, and Terry Smith says his players are ‘dialed in’

    Singleton added a 50-yard reception on the next possession and tacked on a pair of rushing touchdowns on the next two drives to make it four Nittany Lions scores on four first-half drives.

    Penn State finished with 412 yards of total offense and tied its season high of 37 points. Grunkemeyer continued his improved play by completing 11 of his 12 pass attempts for 181 yards and a touchdown.

    “I’m super proud of the effort from our guys. They are playing inspired football,” Smith said. “In a season that they could easily give up and quit, they’re on the brink of playing some of their best ball.”

    Up next

    Penn State hits the road for its season finale against Rutgers (5-6, 2-6) on Saturday (3:30 p.m., BTN).

  • The green bean casserole, an iconic Thanksgiving side dish with a N.J. connection, turns 70 this year

    The green bean casserole, an iconic Thanksgiving side dish with a N.J. connection, turns 70 this year

    In 1955, Dorcas Bates Reilly of Haddonfield was tinkering with her team in the home economics department at the Campbell Soup Co., trying to recreate a casserole recipe that a manager had tasted somewhere. The team had been tasked with using ingredients most American families would already have on hand.

    After a series of experiments, documented on a typed recipe card that is now part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Reilly, who was 29 at the time, hit upon the six-ingredient winner.

    Now known as green bean casserole, the dish that has become a Thanksgiving icon turns 70 this year.

    The original green bean casserole recipe card in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

    The “Green Bean Bake,” as it was called at the time, mainly relied on green beans and Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup, along with a splash of milk, soy sauce, and black pepper. Crispy fried onions topped it off.

    “It was such a rewarding feeling when your recipe was published,” Reilly told Drexel University’s alumni spotlight when she visited the campus years later. She had graduated from Drexel’s Home Economics program in 1947.

    She never knew her careful experimentation (“onions too salty, beans lack freshness, too many onions,” she wrote in an early version of the recipe) would become a national star.

    “How would she know of the thousands of recipes she worked on over all those years that there was one that stood out?” Reilly’s daughter, Dorcas R. Tarbell, 64, asked.

    Before settling on the final ingredients, Reilly had played around with adding Worcestershire and slices of ham. Campbell’s began printing Reilly’s recipe on the back of its cream of mushroom soup can labels in 1960.

    Dorcas Reilly, on the set of live TV commercials that were filmed in the late 1940s atop the original Campbell’s plant in Camden. Reilly was a Campbell’s Soup kitchen supervisor in 1955 when she combined green beans and cream of mushroom soup, topped with crunchy fried onions. It is the most popular recipe ever to come out of the corporate kitchen at Campbell’s.

    Tarbell said her mother had not known how popular the dish was until 1995, 40 years after its creation.

    That was when Campbell’s marketing team studied sales data and found that cream of mushroom soup sales spiked in October and November, and dropped in January. They told Reilly that her recipe was the company’s most-requested ever.

    After that, Reilly became “the ambassador of the green bean casserole,” Tarbell said. Each year, she talked to radio stations and newspapers, and traveled to stockholder meetings to talk about the dish.

    Reilly died in 2018 and was celebrated in obituaries across the country as the “grandmother of the green bean casserole.”

    Thomas H. Reilly, 99 years old, is reflected in his foyer mirror as he looks out the front door of his home in Haddonfield at the giant inflatable green bean casserole his daughter ordered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the famous dish.

    This year, to celebrate the anniversary of her mother’s famous dish, Tarbell ordered an enormous, custom-made, inflatable green bean casserole to bedeck the lawn of her 99-year-old father and Reilly’s widower, Thomas H. Reilly.

    “I thought, what better gift can I give than to honor the love of his life through the green bean casserole?” Tarbell, who lives down the street, said. “At this point, you have to have humor in life.”

    In a town full of yards featuring inflatable Thanksgiving turkeys and pilgrims (and a few early Santas and snowmen), the six-foot side dish stands out.

