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SCANDAL: Eagles Reporters Have Different Verdicts on Who Won Joint Practice vs. Cleveland Browns
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
The Eagles practiced against the Browns today. Not much happened. Shedeur Sanders dodged Jalen Carter because of an “oblique injury”, Myles Garrett looked MASSIVE, and the Eagles defeated another team during joint practice for Nick Sirianni to add another notch in his belt. Or did they??? We’ve got competing analysis among the Eagles beat reporters. Eliot Shorr-Parks claims the Eagles beat the Browns – but barely:
ESP lays it out as an ugly win, but still a win is a win. Apparently, the defense made up for Jalen Hurts’ plethora of mistakes. Three interceptions from Jalen? What is he throwing with his eyes closed? Get it together dude. Anyway sometimes these games happen. Take the game against the Browns last year when Sirianni shaved his head and we thought he was losing it. The defense held the Browns to 16 points while the offense sputtered. The Browns were driving at the end of the game when it was 20-13, the defense held them to a field goal and the offense ran out the last 3:54. Then people complained Sirianni used his kids as human shields at the press conference and the Birds only lost once for the rest of the season. It’s not always going to look pretty, but it’s good to see the defense pick up the slack while the unit seems to have some question marks.
BUT – Jimmy Kempski at PhillyVoice might argue that the Eagles actually lost the joint practice. Here’s what he wrote in his analysis from NovaCare:
I thought the Browns practiced with great effort today. They were chippy, talkative, they flew to the football in waves, and played through the whistle. That makes sense given that the Eagles are the defending champs, and will serve as a measuring stick for opponents all season. Let this serve as a reminder that they’re going to get everyone’s best this season. If we’re scoring win or loss on the joint practice as a whole, I’d give the Eagles a loss.
SCANDAL!
PhillyVoice sports editor, Evan Macy, also declared it a loss and got a little extra in after the play with a perfectly executed sarcastic tweet:
Remember it’s the dog days of summer for the beats too! They’ve spent more time with each other than their families. They’re aware of everything. The bits by guys on the radio, what others are writing and saying about players, and they all have egos of their own. I love when they let it show a little bit! It’s no secret we love this shit at CB! Back in the day we know how this would’ve been handled, but in the age of camera phones we only get to watch it play out on the Internet.
Now I guess I’m the tiebreaker. Even though I wasn’t there, after gathering evidence and poking around more on social media to see what the other beats were saying I’m going to have to rule that it was an Eagles win. Not just because I’m a homer. Maybe I’m a millennial and I rather have it laid out to me in video over print, but I felt like I was at practice when ESP was describing it. It was an ugly win, but at the end of the day it was a win. Imagine it like a game situation. Shedeur Sanders gets hurt and Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett couldn’t get anything going. The Eagles scored on two drives even though Hurts apparently could’ve put up more on them. They don’t ask how, they ask how many and it was 14-zip good guys. If you want to win at the end of the day you gotta put the ball in the endzone. Eagles are 1-0 in joint practices this year and 10-2 since we started keeping track. The gold standard.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com