🦅 Remember them? | Sports Daily Newsletter

We interrupt the daily chronicle of Sixers melodrama to remind you that the Eagles will be going for their seventh straight victory Sunday night against the Rams in Los Angeles.

The Eagles are 8-2 and the middling Rams are 5-5, having been outscored 239-213 by their opponents so far. So the players from L.A. are saying respectful things going into this one.

“They’ve got a good receiving corps, a fantastic running back, good quarterback that’s mobile,” Rams safety Quentin Lake said. “So, understanding that, it’s how can we make [Jalen Hurts] play quarterback, be able to limit him using his feet where he can’t make those off-schedule throws, while also making sure that we’re getting pressures.”

There is another story on the Rams defense and it is an uplifting one. Former Imhotep Charter star Omar Speights has risen to a starting role at linebacker after making the team as a rookie free agent. Six years ago, his mother, Patricia Reichner, sent her high school son away to Oregon to escape Philadelphia’s gun violence. Reichner will be at the game Sunday, watching Speights take on his hometown team.

— Jim Swan, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

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The Eagles play Sunday night in Week 12 against the Los Angeles Rams. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from SoFi Stadium.

Back to the Sixers melodrama …

Before their just-finished three-game road trip, they looked like they couldn’t fall any further. Yet, they somehow managed to drop deeper into their hole to start the season. The Sixers lost games to Orlando, Miami, and Memphis and landed at 2-12, which is good for last in the Eastern Conference.

To add injury to insult, they learned that Paul George suffered another bone bruise and will miss at least two games as he recovers from the left knee injury. All of this led The Inquirer’s Keith Pompey to ask whether it’s time to panic.

There’s only one solution at this point: Lean harder into the two-man game between Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, which was a winning formula for the Sixers last season. The Inquirer’s Gina Mizell spoke with both players about their vaunted screen and roll.

Wide receiver/punt returner Britain Covey spent the last two months on injured reserve and was so happy to be back at practice, he tried to block Brandon Graham. It did not go well for the undersized Covey, “but it was fun, still,” he says. “I just missed the competition.”

Covey has recovered from a broken shoulder blade and could be activated to play against the Rams. All of 5-foot-8 and 173 pounds, he needs to remember to avoid contact when he can: “I might have to run out of bounds a couple more times,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t try to run people over.”

Rookie Matvei Michkov has brought immediate offense to the Flyers with six goals and nine assists in 18 games, but coach John Tortorella has not always been impressed with some of the other aspects of his game. In addition to that, there is the language barrier with the 19-year-old Russian. On Wednesday’s TNT telecast, Tortorella revealed the challenges of coaching a player who doesn’t speak English and how he and the Flyers are working through it.

Another thing to work through: Some of the chronic mistakes from early in the season have crept back into the Flyers’ game.

Shortly after the minor league season ended this fall, Justin Crawford, the Phillies’ No. 3 prospect, was back on the diamond at Team USA’s training camp in Arizona. Crawford was one of 28 players selected to represent the U.S. in the Premier12 tournament, a championship contested between the top 12 ranked national teams. The Phillies’ first-round pick in 2022, Crawford has been able to parlay the success following his late-season promotion to double-A Reading into success on the international stage. Playing alongside other top prospects as well as MLB veterans, the 20-year-old outfielder helped his country punch its ticket to the Super Round in Tokyo, which opened play on Thursday with a 9-1 loss to No. 1 Japan. In six games, Crawford is hitting .333 with three doubles and a homer — and fulfilling a childhood dream.

St. Joseph’s (19-3) will play in the NCAA field hockey semifinals today in Ann Arbor, Mich., against a heavyweight foe: two-time defending champion North Carolina (20-0). But the Hawks will never die, right? “We leave it all out there,” coach Hannah Prince says. “We have a ton of belief in ourselves, and we’re just really excited.”

Meanwhile, at Villanova, the women’s basketball team is looking like the class of the Big Five.

If early returns are any indication, the rookie cornerback tandem of Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean could be primed to have a big impact on the franchise’s fortunes. The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane profiles the Birds’ budding defensive backfield duo — plus, he goes inside the weight room to highlight an area where second-stringer Kenny Gainwell has Saquon Barkley beaten. Listen here.

Here’s our Philly fan photo for this week as part of our Friday lineup. To keep this feature going, we’ll need you to keep submitting photos with a Philly sports theme. Send your photos here for the opportunity to be featured.

We asked you: What would you say to this Sixers team if you were coach? Among your responses:

You are excessively paid professionals. Show up, take it serious and play hard. — William D.

What would I would say to this team if I were coach? Joel, clean out your locker. You’re fired. Sue us for the balance of your contract. — Bill M.

As of today, I am resigning so I don’t have to coach a bunch of dysfunctional millionaires. — Skip B.

I am not sure if John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, Red Auerbach, Alex Hannum, Bill Russell, KC Jones, Billy Cunningham, or Phil Jackson spoke to the Sixers it would do any good. It hurts to say it, but I think this new Process is going where the first Process went. It is a shame too for guys like Maxey and McCain and others who are giving it their all every night. — Everett S.

We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Olivia Reiner, Jeff Neiburg, Gabriela Carroll, Keith Pompey, Gina Mizell, Jackie Spiegel, Gus Elvin, Lochlahn March, Jeff McLane, Mia Messina, Katie Lewis, Jonathan Tannenwald, Aaron Carter, and Sam O’Neal.

By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

That closes the book on another week of Sports Daily. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you in Monday’s newsletter. — Jim