    Also in honor of the 70th anniversary, Reilly’s niece, Evelynne Bates Stoklosa, who is 80, established a research grant in honor of her aunt through Phi Upsilon Omicron, a national honor society for the Family and Consumer Sciences, the modern name for home economics. The research focus for the next two years will be “areas representing culinary arts, food science, nutrition, and dietetics.”

    As for her mother’s dish — which is especially popular in the Midwest — it will likely appear on more than half of Thanksgiving tables nationwide this week, Campbell said.

    Growing up, Tarbell said the family never ate green bean casserole. But after they realized Reilly had created a star dish, the family embraced it.

    “Of course, we have green bean casserole at Thanksgiving,” Tarbell said, adding, “We have it at Christmas. We have it at Easter.”

    Dorcas Reilly and a small unnamed admirer, with the iconic green bean casserole Mrs. Reilly invented.
  • Sixers takeaways from a loss to the Heat: Opposing big men causing trouble; Jared McCain has best game

    Sixers takeaways from a loss to the Heat: Opposing big men causing trouble; Jared McCain has best game

    The 76ers have a tough time matching up with towering, athletic post players.

    Even in a loss, Justin Edwards is developing into a steady player who makes the right play.

    Jared McCain is starting to regain the rhythm that made him a rookie-of-the-year front-runner last season before he suffered a season-ending knee injury.

    Those things stood out Sunday in the Sixers’ 127-117 loss to the Miami Heat at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

    Struggling against height

    Andre Drummond was the tallest available Sixer on Sunday at 6-foot-11. Dominick Barlow, who backed him up at center, stands 6-9. Meanwhile, starting forward Paul George and reserve forward Trendon Watford are both 6-8.

    Miami started 7-foot Kel’el Ware at center and 6-9 Bam Adebayo at power forward. The duo took full advantage of their height advantage. Ware finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. He had eight points and eight rebounds (six offensive) in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Adebayo, a three-time All-Star, had 18 points and 13 rebounds.

    Tyrese Maxey’s impact extends far beyond basketball. Philly is blessed to have him.

    Drummond held his own, finishing with 14 points and a season-high 23 boards for his sixth double-double in seven games. But the Sixers were outrebounded, 58-46.

    “The biggest challenge was, I think he really got going when we got into rotations for Drum being out,” coach Nick Nurse said of matching up with Ware. “His size was just a little too much for our other guys tonight with what we had out there.

    “So then, we tried to do as much as we could, matching Drum with his minutes. But again, he was just a little too long and bouncy down there for us for most of the game.”

    Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo dunks on Dominick Barlow in the fourth quarter.

    The Heat (11-6) took advantage of the Sixers (9-7) not having starting center Joel Embiid and reserve Adem Bona.

    But this isn’t the first time they have had a tough time matching up against towering post players. They struggled trying to defend Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in a 132-121 road loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Nov. 5. Embiid missed that game. Bona played, but struggled mightily against the 6-11 big men.

    On that night, the Sixers held a 43-34 rebounding advantage in a game that was basically over after three quarters. Allen had 24 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks in 29 minutes, 31 seconds. Mobley added 23 points, five rebounds, and three blocks in 34:02.

    The Sixers need to find a way to erase their margin of error, regardless of who’s available to play.

    “I think who is in and out of the lineup is out of our control. Let me start with that,” Drummond said. “And the guys who do play, we play to the best of our ability. We’re playing good teams. And you know it’s hard to find a rhythm when we are not knowing who we are playing with on a nightly basis. So still not an excuse. I think this game was very winnable for us.

    “Just a few mistakes down the stretch of the game. It’s a good team we’re playing. It’s a great team. So we’ll get them next time.”

    Drummond has a point: This was a winnable game. The Sixers battled back from a 16-point deficit, closing the gap to two points (105-103) on Trendon Watford’s layup with 8:28 remaining.

    The Heat responded with a 13-2 run to put the game out of reach.

    Tyrese Maxey had 27 points on 10-for-23 shooting along with six assists, two steals, and three turnovers before exiting the game with 1:29 left.

