Why I Don’t Blame Joel Embiid: Leave Family Out Of It

Joel Embiid has not played yet this season. Despite that, something he did this weekend became the talk of the NBA. The incident stems from a columnist, Marcus Hayes, bringing up Embiid's late brother Arthur in a column where he was questioning Embiid's work ethic.

Embiid understandably took issue with that. He called Hayes out in his press conference on Friday and noted that Hayes wasn't there. Embiid was clearly frustrated by what Hayes wrote, and got a chance to confront him the following night.

Marcus Hayes was in the locker room after the game on Saturday. Embiid called him out. The two exchanged words, and it ended with Embiid reportedly shoving Marcus Hayes.

Obvioulsy that became the big NBA story of the night. Embiid likely will face discipline, including a potential suspension. But was he really the wrong one in this situation? The members of The Best Show Ever are not putting the blame on Joel Embiid, and Tyrone Johnson explained why on Monday.

"I can't be mad at Joel Embiid and I won't be. You don't mess with people's family at all. This is a job in which we talk about sports… And you are you bringing up somebody's dead brother? And then Embiid is the problem. That's not okay. It was never okay. We called it out last week that it wasn't going to be okay.

And then he talks about I apologize? Why dont you apologize in print? The apology should be equal to the deed initially. I was looking for a column today. Where was the column with the apology? In the real world, there was none of these problems, from Jason Kelce, Joel Embiid, or anybody else, if you leave people's family alone and keep them out of their mouths. It never needs to come up.

And hopefully, we learned something this weekend. And I don't mean Jason Kelce and I don't mean Joel Embiid. I hope other people who thought it was okay to bring up family. I hope they learned the lesson."

Much of NBA Twitter seemed to agree. Even people who devote most of their time on there to being Embiid haters, backed him up this time. it united a Sixers fanbase, who have been mad at him for his early absence, behind Embiid.

Should Embiid have shoved him? Probably not. It will likely cause him a suspension. But the instinct to get that angry about what Hayes wrote is understandable. Just don't bring up someone's family. The rest of that column, even if you disagree with it, is fair game. But bringing up his brother who tragically passed away, was completely uncalled for.

That is why Tyrone, and many others, have a hard time blaming Joel Embiid for how he responded. What Marcus Hayes did was completely out of line. Leave the family members out of it.

Our own Kevin Cooney was present when the incident took place. You can hear his take on what happened in the below article.

Related: Kevin Cooney Recounts Joel Embiid Locker Room Incident on 97.5 The Fanatic [AUDIO]

We got 2 weeks of easy wins in Philly. The Eagles crushed the Giants and Bengals. Fans and players could kick their feet up in the 4th quarter. They were rare stress-free wins, something we haven't seen since 2022. That was not the case with the Jaguars. It looked like it might be at halftime, but the game came down to the final moments, with Nakobe Dean getting a pick in the end zone to seal the win.

Related: Eagles Survive Mistakes by Both Nick Sirianni And The Refs

The reason it was only a 5-point game comes down mostly to 2 things, Nick Sirianni, and the officials. The refs gifted the Jags 7 points that should have never existed. Saquon Barkley was clearly down, the review showed he was down, and showed a Jags player touched his shin before he went down, but somehow the refs ruled he went down on his own. The Jags defender getting a piece of his leg somehow had nothing to do with that.

That fumble turned into 7 the other way. Had it been ruled correctly, the Eagles would have won 28-16, and that final drive would be stress-free. We would still be complaining about Nick Sirianni today, but it would have been a convincing win.

But there is nothing they can do about the refs making a blatant mistake. So let's look at the stuff they can control.

What player stood out? How good has Jalen Hurts been? Is the Eagles young defense suddenly legit? How much did Nick Sirianni really hurt them this week? Are the Eagles in a good position to keep winning and take this division and maybe even the conference?

Let's break down the good, and the bad, from the Eagles win on Sunday.

Let's start with the good. It was a 4th straight great game for Jalen Hurts. He has not amassed huge passing yards over this span. But look deeper and you will see just how great he has been. Take his performance on deep balls this week. He threw 4 passes of at least 20 yards on Sunday. He was a perfect 4 of 4 with 2 TDs. It gave him a perfect rating of 158.3 on those deep throws. It was also a 4th straight week with no turnover-worthy plays.

Not to mention he is running like it is 2022 again. He picked up 3 first downs with his legs, a rushing TD, and 5.1 yards per carry. This is the best he has looked in a while. Hurts looks like he is in complete control of this offense, and has had wow throws every week. Devonta Smith gets the credit for this play because he deserves it, but it was also a great throw by Hurts.

