The Ramos roundup is a weekly Philadelphia Sports column highlighting all the pertinent news of the week featuring the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Sixers, and Union.
Eagles Clip Cowboys 28-23 as Divisional Lead Widens
The Eagles now have a 2.5 game divisional lead with 8 games left after their close win over Dallas late Sunday afternoon. It was a quality effort once again from the Birds, as the offense did their part and the defense applied the pressure. According to NextGen Stats, Haason Reddick (7 pressures) and Josh Sweat (6) led the Eagles pass rush in pressures during their Week 9, making life uncomfortable for Cowboys QB Dak Prescott. Sweat is now tied with Micah Parsons for the most pressures this season with 50.
On the offensive end, Jalen Hurts tossed 2 touchdowns in the win, one of which included a beautiful thrown ball on a go-route to Devanta Smith. According to NextGen, Hurts has now thrown a league-high 16 TD passes targeting go routes since 2022, showing that the birds not only own a plethora of weapons, but their QB throws as good of a deep ball as any team in the league.
The Eagles are now 8-1 to start the season.
Sixers Pick Up Wins Against Raptors, Suns
Embiid and Maxey and Oubre, oh my. The Sixers are off to a hot start to their season, defeating the Toronto Raptors and Kevin Durant and the Pheonix Suns this week. Although the Suns were without stars Devin Booker and Bradley Beal in the Saturday matchup, the Sixers got quality efforts from Tyrese Maxey (career-high 10 assists), Joel Embiid (26 points, 11 rebounds in three quarters) and Kelly Oubre Jr., who has scored 20-plus points in three of Philly’s first five games.
Thus far, the Nurse-led Sixers have played strong defense and have hit open looks. There’s not a whole more we can ask for than that to begin the season.
Flyers Drop Two of Their Last Three Games
Despite playing well in the home and home series with Buffalo, the Flyers were rendered non-competitive against a quality Kings in town Saturday night. It was the Flyers third game in fourth nights and while fatigue may have factored in, many of the team’s execution issues on the powerplay plagued them. The orange and black will hit the road for their west coast road trip starting on Tuesday in San Jose. Hopefully, the club will get back the injured Sean Couturier for the trip as well.
Union Prepare for Game 2 of MLS Playoffs; Glesnes Out After Sports Hernia Surgery
The Union take on the Revolution in the Audi MLS Cup playoff on Wednesday with a chance to move on with a win on Wednesday night. The boys in blue have had 10 days off since their last game. Philly will find themselves shorthanded, however, as Jakob Glesnes is expected to miss the remainder of the post-season due to a sports hernia surgery. They may also be without Kai Wagner, who is currently being investigated by MLS for allegations that he used a racial slur on Saturday.
