Cowboys WR Cole Beasley blasts Howard Eskin; ESPN thinks Sixers could be dominant soon

A lot of people in and out of Philadelphia aren't fans of Howard Eskin. Add Cole Beasley to the list.

The Cowboys wide receiver blasted the long-time 94.1 WIP host after Eskin called out Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott following the team's 27-7 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

On Twitter, Eskin wrote that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones should have let running back Ezekiel Elliott take his suspension early in the season, because without him, Prescott "is not that special."

It's unclear how Beasley came across Eskin's tweet, but it's clear he wasn't happy about his comments.

"This is the dumbest s— I've ever heard," Beasley wrote. "Dak is that dude."

Once Beasley found out Eskin was an Eagles radio reporter, he doubled down:

Prescott went 20 for 30 for just 175 yards against Atlanta, but to Beasley's point, Prescott faced pressure all day thanks to an injury to All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith (who could suit up Sunday against the Eagles). But Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw appeared to agree with Eskin's sentiment, noting that the team looked like the 4-12 Cowboys without Elliott in the backfield.

The Sixers head into Monday night's matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers sporting a two-game losing streak, but the statisticians at ESPN's FiveThirtyEight website think that might change very soon.

According to senior sportswriters and obsessive number crunchers Chris Herring and Neil Paine, the Sixers could be dominant sooner rather than later. The assessment is based on FiveThirtyEight's Elo ratings, which they describe as a"simple measure of strength based on game-by-game results."

A rating of 1500 is approximately average. The Sixers started the season with an ELO rating of 1380, but steadily improved before Sunday night's loss to the Golden State Warriors, which dropped them to 1438. Still, the team reached 1440 before the loss, which according to Herring and Paine makes them only the sixth team in the history of the league to "start at an Elo above 1440, dip below 1200 within two seasons, and then rise back above 1440 within the following two seasons."

FiveThirtyEight also highlighted the unique pairing of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. If they can remain injury-free, the Sixers will be one of only five teams since the ABA-NBA merger to have had two players age 23 or younger who both played at least 25 minutes per game and "posted a Box Plus/Minus of +3.5 or greater."

Box Plus/Minus, or BPM for short, is an advanced metric that uses a player's box score information and the team's overall performance to estimate a player's performance relative to the league.

Confused yet? You're not alone. Herring told Philly.com that the key takeaway from all the numbers is that relative to the league, the Sixers are improving quickly, thanks largely to their young superstar duo of Embiid and Simmons."

"If you go by a traditional aging curve, they're both at the beginning of their careers, so barring injury, they'll be around for a long time," Herring said. "If the team can keep it up, they should make the playoffs.

This season, the gold standard for NFL color analysts has been former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who has managed to predict plays successfully at lot for CBS.

Sadly, the prediction game doesn't work for everyone.

On Sunday night, despite the Broncos' losing to the Patriots, 41-16, NBC color analyst Cris Collinsworth said Denver quarterback Brock Osweiler "looks better, looks sharp out here today." Not one second later, an Osweiler throw into double coverage ended up in the hands of Patriots defender Patrick Chung.

"Nobody can do it like I can," Collinsworth joked.

Watch:

It's unclear what Collinsworth saw in Osweiler's performance. At that point, he'd completely only 17 of 29 passes for just 216 yards, with one errant throw nailing an unsuspecting person on the sideline in the head.

Collinsworth and play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels will call next week's Sunday Night Football matchup between the Eagles and the Cowboys. Let's hope it goes jinx-free.