The Linc

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

Saquon Barkley’s reverse hurdle hits newest Madden 25 update – ESPN
A move that looked like it could be pulled off only in a video game is officially in the game. EA Sports has added Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley’s iconic hurdle to Madden 25 in its latest update. The Eagles running back pulled off the filthy feat during Philadelphia’s 28-23 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 3. In the second quarter, Barkley caught a pass, executed a spin, then launched himself in the air to avoid Jaguars defensive back Jarrian Jones for an easy candidate for highlight of the year. EA has dubbed the move the “spin hurdle” and announced the addition Wednesday.

Eagles-Rams Game Preview: 5 questions and answers with the Week 12 enemy – BGN
The Philadelphia Eagles are traveling to SoFi Stadium this weekend to take on the Los Angeles Rams. It’s a sneaky important game for the Birds. In order to preview this Week 12 battle, I reached out to our enemies over at Turf Show Times. The ebullient Evan Craig kindly took the time to answer my questions about this upcoming tilt. Let’s take a look at the answers. [For my answers about the Eagles, check out TST.]

Rams-Eagles Q&A: How can LA challenge Vic Fangio’s ‘legit’ defense? – Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams will be out for revenge in Week 12 with the Philadelphia Eagles venturing to SoFi Stadium on Sunday Night Football. Philadelphia defeated LA 23-14 during the 2023 campaign thanks to Jalen Hurts’ 375 total yards. This season, Hurts has additional help from Saquon Barkley, who is racing into the MVP conversation. First-year defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has also gotten his unit to play at an “elite” level. Brandon Lee Gowton from SB Nation’s Eagles blog Bleeding Green Nation joins us ahead of SNF to share his thoughts on Barkley, Fangio and more.

Mailbag: Can the Eagles’ passing attack under Jalen Hurts catch up to the run game? – PhillyVoice
Hurts has been up and down this season. Early on he was being careless with the football, which led to some turnovers. That improved significantly. More recently he’s been holding onto the ball for an eternity and taking too many sacks. But ultimately, he’s still 7th among quarterbacks in EPA per play. If you’re a glass half full person, there’s so much potential for the Eagles’ offense to be elite if the passing game can catch up to the run game a bit, which it is capable of given the weapons at Hurts’ disposal. But certainly, if the Eagles are going to make it back to the Super Bowl, Hurts is still a ways away from what he was in 2022.

Game Review – PHI 26, WAS 18 – Iggles Blitz
Jordan Davis was credited with 3 tackles against the Commanders. Big deal, right? DTs should not be judged by the stat sheet. Davis played well and helped to limit the WAS run game. They were limited to 28-93, with 18 of those yards coming on one run. Davis came up huge on the sequence that resulted in the 4th down stop.

Spadaro: Lane Johnson remains a pillar of power at the right tackle position – PE.com
This is Season 12 for right tackle Lane Johnson, so accept apologies if you have heard this many, many times previously: the best at his position in the NFL continues to win on every snap of the football every week of this 2024 season. The question is not in any way about Johnson’s status in the NFL, it’s more of a question of how he continues to play at such a high level. Every game. Every season. And it really comes down to this for the Eagles’ first-round pick in 2013, a player who has earned four All-Pro selections and has been picked for the Pro Bowl five times: He’s just better than everyone else because he has the combination of great size, great athleticism, great work ethic, football IQ, and coachability. “On top of the fact that he’s so talented and so quick, he uses the technique that he’s been taught, and it’s all over the film,” Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Jeff Stoutland said. “Not only is he physically freakish, he’s technically sound. Together with those two things, I don’t know who’s better.”

Inside the Eagles’ plan to have a healthy Jalen Hurts for the playoffs – NBCSP
Hurts didn’t get into detail on the strengthening routine he was given over the past week, but the Eagles were off from last Friday – the day after the Washington game – until they returned to the NovaCare Complex for practice on Wednesday. Hurts used the bye week to focus on the mental side of the game, and it’s paid off with a very efficient six-week stretch, a six-game winning streak that’s put the Eagles at the top of the NFC East. He used the mini-bye to focus on the physical side of the game. The Eagles anticipate Hurts being a full participant in practice Thursday and Friday, and he’ll make his 33rd consecutive start Sunday night in Inglewood, when the Eagles face the Rams in a national TV game at SoFi Stadium. That 33-game streak will be the longest by an Eagles quarterback since Donovan McNabb started 48 straight from late in 1999 to the middle of 2002. “It’s a long season, and it’s just kind of crazy how it’s played out, because we’ve had this early bye week and then we’ve had this time here,” Hurts said.

NFL Week 12 Preview: Schedule, storylines and matchups to watch – PFF
Storyline of the game: Eagles poised amid win streak. Philadelphia has ascended to the upper echelon of the NFC off of the back of an impressive six-game win streak. Over that span, the Eagles possess top-four units in EPA per play on both sides of the ball. If that didn’t make them a dangerous enough team, the Birds also come into this one well-rested after last playing on Thursday night. The Rams enter Sunday night’s matchup looking for their fifth win in six games. While they did manage to bounce back this past week, the last time this team played in LA, the Rams managed just 15 points against the Dolphins in what was also a primetime matchup.