    But the Sixers must do a better job of defending opposing bigs regardless of who’s on the floor. If not, they could be in trouble.

    Edwards’ heady plays

    Edwards made his third consecutive start at small forward in place of the injured Kelly Oubre Jr. (sprained left knee). The former Imhotep Charter standout is doing a solid job of filling in.

    Edwards is starting to develop a knack for making the right play. He knows that his teammates, Maxey and George, are the go-to players. So he spaces the floor, hustles for loose balls, crashes the boards, and looks for his shot only when he is open.

    Doing that, Edwards finished with seven points on 3-for-8 shooting to go with four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks against the Heat.

    The second-year player out of Kentucky also did a solid job of getting Maxey the ball. One of his assists came on Maxey’s three-pointer right before the shot clock expired with1:22 remaining in the half. On the next possession, he assisted on McCain’s three-pointer.

    “I’m just playing basketball, making the right play,” Edwards said. “That’s what I do. That’s my role. I’m not trying to play outside of my role. I’m just going to do whatever keeps me on the court. I’m not going to go out there, trying to play Tyrese Maxey’s role. That’s not my role.

    “So I just make the right play. If I’m open, I’ll shoot it. If I drive and they [bring] help, whoever the next man is, I’ll pass it. It’s the right play, honestly.”

    Sixers guard Jared McCain reacts after making a third quarter three-point basket.

    McCain’s best game

    McCain posted his best performance of the season with a season-high 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting — including making 3 of 4 three-pointers — in a season-high 25:43. The second-year guard had eight points in 13 minutes on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks and five points in 14 minutes the night before vs. the Toronto Raptors.

    VJ Edgecombe sits out Sixers game with tightness in calf

    McCain failed to score on a combined 0-for-9 shooting during his first four games of the season. The 6-3, 210-pounder is starting to show his scoring prowess as he gets reacclimated to playing basketball.

    He made his season debut on Nov. 4 against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center. McCain was rusty in his first game since suffering a lateral meniscus tear in his left knee on Dec. 13, 2024. He was supposed to return in time for training camp, but a torn ligament in his right thumb cost him the first six games of this season.

    “It definitely felt the best,” McCain said of Sunday’s game. “I think each game is just getting more reps on the knee and more reps of movement. But I felt really good today.

    “Felt like I got a little burst for my first step, and yeah, just continue to build off each game. And the more minutes I play and the more time I’m in, I feel like I can get more reps up. And yeah, it felt really good.”

    Sixers coach Nick Nurse watches his team take on the Miami Heat.

    Injuries have certainly hurt

    Sunday was the Sixers’ 16th game of the season. By this time, teams should have a pretty good idea of their competitiveness.

    But that hasn’t been the case for the Sixers because of injuries, preventing a full lineup. Embiid missed his seventh consecutive game because of knee injuries. He missed the last six games with right knee soreness. He also missed the Sixers’ Nov. 9 home loss to the Detroit Pistons for injury management on his left knee.

    Meanwhile, Oubre and Bona (sprained right ankle) missed their fourth consecutive games. Sunday marked the first game that VJ Edgecombe sat out because of left calf tightness.

    It also marked the third game that George (left knee injury recovery) has played in since being sidelined for the first 12. Two other Sixers — McCain and Watford (hamstring tightness) — were sidelined at the start of the season. And it was Barlow’s fifth game back after missing nine with a lacerated right elbow.

    Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe (center), who missed his first game of the season, watches his teammates take on the Miami Heat with forward Paul George (left) and guard Kyle Lowry.

    As a result, the Sixers started Edwards, George, Drummond, Quentin Grimes, and Maxey against the Heat.

    While the situation isn’t ideal, Nurse hasn’t been concerned by how the injuries have slowed the evaluation process. He actually sees it the other way.

    “I think we are getting some really good evaluations on a lot of the younger guys that we maybe wouldn’t have gotten,” Nurse said. “But, you know, obviously, we barely integrated Paul and Joel. Paul’s [played around 65 minutes]. Joel’s played six games. Most of those were minutes restricted, right? I think we’re still trying to work Jared McCain back into it. He’s still minutes restricted. I think I’m not in a big hurry to evaluate and figure out who we are right now, just trying to play as hard as we can each night and keep kind of working these guys back in.”

