Sirianni on Prescott's 'zone' stats vs. Eagles: 'Not a fair assessment'

[time2rock]

Sirianni on Prescott's 'zone' stats vs. Eagles: 'Not a fair assessment'

There is a stat that is garnering a lot of attention among Eagles fans, and especially Eagles Twitter, following Philadelphia's 40-34 loss to the Cowboys on Christmas Eve.

The stat is Dak Prescott's success rate vs. the Eagles' defense when they were playing zone, as Prescott completed all 24 of his passes for 300 yards and three touchdowns.

"Again, when you play it's easy to look at stats and say here's what happened on that, but again every zone is different," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Tuesday. "There are four different types of cover three in our mind. There is a zone match cover three. There is a zone drop cover three. There is a 60-40 safety, which I'm not going to get into of what that means, type of cover three. And there's a drive safety cover three. There's all these different versions of cover there and some of them play like man and some of them play like zone. So to say that it's just strictly zone is not a fair assessment. And the other answer is, just don't play man every single play. We've played against teams that played man every single play and you just know exactly what to do and calls to beat them. There's a lot of different issues more so than just the call of hey, that it was zone, because again all zones look different. We have to play better, we have to coach better.

"Coaching better isn't just hey, call a better play. That's not the case and that's not how I was brought up. Coaching better is, hey, we've got to put them in the best position to make plays and then we have to teach them every little detail there is to help them do their job right. We call it job description. Paint the job description perfectly, so they know how to do their job right. And so, there were things in that game, where to me—one, yes, the players have to make plays in certain scenarios, but then we have to do better in the job description of how to make the play. Again, to look at the stats and to say all zones are created equal, that's just not true."

Sirianni defended his defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who is allowing 37 points per game when facing the Cowboys over the last two seasons.

"I have a ton of faith in Jonathan Gannon," Sirianni said. "He keeps answering the bell. I know there's scrutiny on him, especially on your show, of if he's a good coordinator or not. And he is most definitely a great coordinator who is giving us a chance, helping us develop the defense. We have good players and he is a good coordinator. I stand on the table for him and I am convicted in Jonathan Gannon. I know how good of a football coach he is, I know how high of a demand he'll be this offseason. I know how high of a demand he was when we got him here as a coach. I love him. He'll rebound from a tough game that we have as a defense, that we had as an offense, we will completely as a team rebound from this."

https://www.audacy.com/94wip/sports/eagles/nick-sirianni-eagles-dak-prescott-zone-defense-cowboys

[Talkingbirds]

Is there a blitz in any of those zones  ?  Sure feels like there isn’t.

[EaglesAddict]

Gannon’s defenses still struggle against competent/good QBs. That said, the Dallas game looks much different if the O doesn’t turn the ball over

[UK_EaglesFan89]

2 hours ago, EaglesAddict said:

Gannon’s defenses still struggle against competent/good QBs. That said, the Dallas game looks much different if the O doesn’t turn the ball over

And that's the concern here. Gannon just hasn't figured it out against good QBs. He is going to have to find a way in the play offs if we are to go to the Bowl. And in the bowl he could be facing any number of top QBs. QBs better than Dak.

[weko]

Every zone is not different.  Every zone is soft

[Eldereagle1]

How about not starting every play 10 yards off the receiver? Here’s a job description for you: blitz more.

[PoconoDon]

Hey Coach, just because a statistic is unfavorable, it doesn't make it unfair. It's merely an objective fact. Ignoring it won't make it go away. Gannon is a play-it-safe DC. The problem is, his defense still gives up big plays at the worst times with regularity. Either he can change or he can't/won't. I expect no change from him and for THAT to cost the Eagles in the playoffs.