The Eagles lost another ugly game on Sunday against the Rams, and will move forward 2-2 with a growing number of injured players adding to the issues. Head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters after the game and talked about the offense’s inability to convert third downs, what he thinks of the play-calling, and why they went for it on 4th-and-2.
When asked about the identity of the Eagles offense through four games, Sirianni was honest about that being unresolved.
“You’re trying to make sure as you
find out who you are that you’re playing with detail and you’re playing together and you’re playing with toughness, and we’ve still got a ways to go there and it’s obvious that we’re still trying to figure that out.”
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On third down inefficiency
Sirianni said that everybody shared the blame and contributed to their lack of success on third downs – there were execution errors and coaching errors.
“Some of our problems offensively has been [that] we’ve been behind, but it wasn’t quite the same case today where we were in second-and-long and all those different things. It was more we couldn’t convert on third down for multiple different reasons. So again, there’s always a lot of contributors to that.”
He explained that he needs to watch the tape before commenting further, but admitted that when you convert zero third downs, everybody has a hand in it. The head coach also said that it’s their job to figure out what happened and get better from it, but also noted that it’s not to assign blame.
It was later pointed out that the Rams blitzed on every third down, highlighting the issues they were having at pass protection. Sirianni explained that there are different things that go into that, and it’s very rarely a simple, one-item solution.
“But again, 0-for on third down, that hurts. It hurts your drives. It hurts you being able to do the things that you want to do on offense. It can put you in a pressing situation at times. One of them obviously turned into a fourth down conversion that did lead to points, but that to me is where we had our biggest issues here today, was there.”
Sirianni also pointed to the offense not being able to finish advantageous situations. He explained that they had the short field thanks to Drew Mukuba’s interception, but weren’t able to put the game away.
“We lose yards on a run play there playing that kind of like, ‘Hey, you have four downs, two more downs to get it on third down, then we lose yards.’ And then third-and-two at the two, to not finish that one, you’re essentially putting the game away there in that scenario and we didn’t in that particular case. I think what has to happen at the end of the day, what I told our guys is that when you’ve got a team down, you’ve got to finish it. That’s everybody. Coaching, playing, everybody.”
On going for it on 4th-and-2
“In that situation right there, try to make it a three-score game. It was a two-score game, up 10. We would’ve gone up 13, but I wanted to make it a three score game right there. Fourth-and-two from the two, you leave them in a true backed up scenario. I’m very well aware of how the fourth down decisions go as the head coach. You go for it and you get it, great. You go for it and you don’t get it, that’s on the head coach. We didn’t get it, so that’s on me. A lot of things that we’ve got to look at and see what went down on that particular play, obviously same deal. It wasn’t good enough as coaches and wasn’t good enough at playing there.”
On rookie Markel Bell
Bell had to play when Lane Johnson was abruptly inactive for Sunday’s game, and while Sirianni said he still needs to watch the tape, the rookie didn’t stand out in a bad way.
“I didn’t feel like, ‘Hey, that one was on Markel.’ We’ll see. We’ve got to watch the tape. But I thought he battled and went in there and played his butt off. I know he was coming off the field every time, just having given it his all. He was ready to play and you love that about him. We’ll have to look at the tape, but I think he battled and played his butt off.”
On the play-calling
Sirianni was asked why they didn’t run as much outside zone, especially after having some success with it in the first half. The head coach explained that he’d have to see how many times they called it, but they have checks built into it sometimes, too. Ultimately, though,
“I felt like we had it called a handful more times. I feel like we got to some of the gap things that we ran today that compliment that, that we hit a couple of those out of there. At the end of the day, not good enough on our part offensively and put the defense in some bad positions.”
Still, he emphasized that when they had zero third-down conversions, the offensive issues belong to everybody – not just OC Sean Mannion.
“I’ve got a ton of confidence in Sean [Mannion] and he’s going to wear a lot of this. There’s no doubt. I’m going to wear a lot of this. Our offense is going to wear a lot of this. You win together, you lose together. I have no complaints on what happened there today. There’s opportunity for us all to grow following this game, win, lose, draw. There’s always opportunities for growth and then we’ve got to be committed to continuing to get better, and that will be the emphasis this week.”
On the effect of injuries
The head coach was adamant that the growing list of injuries were in no way an excuse, and that he has confidence in every next man up.
“Life hands you a lot of different scenarios. Football hands you a lot of different scenarios. You’ve got to be accountable to who you are and to what you do, each and every one of us. You’ll never hear me say a word about an injury. I have a lot of faith in everybody on this football team. There’s a reason they’re Philadelphia Eagles. I’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to coach better. All of us have things to get better from. I don’t care who’s on the field.”