Jalen Carter got off to a bit of a slow start in the first couple of games. But it is safe to say he has found his groove. Carter did not register a sack on Sunday, but this is why sacks are a bit overrated. What he did do was amass a new career-high 6 pressures on 33 pass rush snaps. Half of those pressures came while being double-teamed. Those pressures came mostly against Brandon Scherf who is one of the most dependable Offensive Guards in the league. According to Next Gen Stats, he had not allowed 4 pressures in a game to any player for the past 7 years. Then he had to play against Jalen Carter and that streak was snapped.

The thing that separates great DTs from good ones is the ability to beat double teams. Good ones will draw those double teams, and open things up for other players, but they won't always beat them. Great players draw them, make things easier for their team, and also still get after the QB. That is what Aaron Donald did, it is what Fletcher Cox used to do, and now it is what Jalen Carter does. He is a disruptive force, and his pressures have led to sacks for other players.

Let's get to Nick Sirianni. Because his decisions were poor all game long. He passed up 2 chances for an easy FG and went for two 3 times. That is 9 points left on the board. By just taking those points, it would be a 37-23 win instead of 28-23.

Now I dont think it is fair to say he should have taken the easy points every time. Going for it has benefits. We saw from the Jaguars the downside of being too conservative. He punted on 4 and 3 on the other side of the 50 in the 4th quarter while down 5. The Eagles then marched down the field and scored a TD to make it a 2 score game. Doug should have gone for it there.

We also saw against the Giants that when these go-for-it situations work, it can lead to huge point swings. Nick went for it on 3 4th downs vs the Giants. All 3 led to TDs. If he had just kicked the FGs, or punted, they would have scored 15 fewer points. Suddenly an easy 28-3 win is a tight 13-3 game. There are moments, but the mistake Sirianni made is the mistake gamblers make in casinos every day. You keep doubling down to try to make your money back because it failed early. He should have adjusted and started taking the points after the defense stopped him a few times.

If he had kicked just 1 of those FGs, specifically the 2nd one where they could have gone up 9 points, and kicked the PAT on one of those 3 tries, it is a 9-point lead on that final drive and they aren't sweating at all. Nick needs to make better choices. He can't just go the opposite way and never be aggressive, though that is what some fans seem to want. But he needs to be smarter about when to be aggressive, and when to just take the points.

There were 16 snaps on defense that were considered run defense. The Jags technically had 18 runs, but 2 were pass plays that turned into scrambles, so the Eagles were not actually playing the run. On those 16 snaps, the Eagles got 9 stops. A stop is any run play that results in a negative result for the offense. What that actually means varies by situation, but pretty much you either held them to a minimal gain, no gain, or the offense loses yards. That is a success rate of 56.3%.

This run defense has looked good several weeks in a row now. They were struggling going into the bye week, and often getting too apart on the ground. But now teams are getting nothing against them. They are making offenses one-dimensional. And as we will talk about next, the secondary is also stopping teams through the air.

Quinyon Mitchell is out there all game long on defense. Teams have the chance to take advantage of him if there was anything to take advantage of. He is the main CB, especially when Slay is out, and is often on the other team's best weapon. Which makes it crazy that in the past 4 weeks, he has allowed just 7 catches. Amari Cooper, Malik Nabers, Ja'Marr Chase, Brian Thomas... He is drawing some tough matchups, and he is not blinking.

You could have watched the game on Sunday, and not noticed him. That is how good he is. Teams hardly even try him anymore. He is a rookie, and teams have looked away from him 8 games into his career. The Eagles got something special in him. They also have something special in Cooper DeJean, who continues to excel as the slot corner. That is a dynamic pair of young corners, that the Eagles have for at least 4 seasons. Suddenly this once-weak secondary looks like a major strength for the foreseeable future.

There has been a lot of negativity around the Eagles. But it is important to have perspective. Are there concerns? Sure. But there are concerns for a lot of teams. As it stands, only 4 teams have a better record than the Eagles. Two of those teams are only better because they played 1 more game. Only the Chiefs and Lions are ahead of them by a full game or more. They are one of the best teams in the league, even with Nick Sirianni's mistakes.

They also have a lot of winnable games left on the schedule. The Cowboys look like a mess, and they get them twice, including this week without Dak Prescott and maybe without Cee Dee Lamb. They also get the Panthers, the Rams, and the Giants again. You can easily see this team getting to 12-5, and maybe 13-4.