The Eagles lost another game in embarrassing fashion, and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters afterward about the defensive struggles, how they handled Saquon Barkley’s return, and how they were able to get things going offensively early in the game.
Sirianni was also asked about his message to the team, and it was about resilience and being grateful.
“We just talked about being the same version of yourself every single day. All that matters is we improve. I think back on the 2021 season, the way
we finished that year — and I didn’t say this to them, but I’m thinking about it right now — The way we finished that year propelled us into the future Eagles way that we’ve been the last four years. Growth is important. We talked a lot about being the same version of ourselves regardless of the circumstances and that football is going to deal you some tough hands at times, but can you get up and keep fighting? Life’s going to deal you some tough hands at times. Can you get up and keep fighting? We talked about that. We talked about being the same guy every day. We talked about being grateful.”
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On the defensive issues
“Obviously, it’s never just one thing when you give up a bunch of yards like that. We’ve got to do a better job coaching. We’ve got to do a better job executing, getting off blocks, tackling. We had a couple missed tackles, but it’s always going to be about block destruction, playing on their side of the line of scrimmage, and then us putting them in positions to succeed. I give them credit. They played a good game. Hats off to them.”
Sirianni didn’t want to get much into some of the missed tackling, but noted that they do look at each one, assess what the problem was, and then try to rep those corrections in practice and in drills. He explained that not only do they have to put players in position to succeed, but they also have to give them the tools and practice opportunities to do that.
The head coach credited the Cowboys offense for the lack of Eagles’ defensive pressure throughout the game. He said that they were able to stay ahead of the sticks quite a bit and had manageable third down situations – and they were able to keep the defense off-balance with the way they ran it and the play action game in those third downs.
“Again, there’s never just one thing. Again, when you’re not getting pressures, you’ve got to try to simulate them in some way. So again, it’s always a version of, how are we executing? How are we putting them in positions to succeed? Because all that matters is that it goes out onto the field and we try to give ourselves the best chance to win. In this game of football, just like anything, I think we always want to pin it on something, but there’s multiple things that contribute to it. We’ll look at that, look at some of the common themes and see what we need to do to get better.”
When asked specifically about the production from guys like Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, Sirianni instead pointed to their contributions throughout the season, saying that everyone will want plays back from Monday night’s game, and with the struggles they had against the run, it’s never just one thing.
On Saquon Barkley’s return
“Obviously, you saw that [Saquon Barkley] was on a pitch count out there today. There was constant communication to see how he was feeling, see where he was, and obviously, he came out early in the second half. Again, when you go into something like that, you make sure that the player’s health is first and foremost. Is he ready to go? Do they feel ready to go? Do the doctors and trainers feel like they’re ready to go? We felt like that was the case today, but obviously wanted to keep a close eye on him, and he’s tough as heck. He wanted to be out there for his teammates, probably had to slow him [down] as far as — he’d be out there every play because of the person he is and the teammate he is and the player he is and the toughness that he has.”
Still, Sirianni went on to say that they tried to be smart with him, but it was good to have him back out on the field. He noted that the RB had a nice game and was very productive when he got the ball. The head coach also acknowledged that Barkley ended up playing less than they had planned for after he hurt his back on the first run of the game.
On their offensive success
“I think when you’re able to be efficient in the run game and set yourself up on third down, we felt like we were able to kind of run some of the things, what we wanted to do coming into the game and coming into the season where we keep run, play action, stuff like that. We were able to get some tempo calls going into it. I think you just got to see a variety of things that we want to do because we weren’t behind the sticks and we have to keep up with that script.
Obviously, we did a good job finishing in the red zone. Sometimes it was because some penalties extended the drives, but also being able to run it in down there was key, was obviously good for us. But I think it was just staying in phase, being able to hit explosives in the run game and being able to convert on third down. I’m not sure what we were throughout third down. I think it was over 40%, but we still even want to do better there. But yeah, we’ve still got a lot of things to correct and work on.“
On having to rely on depth players
“That’s life in the NFL. We feel good about our process of giving guys that maybe aren’t starters opportunities for developmental periods and things like that. But I think that’s the league. It is our job to bring depth in and it is our job to develop that depth. With that comes opportunity on my end, the opportunity to give them opportunities to grow with practice time, with how we review film with them, everything. But that’s life in the NFL. I’ll never use that as an excuse because at the end of the day, all that matters is if we won or lost and if we continue to get better, and we didn’t do that. No one’s going to feel sorry for us and our job is to get whoever’s on that field ready to play in the game that’s going to play every Sunday or Monday.”
Sirianni said that he is committed to helping players develop as leaders in the locker room, especially after losing several of their captains, and is always thinking about ways to coach them up in that regard.
