Eagles coach Nick Sirianni second guesses passive approach on critical 4th-quarter drive

[time2rock]

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni second guesses passive approach on critical 4th-quarter drive

By Reuben Frank • Published January 1, 2024

 

Nick Sirianni took a ton of heat – and deservedly so – for the Eagles’ play calling on the 4^th-quarter field goal drive that briefly gave the Eagles the lead before the Cards’ game-winning drive.

It was passive, it was conservative, it was muddled and it was embarrassing. 

And by playing for a field goal instead of a touchdown, Sirianni and Brian Johnson played right into the hands of Cards coach Jonathan Gannon, whose team scored touchdowns on all four 2^nd-half drives.

On Monday, after sleeping on it, Sirianni questioned the decision to not attack down the field on the three plays immediately preceding a Jake Elliott field goal with 2 ½ minutes left.

Sirianni questioned himself, although Johnson is the offensive coordinator and play caller. There’s no way to tell how much of the decision to be conservative in that sequence and the play calls themselves were on Sirianni or Johnson, but it's Sirianni's offense and he's the head coach, and he blamed himself.

"I'm always gonna look at myself first,” he said, a day after the Eagles became the first team in 37 years to fall to 11-5 after opening a season 10-1. 

"Was I aggressive enough? You're always going to think through that. And when it doesn't go (the way you want) and you come out on the losing end of it, you're going to think through all those different things. 

"So, of course, when I look at the game yesterday and we're in that four-minute (offense), we get the onside kick and we're in that four-minute, I like the call(s), but you know, maybe I could have been more aggressive there and that's just me being honest with you guys like that's that's something I'm always going to look at first.”

Elliott’s field goal gave the Eagles a 31-28 lead, but the Cards had no trouble driving the length of the field and taking a 35-31 lead with 32 seconds left.

The loss was crushing to the Eagles, severely damaging their chances to win the NFC East and earn the No. 2 seed. 

By playing for the field goal, Sirianni seemed to ignore the fact that the defense hadn’t stopped the Cards the entire game. The only drive Arizona didn‘t score was when Sydney Brown scored on a 99-yard interception return.

"You think through different things and different scenarios,” Sirianni said. "We did feel like there was aggression in the play call to be able to run the run(s) that we ran. But when something like that doesn't work out, you think to yourself, ‘Well, (we) should have done it the other way.’ 

"And that's just the mud you drag yourself through as a coach. Sometimes the decisions work, sometimes they don't work. And when they don't work … you think to yourself, ‘What could we have done differently in that scenario?’ And of course, the different thought process would have been to (not) be passive in that scenario and shoot. So that's something that we’ve got to live with and we’ve got to think through and that’s all an attempt for us to get better.”

The Eagles have been outscored 68-30 in the second half of their last three games, their 2^nd-worst three-game 2^nd-half scoring margin since 1970. They’ve allowed at least 17 points in the second half of their last three games for the sixth time in franchise history. The 68 points they’ve given up after halftime in a three-game span is 3^rd-most since 1970.

So trying to go up seven late in the fourth quarter seemed like the way to go if the Eagles had any hope of winning the game.

"You try to use clock while also being aggressive,” Sirianni said. "If that was easy, everybody would be able to do that and so it's not an easy, easy task. I thought it was really important that we got ourselves points obviously there but also get as many first downs as we possibly could and score a touchdown. 

"It didn't work out that way, and looking at it, we think to ourselves, ‘All right, this didn't work. … What would work in this scenario?’ And you drag yourself through the mud and you hope that you come out cleaner on the other side because you've gotten better from the scenario that you went through and the loss that you went through.”

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/eagles-coach-nick-sirianni-second-guesses-passive-approach-critical-4th-quarter-drive-cardinals/555425/

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I’m sorry but he’s done. He really is just done. He’s a superb HC when things are going well but he doesn’t have a clue how to right things. His messages are muddled. He’s second guessing himself. He’s talking one thing and then doing another.

I don’t want to be Sirianni out. I don’t want to do that after the wins and what he’s been able to do with this team. But I think he’s done. He seems to have lost the players and he’s losing the fans quickly too.