On Sunday night, the Dallas Cowboys crushed the Philadelphia Eagles by the score of 33-13. It wasn’t even that close. The biggest problem has been the performance of the defense over the last two games. For some reason, the defense has not been able to put any pressure on the quarterbacks. Since the secondary is inexperienced, other than Darius Slay, the defensive line needs to step up and go even harder if they are to have any chance in the playoffs.
On offense, the Eagles’ three most important players all had turnovers that shifted momentum to Dallas. Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, and Devonta Smith all had disappointing performances. I don’t know why the Eagles are not using their best running back, DeAndre Swift, a lot more in the game plan. A good thing for the Eagles is that the last four games on their schedule, starting with the Monday night game this week against the struggling Seahawks team, are against teams with losing records. After Seattle, they play the New York Giants, the Arizona Cardinals and then the Giants again to end the regular season. They have a lot of work to do if they are going to have a Super Bowl ending to the season.
As expected by most people, Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers with a 10-year contract for $700 million, with most of the money paid to him after he retires. This is a huge risk for the Dodgers as Ohtani is coming off his second Tommy John surgery. No one knows if he’s going to be able to pitch as well as he has in the past. If he can stay healthy as a hitter in 2024, the Dodgers should be a big favorite to win the NL West and go far in the playoffs. They have a great top three in their lineup now with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani. I’m happy the Phillies are in the NL East so they don’t have to face them much.
In basketball, the 76ers are playing quite well. Right now, they have won four straight games by large margins. They’re playing some struggling teams, including the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons twice this week. Joel Embiid is playing at an MVP level again and the team is much deeper than it was last year. In the NBA right now, though, it seems like you have to score at least 120 points to win the game. I know this is going to sound strange, but I wish the NBA would make some changes so it would be somewhat more difficult to score. I know that’s never going to happen.
In local sports, I will be happy to be going back to the Slam Dunk to the Beach tournament at Cape after Christmas.
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
