Like it or not, Nick Sirianni sticking with Matt Patricia

[time2rock]

Like it or not, Nick Sirianni sticking with Matt Patricia

Despite Sean Desai's success against the Bucs in the regular season, head coach Nick Sirianni plans to stick with Matt Patricia's play-calling for the Wild Card matchup.

By Reuben Frank • Published January 9, 2024

 

When the Eagles beat Tampa 25-11 back in September, they held the Bucs to 174 yards of offense, 12 first downs, 41 rushing yards and just one field goal until the middle of the fourth quarter.

That was Tampa’s 3^rd-fewest points, fewest scrimmage yards, fewest rushing yards and fewest first downs this year.

That was all the handiwork of Sean Desai, who began the year as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator. 

When the Eagles face the Bucs in the wild-card round – again at Raymond James Stadium on a Monday night – Matt Patricia will be running the defense.

Head coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday he has no intention of relieving the beleaguered Patricia of his play calling duties and handing them back to Desai. The Eagles replaced Desai with Patricia a month ago, after consecutive poor performances against the 49ers and Cowboys. But the defense has been far worse under Patricia than Desai.

But if you were hoping for another change, you’re out of luck.

Sirianni was asked about the defense’s struggles since Patricia came in, and he denied a correlation between the coaching change and the defensive issues.

"You’ve got to understand that we're not completely changing to just Matt's philosophy,” Sirianni said. "Matt's also doing things to fit the defense that's currently in place. So to me, that's not what the issue is going on. 

"Are we doing some different things and some new things? Yeah, of course, but we're doing some different things and new things on offense as the year progresses. And so that, to me, is not (the reason). And we understand that when you put something new (in), every detail has to be ironed out.

"So we’re being conscious of how much we're changing and what we're doing. Because it is hard to change it to say, ‘Hey, we're going to run a completely new defense at this point in the year,’ when Matt took over. And that's why we're not doing that. You know, we're just making some adjustments, some different things that we're doing when we're going through defense. And, hey, has it been good enough these last couple of weeks? No. But we're still working like crazy to get it better.”

The Eagles had plenty of positive performances under Desai, holding six of the Eagles’ first 10 opponents to 20 or fewer points.

But each game under Patricia has featured a monumental breakdown – Drew Lock’s 92-yard game-winning drive in Seattle, a 22-point Giants second half at the Linc, a 29-point Cards second half at the Linc and a 24-point Giants first half this past Sunday.

Since he was reassigned, Desai has been working with Patricia on installation but is no longer on the field during games. He still carries the defensive coordinator title but with none of the responsibilities.

Haason Reddick raised some eyebrows last week when he said how challenging it’s been for the defensive players to adjust to a new coordinator in the middle of a season.

Conventional wisdom says a lot of the mistakes we’ve seen – guys out of position, guys not sure where to go, guys slow to understand their responsibility on a given play – are related to the change.

But Sirianni insisted the defensive breakdowns haven’t been related to the coaching switch.

"Obviously, when you're not playing and coaching good enough or to the standard on either side of the ball, there's going to be many different things that point to that,” Sirianni said. 

"There's going to be some things that they schemed us up on. There's going to be sometimes where we missed the fit or we missed the play. There's going to be times where we missed the tackle. There's going to be times that we have a communication error, and that communication error can be between player and player, coach and player, player and coach.

"And so, yeah, I mean, you'll have some of those and I think that's common through any game. You try to limit those as much as you possibly can. And so I wouldn't say (there’s been) a huge communication error thing. It just hasn't been good enough all the way around as we all have seen. 

"There's many different issues that are going on (and there’s been a) communication error every once in a while. That's common in the game of football and that has happened once or twice in the last couple of weeks.”

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/like-it-or-not-nick-sirianni-sticking-with-matt-patricia/557108/

[UK_EaglesFan89]

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

"Are we doing some different things and some new things? Yeah, of course, but we're doing some different things and new things on offense as the year progresses. And so that, to me, is not (the reason). And we understand that when you put something new (in), every detail has to be ironed out.

And those new and different things are working out so well aren't they Sirianni. Dropping DEs in to coverage is genius. He just doesn't have the answers for how to fix this. The decision to move to Patricia was a mistake and he continues to double and triple down on bad decisions.

[eglz1]

9 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

And those new and different things are working out so well aren't they Sirianni. Dropping DEs in to coverage is genius. He just doesn't have the answers for how to fix this. The decision to move to Patricia was a mistake and he continues to double and triple down on bad decisions.

Though I have no quantifiable reason, I wonder if those questionable decisions originate with Nick, or were they suggested from 'on high' and Nick gets to take the blame if they don't work out? Maybe I should start (another) conspiracy channel, dunno.

[weko]

Nick just doesn't have any football knowledge on either side of the ball.  He isn't making any adjustments not just because he doesn't have a clue what to do.  He can't assess what is happening and why.  This guy has got to be one of the dumbest coaches hired in this or any league in recent memory.  It's so bad that Rich Kotite would out coach him.  As would most any division 1 college coach, as would more than half of high school coaches in the country.

Nick is a complete idiot and a fake coach. He is a yes man and that's the only reason he got the job.  No one else was going to put up with being told by the owner's son and the analytics dept how to play on each side of the ball.  The schemes, the limited plays, what he can and can not change without their approval.  

This team is looking at being bottom 5 if this clown stays, but I'm pretty sure Lurie will fire him next week after Tampa kicks our ass and Nick says in the presser how proud he is of the guys and their effort.  Blah blah blah one corporate Dilbert cliche after another.  

One more dismal loss with a confused dispirited team going through the motions and we can look forward to installation of the next puppet.