  • Villanova women roll past Temple, avenge last season’s defeat

    Villanova women roll past Temple, avenge last season’s defeat

    In a rematch of last year’s Big 5 Classic championship game, Villanova soundly defeated Temple, 88-58, at the Finneran Pavilion on Saturday night.

    The Wildcats secured revenge over the Owls after falling in a competitive 76-62 matchup on Dec. 7, 2024.

    Five Villanova players scored in double digits in its highest-scoring game of the season. Senior guard Ryanne Allen, who scored 19 points, and graduate forward Denae Carter, who recorded 17 points and five steals, each marked career highs in scoring.

    “That was a tough loss last year,” Allen said. “This week in practice, we were reminding the people that weren’t here about that loss, and how we wanted to get that back. So that was a huge impetus for us, especially losing on our home floor. We didn’t want it to happen again, so it was nice to get that win back for us.”

    Villanova’s Annie Welde brings the ball upcourt against Temple on Saturday.

    Junior guard Tristen Taylor led Temple with 15 points and four assists. Junior forward Jaleesa Molina recorded a game-high nine rebounds. Temple outrebounded Villanova, 34-29.

    With the loss, Temple split its two Big 5 “pod” matchups leading up to the Big 5 Classic triple-header on Dec. 7. The Owls defeated La Salle, 75-54, on Nov. 14.

    Villanova’s second-quarter surge

    Freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe brought early energy for Villanova from the backcourt, scoring eight points and notching three steals in the opening 10 minutes. As the clock expired to end the first quarter, Bascoe intercepted a Temple pass and drove to the basket to tie the score at 13.

    The Wildcats carried the momentum into the second quarter, going on an 8-0 run over just 57 seconds. A pair of three-pointers from senior guard Allen and freshman guard Kennedy Henry, along with a layup from junior forward Brynn McCurry, allowed Villanova to take a 21-15 lead and force Temple to call a timeout.

    Villanova is heading north of the border for a game. But for two Wildcats, it means a little more.

    “The second quarter really punched us, and we didn’t respond well enough, especially because [Villanova] got a lot of points in transition,” Temple coach Diane Richardson said.

    The Wildcats surged from there, going on an 18-1 run over 4 minutes, 31 seconds.

    Meanwhile, Temple faltered, shooting just 5-for-14 from the field while conceding six turnovers in the second quarter.

    Temple’s Savannah Curry drives against Villanova’s Kelsey Joens.

    Allen’s career night

    Allen drained her fourth three-pointer of the night to send the Wildcats into halftime with a 20-point lead. She finished the night shooting 7-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from three. She also notched a career high of six assists.

    The Wildcats dominated the second half, leading by 20 points or more throughout the third and fourth quarters. Villanova was especially successful in transition, gaining 26 points on the fastbreak in contrast to Temple’s six across the game.

    “What I was most pleased with was the assists,” Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “When you have 27 assists on 35 field goals, that’s good team basketball. That’s impressive.”

    Next up

    Villanova will visit La Salle on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Temple will host Michigan State on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Villanova will host the 2025 Big 5 Classic triple-header at the Finneran Pavilion on Sunday, Dec. 7.

  • Philadelphia’s Ukrainian American community rebukes proposed Russia-Ukraine peace plan

    Philadelphia’s Ukrainian American community rebukes proposed Russia-Ukraine peace plan

    About 60 people gathered at a North Philadelphia Ukrainian American club on Sunday afternoon to condemn a U.S.-brokered proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    Waving Ukrainian flags and hoisting signs that read, “Appeasement Isn’t Peace,” demonstrators outside the Ukrainian American Citizens’ Association described the plan as a laughable, “copy-and-paste” of Russia’s demands, signaling America’s willingness to capitulate to the Kremlin.

