On Monday night, the disappointing Eagles season officially come to an ugly end, as they lost in the Wild Card round to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a score of 32-9. The game was actually a lot closer than that. If the offense could have functioned better, I think the score would have been a lot closer, but there’s no doubt the Buccaneers deserved to win. For the past six weeks, the Eagles team has been a disaster, with the defensive secondary having forgotten how to tackle after catches. It also seemed like the offensive line aged exponentially during the season. I don’t know what happened to them. Three of the five are Pro Bowl-level players, but they weren’t acting like it, and Jalen Hurts seemed like he was running scared because of that. I think that by the time next week comes along, there will be new offensive and defensive coordinators for next year. We will have to wait and see.
Now we can shift our focus to the 76ers and Phillies who both have a legitimate chance to win their championships. Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey continue to play very well together. The 76ers are in third place in the Eastern Conference. Joel was out with an injury for 10 days. He has come back like he never left, and in the last two games, he scored 81 points combined.
The trade deadline in the NBA is Feb. 8. I think the 76ers are only going to try to do something small to add to the depth that they already have, because the team chemistry seems very good now.
In terms of the Phillies, spring training starts in just under a month. I'm nervous about what the Phillies have done this off-season because it seems like they have the same team coming back from last year. They will definitely be motivated from the incredibly frustrating way the season ended last year being one game away from another World Series appearance.
The Australian Open tennis tournament is happening now. I’ve always thought that this was a strange time to have a major tournament being contested right after the holidays, but this has to be this way because it is summertime in Australia. Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz have to be the favorites to meet in the finals next weekend. On the women's side, I’m rooting for Coco Gauff to win back-to-back majors, but sometimes the second one is just as hard to win because of the huge expectations she has to have for herself along with the media.
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