The Best NFL Bets for Week 12: The HarBowl Returns – The Ringer
Combine the Eagles’ defensive improvements with their high-floor offense centered around running the football, and I think this total is too high above 48.5. The case for the offense is a simple one: both the Eagles and Rams are top seven in the NFL in explosive rate since Week 6. Since A.J. Brown, Puka Nacua, and Cooper Kupp have returned from injury, these two offenses have been very explosive. The counterpoint: Neither of these offenses are top 10 in the league in red zone touchdown percentage. Philadelphia is slightly better than league average, while the Rams sit 25th. Both teams will try to run the ball. I trust the Eagles to be more successful, and lean towards the Eagles, but prefer the under at 48.5. Verdict: Bet under 48.5 (-105).

Ben Johnson, Jesse Minter, Anthony Weaver among 22 young coaches to watch in 2025 NFL hiring cycle – NFL.com
Eagles OC Kellen Moore, 36: A six-year NFL backup QB who dove right into coaching with the Cowboys in 2018, Moore is highly regarded for his football IQ and creativity. And after a stop with the Chargers last year, Moore is now finding success with a different style in Philadelphia: The Eagles lead the NFL in rushing yards (181.3 per game) and attempts (36.4). He’s having fun with the Philly staff and growing in different ways. Moore has already been a regular on the head coach interview circuit, with seven interviews over the past four offseasons.

This year’s Eagles Christmas album aims to give a holiday gift to each Philadelphia School District student. All 116,000 of them. – Inquirer
Like its predecessors, 2022′s A Philly Special Christmas and last year’s A Philly Special Christmas Special, the album produced by The War On Drugs drummer Charlie Hall, and featuring an all-star cast of local musicians, will raise funds for for the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and other local charities. But this year, the Philly Specials team, which includes ex-Eagle Connor Barwin, who co-executive produces the project with Kelce, is also working with The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia to raise enough money through sales of the new album on vinyl and CD to present every student in school district with a gift.

Ex-Philadelphia Eagles RB Wendell Smallwood Jr. charged with COVID-19, tax fraud – CBS Sports
Wendell Smallwood Jr., a former NFL running back who won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, has been charged with defrauding federal COVID-19 relief programs, court documents show. Smallwood was charged with three felonies — wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service — and faces up to 50 years in prison.

Stats and Snaps: Week 11 Commanders @ Eagles – Hogs Haven
A big reason that Jayden Daniels had to resort to dinks and dunks would seem to be that the Eagles’ CBs shut down his usual deep targets. Terry McLaurin was limited to just 2 targets, making 1 reception for 10 yds. All three of those figures are season lows, as was his overall productivity of 0.34 Yards/Route Run (Season high 5.16 vs Panthers). Noah Brown caught 1 of 4 targets for 4 yds, resulting in season low catch rate (25%), receptions, total receiving yds and receiving productivity (0.13 Y/RR). Olamide Zaccheaus caught 1 of 2 targets for 10 yds, not quite season lows, but still below his season averages of 3.0 targets, 2.0 rec, and 22 receiving yards per game Dyami Brown was targeted twice, catching 1 pass for 4 yds and dropping the other. None of those stats are particularly notable for Dyami, except for the drops. He has dropped two passes in successive weeks, but none before that. Brown was also flagged 10 yards for holding.

New details emerge on Dak Prescott’s hamstring injury – Blogging The Boys
Even though the season has seven games remaining on the schedule, Prescott has started the personal journey to getting back as healthy as possible for the 2025 campaign. Moore notes that Prescott has been doing some rehab work during the week, but nothing with his leg just yet. He should be off the crutches by Christmas, and the brace that holds his leg in place could come off before or around then. A grueling next few months of rehab will follow. But if there has ever been a player to bet all of the chips on coming back stronger than ever, it’s Dak Prescott. Faith, Fight, Finish—these words will help Prescott overcome this latest challenge, just as they have been the guiding principles for many of his obstacles throughout his football career.

Drew Lock ‘definitely disappointed’ to be bypassed by New York Giants – Big Blue View
The New York Giants made major headlines this week when they announced that Tommy DeVito was taking over as the team’s starting quarterback. In a rather unexpected turn of events, DeVito, who has been the Giants third-string quarterback all season, was selected to start over Drew Lock, who has been the backup to Daniel Jones. With DeVito leapfrogging Lock on the depth chart, Jones appears to be the team’s fourth quarterback at this point, as recently signed Tim Boyle may end up being the third quarterback on the depth chart moving forward. While everyone wanted to hear what DeVito had to say about being named the starter, the media was just as interested in hearing what Lock had to say about being bypassed. Lock shared his thoughts on Wednesday afternoon:

The 49ers don’t feel scary anymore, and the tape proves it – SB Nation
Do y’all remember that band you grew up on always being good, playing high quality music, but then as everyone gets older and life changes, the music doesn’t sound the same? That’s what the San Francisco 49ers feel like. Amidst a year of injury, dysfunction, and just overall not feeling the same as the face-melting teams we typically associate with San Francisco, this season has been pushed to the brink of missing the playoffs. The Niners were met with a cold splash of reality on Sunday, losing 20-17 at home to the Seattle Seahawks, their first loss to Seattle since 2021. The loss dropped them to 5-5, but with losses to the Rams and Cardinals, they’re dead last in the division, in a year where they were supposed to once again be at the top of the conference. Let’s go under the hood and figure out why exactly this team hasn’t been the same 49ers team we know.