By Matt Ryan, Sports Talk Philly Contributor

The Eagles face the Patriots in week 11 of the regular season. The Eagles have played well in the superbowl 52 rematch, leading 10 to nine at the half. Here's what we saw in the first 30 minutes of action:

TE Dallas Goedert. Goedert has been a bright spot in the Eagles pass game, finishing the half with two catches for 26 yards and a touchdown.

LB Kamu Grugier-Hill. Grugier-Hill has had a great first half, finishing with four tackles, three of which were for a loss. Grugier-Hill has been a big part in the Eagles allowing just 18 rushing yards in the first half.

CB Avonte Maddox. Maddox has been targeted so far, giving up multiple catches as well as a DPI penalty on third down to give the Patriots a first. For the Eagles to hold on, Maddox is going to need to step up in the second half.

WR Julian Edelman. Edelman has been targeted seven times, catching three balls. If the Eagles want to continue to slow down the Patriots offense they need to slow down Julian Edelman in the second half.

by Kevin McCormick, Sports Talk Philly Staff Writer

We are currently 12 games into this NBA season and the Philadelphia 76ers are sitting with a 7-5 record. Although this is not the ideal start that everyone was hoping for, there is still no reason to be running to hit the panic button this early in the regular season.

The NBA regular season is a marathon, not a sprint, which is why having a nail-biter against the Cavaliers and a road loss to the Magic in mid-November is not a cause for concern for the new-look Sixers. Getting ready for the playoffs is the main focus of this team, even if it means sacrificing regular-season games they should probably be able to win.

Another reason why it is way too early to panic is this team went through a drastic makeover, which meant that the opening stretch of this season was going to be an experiment trying to figure out how to mesh all of this talent together. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will the Sixers’ potential empire.

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Through two periods, the Flyers had the Islanders and their 13-game points streak on the ropes. Despite being outshot, 22-18, the Flyers had a 3-0 lead with 20 minutes to play.

Then, the Islanders took over and slowly but surely got back into the game. They got on the board before the 10-minute mark. They capitalized on an ill-timed bench minor for the Flyers. They struck just before they would have pulled the goalie in the final three minutes.

That kept the points streak alive, and the Islanders finished the comeback, beating the Flyers in a shootout, 4-3, on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

A seven-game points streak came to an end on Friday night against the Ottawa Senators. Having already missed out on a possible two points to start the weekend, the Flyers get another tough test on Saturday night, against a team riding a 13-game points streak.

The New York Islanders have won 12 games on their 13-game points streak, including a 5-3 win over the Flyers on Oct. 27. They bring that streak into Philadelphia next.

Game time is at 7 p.m.

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Eagles managed to get two wins before heading into their bye week with a 5-4 record.

The bye was very good to the Eagles in their playoff hunt, but not necessarily for the injury report as the report has more players out than it did for the Bears game despite Jason Peters coming off of the report.

Injury Report

Eagles

By Matt Szczypiorski, Sports Talk Philly Contributing Writer

Eagles vs. Patriots. Those three words are enough to stir up the emotions of any Eagles fan. You know exactly where you were, who you were with and how long you cried tears of joy the last time these two teams played.

While this Sunday’s edition of Eagles-Pats doesn’t hold nearly the same weight of the last match-up, it is a very important game for the Birds.

The Eagles head into Sunday on a two-game winning streak off their bye in the thick of the playoff race. Yet, it doesn’t feel like it. Why?

To me, it’s a combination of reasons. One would be that with a 5-4 record, this team is not where we anticipated they would be in the beginning of the season. Another would be the excessive amount of injuries to key players this team has suffered (DeSean Jackson, Nigel Bradham, Jason Peters, Alshon Jeffery).

The final, but most significant reason, at least in my opinion, is that even with all of those factors, the Eagles performances have been quite, dare I say, underwhelming. They are a 5-4 team that could easily be 7-2 if their receivers could catch the football. They’ve had some extremely disappointing losses coupled with some wins that hardly felt like wins considering the way they played.

I know, a win is a win. But if this team expects to be competing for a playoff spot, I’m going to need to see some more convincing performances from the entirety of the team. Not only that, but it needs to be more consistent. It’s time for the Birds to make a run.

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

In the midst of a brutal November schedule, a game against Ottawa stood out like a sore thumb. The Flyers have been facing high-end competition, many teams believed to be contenders. Ottawa certainly doesn't fit the bill.

But the Senators entered the game with wins in three of their last four games. Despite a hot start for the Flyers, the Senators kept the margin at one, and with a pair of goals in the second period, they had the Flyers chasing the game.

The Flyers never found the equalizer in the third, falling to the Senators, 2-1, and watching their seven-game points streak come to an end on Friday night.

All statistics from Basketball-Reference unless otherwise noted.

By Bill Gorman, Sports Talk Philly Staff Writer

In the 2018-19 season, the Philadelphia 76ers were 19th in the NBA in 3-point field goal attempts at 30.2 per game and were 18th in 3-point attempt rate (percentage of the team’s total shots that were from 3-point range) at 34.2%. They finished the season 8th in efficiency from behind the arc, hitting 35.8% of their long-distance attempts. What all of this means is they were pretty good at hitting threes but were behind the league average in taking them.

How did general manager Elton Brand react to this minor imbalance? By trading (or allowing to leave via free agency) four of the top five Sixers in terms of 3-point attempts (JJ Redick, Landry Shamet, Jimmy Butler and Mike Muscala). They then signed, drafted or traded for Al Horford, Josh Richardson and Matisse Thybulle. The team also brought back Furkan Korkmaz to have an expanded role as a shooter off the bench.

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

On Wednesday, Darren Sproles felt some discomfort.

An MRI revealed he had suffered yet another injury and would likely be heading to injured reserve and the end of his career.

To cope with that, the Eagles brought in free agent running back Jay Ajayi for a workout Friday.

The workout must have gone pretty well as the Eagles are looking to sign a deal with the running back shortly after his visit, the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports.

The #Eagles intend to sign FA RB Jay Ajayi, source said. He worked out this morning and they are deep in talks. The top veteran still available, he’s healthy after an ACL tear and returns to the team that traded for him in 2017. Helps make up for the loss of Darren Sproles.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 15, 2019

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers have played their last six games against teams in playoff position, starting with Toronto on Nov. 2 and facing off against Carolina, Montreal, Toronto again, Boston and Washington. They have a 4-0-2 record in the six games. With the addition of a shootout win on Nov. 1 against New Jersey, the Flyers have started off November with a 5-0-2 record and seven-game points streak.

The Flyers do have another test coming on Saturday night at home, but first have to hit the road on Friday and avoid a classic trap game scenario. The Ottawa Senators await the Flyers.

Ottawa is 7-10-1 through 18 games, but has been an especially competitive team in the last few games. The Senators have won four of their last six games, including their last game on Wednesday against New Jersey.

Game time is at 7:30 p.m.