If this was “Sesame Street”, the Letter of the Day would be “L” and the Number of the Day would be “9.”

The Flyers continued their losing ways last night at home, falling to the San Jose Sharks 3-1 for their ninth consecutive loss. This comes after Monday night’s collapse to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Even though the Eagles and the Sixers are the talk of the city, the Flyers are also gaining some buzz, but for much different reasons.

Claude Giroux’s very early goal was the only highlight of the game, which was only a blip on the radar for the night:

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/935663087515992064

From there, the Flyers gave up two goals in the opening period, followed by a third goal in the second, with “Fire Hakstol” chants raining through the Wells Fargo Center in the third. After the game, the team had another closed door meeting, and general manager Ron Hextall spoke about the team’s effort. He had some very interesting quotes:

“If we were playing poorly, I would be the first to say ‘we’re playing poorly.’ I would be, okay? We are not playing poorly. To look at objectively our team right now, and to say we’re playing poorly? No. Are we shooting ourselves in the foot at times, yes we are. Critical mistakes at critical times? Yes.”

“You look at our effort, and at times execution, if you took the score away the last nine games that I’ve seen and tell me we’re 0-9, I’d be like ‘come on.’ So the point is we have to find ways to win.”

“We’re playing well enough to, let’s say the last nine games we were .500, 5-4 somewhere in there. Alright, it’s not great but it’s not bad. It’s what we deserve. Now again, we shot ourselves in the foot and some of the damage we’ve done to ourselves, but I think as a whole, we certainly played better than our record.”

“I still believe we’re a playoff team.”

On why Sam Morin is back in Lehigh Valley:

“The veteran presence, I can’t explain it to you guys, but it makes a huge difference. Just to patch six kids in there and say, ‘Go get ’em, guys,’ you’re looking for disaster. You’re not helping those kids.”

I’m not surprised he said any of that because, well, this happened last week after the second overtime loss to the Islanders:

Since the end of the team’s 10-game winning streak back in December of last season, the Flyers have gone 28-33-14.

Hextall and the players are sticking by their coach, but the end of Dave Hakstol’s run as the top guy behind the bench could happen very soon.

It’s also interesting that it’s the fourth time since the team’s inception in 1967 that the Eagles had more wins in November than the Flyers (excluding lockout seasons).

The Flyers have time to try and right the ship, as they’ll host Boston Saturday afternoon.

The Roundup:

Make sure you check out the latest Crossing Broadcast this morning!

The Sixers, who have done much better than the Flyers in the last few weeks, have a game tonight at home against the Washington Wizards. However they may not have Ben Simmons after he suffered a right ankle injury during Monday night’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers:

Joel Embiid shared a moment with one Sixers fan prior to Monday’s game. His face also appears on the latest edition of Philly Mag and it’s gorgeous:

The Eagles continue to get ready for their Sunday Night matchup with Seattle. And the defense is already eyeing Russell Wilson:

Wilson, who is in his sixth NFL season, has increased his passing yardage every year in the NFL and topped 4,000 yards the last two years. He’s on pace for his best season yet. The Seahawks have accomplished targets around him, including Pro Bowlers Doug Baldwin (58 catches, 698 yards, four touchdowns) and Jimmy Graham (49 catches, 447 yards, eight touchdowns). Paul Richardson and Tyler Lockett are also key contributors. All four have played at least three seasons with Wilson, which helps their chemistry.

“They’re more so relying on their quarterback,” [Nigel] Bradham said when asked how the Seahawks are different this year. “We pretty much got to be ready in the pass game, be able to take away some of their key receivers – Lockett, Baldwin, and obviously Graham.”

The mobility takes it to another level. The Eagles faced Panthers quarterback Cam Newton this season, and Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith is also one of the most mobile quarterbacks in the NFL. But [Jim] Schwartz said Wilson is “unique in his own ways” and compared him to Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton. The backward running that Bradham referenced is what Schwartz thinks makes Wilson most dangerous.

