Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Messaging

Posted December 2nd, 2025 | 1 Comment »

The first episode of Hard Knocks aired on Tuesday night. This focuses on the NFC East. It was a frustrating watch for everyone except Cowboys fans. None of the other teams won a game in the two-week period the episode covered.

Nick Sirianni got a lot of face time. He said lots of good things, mainly focusing on the value of adversity. Jalen Hurts said good things. The messaging is what you want out of the leaders. The problem is that the message felt hollow.

Sirianni spoke to the team after the Dallas loss and talked about the need to focus on the Bears. Block out everything else and focus on the Bears. Go win that game. Unfortunately the players did not listen. There was mistake after mistake. They were made by the offense, defense and STs. Everyone had a hand in that mess.

It doesn’t look great for the team to be so sloppy in such an important situation.

The episode Brian Schottenheimer talking to his Cowboys players when they were down 14-0 and 21-0 to the Eagles. He kept telling his players and coaches to calm down. He preached for them to be patient. Dallas didn’t panic. They slowly took control of the game and ended up winning 24-21. The Cowboys out-coached and out-played the Eagles.

This doesn’t mean anything definitive about Schottenheimer or Sirianni. It does show you that Schottenheimer and his team are in sync right now. There is a real connection. That’s reflected in how his team is playing. Sirianni has been searching for the right words for his team all year.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m reading a book called The Genius about Bill Walsh. He dealt with the same thing at times. He won the Super Bowl in 1981 and his next couple of teams were erratic. Walsh struggled to get the most out of them. Walsh was still a brilliant play-caller and smart coach. But it can be hard to know the right message for a specific team. Maybe it isn’t the message, but rather how it is delivered.

John Madden was a master psychologist, always seeming to know what his team needed to hear. That’s how he retired with a SB title and a career winning percentage of .759. Madden tended to keep things simple. Take it easy on his team when they lost and be hard on them when they won. He figured everyone else would rip the guys when things were bad so he didn’t need to. When they were winning, the world would kiss their ass so he had to be demanding to keep them grounded.

Sirianni has generally been really good with messaging and culture. He wasn’t able to find the right answers in 2023 and that team fell apart. The current team is 8-4. Fans are probably overly harsh on them because expectations were so high. Three of the losses are fine. The Broncos and Bears are division leaders. Dallas is a division rival with a good QB and red hot receiver. The only real stinker was the loss to the Giants. That was a bad game. What is so frustrating about the other losses is that the Eagles had good chances to win those games. They made critical mistakes that killed them.

Maybe Sirianni’s words will sink in and resonate after the Bears loss. We all agree that some schematic changes would make a big difference. If those aren’t coming, you need the players to execute better and quit with the costly errors. A handful of plays make the difference in winning and losing. The Eagles were good enough last year to overcome sloppiness when it happened. This team is just not playing well enough to overcome themselves and the opponent.

I’m really interested to see how the Eagles play on Monday night in Los Angeles. They need to find a way to win that game. A strong showing would be great, but at this point an ugly win would do.

*****

Sydney Brown struggled last week. Getting Epps back on the field would be good. Brown has flashed at times, but he can be erratic.

*****

The Steelers are trying to win the AFC North. They need all the help they can get. If they released Slay, that’s not good. He struggled for them this season. Is it possible the Eagles would have interest? Sure. I’m just not sure he’s better than Adoree Jackson right now. Some of you will hate that, but Slay was bad for the Steelers.

Maybe the Eagles will think bringing Slay back is smart because he would be cheap and knows the defense. If Vic Fangio wants him, go get him. I’m just not so sure that happens.

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