    The peace deal put together by Washington and Moscow calls for Ukraine to cede territory, reduce its military, and give up on NATO membership — stipulations that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has categorically rejected in the past.

    How Philadelphia became a home for Ukrainian culture

    “Nobody in their right mind would ask a country to give up its territory,
its military, its freedoms,” said Ulana Mazurkevich, president of the Philadelphia-based Ukrainian Human Rights Committee. “They do not know Ukrainians. … We will not give up — we fight, we fight, we fight.”

    The 28-point blueprint to end the nearly four-year war may force Ukraine to choose between standing up for its sovereignty and preserving American allyship, Zelensky said last week when the proposal was leaked. Simultaneously on Sunday, world leaders convened in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the contentious plan. (Trump has pushed Ukrainian officials to accept the plan by Thanksgiving.)

    “We will rebuild but it won’t be the same, and I just feel such pain and anger at how much they have taken from us over and over and over again,” the rally’s co-organizer Mary Kalyna said. “It’s not just dirt, there are people there.”

    Kalyna added: “It’s like a reward for the aggression, which we will not stand for. We cannot stand for it.”

    Olena Chymch (right), from Germantown, joins other Ukrainians and Ukrainian Americans at an emergency rally Sunday Nov. 23, 2025, to protest the 28-point “peace plan” for Ukraine.

    While Russia would make almost no concessions, the plan would severely weaken an already decimated Ukraine; in return, Kyiv — which has said it was not involved in the drafting of the peace proposal — would receive international security guarantees and reconstruction assistance.

    Zelensky says Ukraine faces a stark choice and risks losing American support over U.S. peace plan

    Bucks County U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a longtime defender of Ukraine and member of the Ukraine Caucus, called the plan “Russian-drafted propaganda” on social media.

    “This moment requires Peace Through Strength, not appeasement,” the Republican congressman wrote on X.

    Between renditions of the Ukrainian national anthem and “Glory to Ukraine” salutes, protesters on Sunday also rebuked the plan’s amnesty agreement, which would likely mean Russian officials and soldiers could not be prosecuted for war crimes. “The rapists, the murderers, the genocidal maniacs … are all supposed to be forgiven — absolutely no prosecutions,” said Ukrainian American Eugene Luciw.

    “That’s what America stands for? Does America stand for justice?”

    This article contains information from the Associated Press.

  • Sixers lose to the Heat as VJ Edgecombe and Joel Embiid sit out

    Sixers lose to the Heat as VJ Edgecombe and Joel Embiid sit out

    Norman Powell scored 32 points while Kel’el Ware had 20 points and 16 rebounds to help the Miami Heat win their fourth in a row with a 127-117 victory over the 76ers on Sunday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

    The Sixers played without former MVP Joel Embiid for the seventh straight game. Embiid (right knee injury management) has missed 10 of 16 contests this season. In addition, rookie VJ Edgecombe sat out with tightness in his calf.

    Jaime Jacquez Jr. scored 22 points, and Bam Adebayo contributed 18 for the Heat.

    Tyrese Maxey had 27 points to pace the Sixers. Maxey, who entered second in the NBA in scoring at 33.4 points per contest, was coming off a career-high 54 points in Thursday’s 123-114 overtime win at Milwaukee.

    Andre Drummond added 14 points and 23 rebounds for the 76ers. This was the first of three contests between the clubs.

    Sixers takeaways from a loss to the Heat: Opposing big men causing trouble; Jared McCain has best game

    Miami controlled the contest throughout, but the 76ers got within 105-103 with 8 minutes, 28 seconds left after Trendon Watford’s layup. The Heat then scored 13 of the next 15 points, capped by Powell’s running layup with 4:40 remaining, to go ahead by 13.

    The 76ers honored the 25-year anniversary of the 2001 Eastern Conference champions by wearing replica black jerseys from that era. Allen Iverson, who was named MVP that season, was in attendance. Theo Ratliff rang the ceremonial Liberty Bell prior to the contest. Ratliff helped the 76ers to a 41-14 record before a midseason trade sent him to Atlanta for Dikembe Mutombo.