“He can run the designed quarterback runs, the zone reads, the keepers and things like that. And then he can also just create something off schedule,” Schwartz said, “But he can threaten inside the pocket. He can threaten outside the pocket. But probably the thing he’s most dangerous in is threatening by running backwards because it’s easy to keep contain. Well, it’s not easy, but you can keep contain and you can prevent step-ups, but it’s hard to get somebody directly behind the quarterback. And that’s where he can just turn and run and escape, and then once he does, he can create some problems for your defense.”

Many of the players that were in Seattle for last year’s game hope to redeem themselves this time around.

One facet of the game the Eagles have been very impressive with has been their tackling on defense.

Many players unveiled their customized cleats for this week’s game:

Former Eagles great Brian Dawkins is worthy of making it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but will 2017 be his year?

Rapper Cardi B is a big fan of the running backs warming up to Bodak Yellow:

Philadelphia’s new box lacrosse team will be called the Wings once again:

Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead will reportedly become Mississippi State’s next head coach after Dan Mullen accepted the head coaching job at Florida.

In college basketball tonight, No. 4 Villanova hosts Penn in the Wildcats’ first Big 5 matchup of the season at Jake Nevin Field House. Also, St. Joe’s hosts Bucknell, and Drexel hosts Lafayette.

In other sports news, Eli Manning has been benched by Ben McAdoo and the Giants. He’s being replaced by Geno Smith and maybe Davis Webb in the near future. Smith will be the first African-American quarterback to start for the Giants in team history.

“Eli is a rock, not too high and not too low,” Archie said. “He just rolls up his sleeves and works. I’m proud of him for the way he’s handled himself through everything, and he’ll deal with this. He doesn’t have to like it, but he’ll deal with it.”

Just like Jeter, the New York athlete he most admired, Eli has dealt with everything the big city threw at him with dignity and grace. He was always in love with the idea of being a Giant. Another Ole Miss quarterback, Charlie Conerly, was his paternal grandfather’s favorite player, and Eli wanted to start and finish his career with the Giants like Conerly did. That now looks like a wild long shot.

“A quarterback north of 35, if his health is good, can play as long as his team is good,” Archie said. “When your team is no good, it gets hard.”

Justin Tuck and Michael Kay were furious, while analysts Steve Smith Sr. and Kurt Warner also didn’t hold back:

https://twitter.com/89SteveSmith/status/935652780026597376

Speaking of QB changes, the 49ers will start Jimmy Garoppolo Sunday against the Bears.

For the first time in his 15-year career, LeBron James got ejected:

Referee Kane Fitzgerald explained why he ejected James:

“It was a culmination of a couple different acts,” Fitzgerald said. “Immediately after the no-call, he turned and threw an air punch directly at me, and then he aggressively charged at me, and then he used vulgarity in my ear a few times.”

Enes Kanter poked some fun at LeBron:

We tackled the Greg Schiano-Tennessee debacle. Tim wrote a great post on how Clay Travis helped ruin Schiano’s chance at returning as a collegiate head coach. Meanwhile, Kevin Kinkead asks if Schiano is actually a good coach.

As for Tennessee’s search, cross off Mike Gundy’s name. He’s staying at Oklahoma State after interviewing for the job yesterday:

Looks like more job cuts will happen today at ESPN:

ESPN analyst Herm Edwards will interview for the Arizona State head coaching job later this week.

Clippers Blake Griffin suffered a sprained MCL during Monday night’s win over the Lakers and could miss two months.

Former Bulls and Pistons shooting guard Ben Gordon was arrested over the weekend on a felony robbery charge.

In the news, a morning bombshell. NBC has fired Matt Lauer over an allegation of sexual harassment in the workplace:

“On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” Andrew Lack, the NBC News president, said in the memo.

He said the allegation against Mr. Lauer “represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment.”

“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

One report from Page Six of the New York Post says he sexually assaulted a female staffer during last summer’s Olympics in Rio.

One person is arrested after an argument near Drexel University between two other people resulted in a man being killed.

North Korea launched another missile, and this one could have traveled as far as the east coast.

Bitcoin is worth more than $10,000.