Posted October 15th, 2024 | Comments Off on Defending Sirianni
Nick Sirianni is catching a lot of flak, both locally and nationally. Some of that is absolutely deserved. He’s had an odd season and his actions at the end of the win over Cleveland were just dumb. He admitted as much today.
At the same time, because of social media and the internet, there is an ability to pile on a person in a way that you never could before. Nick Sirianni didn’t get arrested for DUI. He didn’t get caught cheating on his wife. There isn’t a player mutiny where it has come out that they hate the coach.
Sirianni yelled at some fans.
It was a stupid moment. But I think the reaction has gone a bit overboard, with everyone having an outrage contest. Who can be madder? Who can make the most notable criticism?
Sirianni frustrates the heck out of me at times. He treats minutae like state secrets, despite the fact that the other 31 teams usually know who is injured and who will be starting. Sirianni doesn’t want to give anything away. That makes some sense, but would make even more if it really felt like the Eagles got an advantage out of it.
Sirianni flies through his core beliefs like someone regurgitating cult info. I would advise him to quit talking about those in press conferences unless he can figure out a way to make it sound more genuine and less like a manifesto.
I would love for Sirianni to do some things differently with game management and with the offense. Every week I find myself saying “I hope you’re right Nick”. Sometimes he is, sometimes he isn’t.
Let’s mix in some context. Andy Reid used to drive me crazy. He wouldn’t run the ball as much as any of us wanted. His pass-happy offense worked well with Donovan McNabb. It has been elite since he got Patrick Mahomes. He had the right ideas, but not the guys to maximize them. Andy’s PCs were torturous at times. He protected his players and said very little. I remember being shocked when he was critical of McNabb after a loss in 2006.
Big Red is lucky he didn’t coach the Eagles at the height of social media or he’d have been under a lot more pressure. He got scrutinized on message boards (EMB, Concrete Field, etc.), but things would have gone to the next level in the current environment.
I think we have to give Sirianni credit for winning.
9-8 14-3 11-6 3-2
He’s got three straight trips to the playoffs and has a good chance to make it again this year if the team can stay healthy. Sirianni got the team to the Super Bowl in 2022. Don’t take that for granted.
Dallas 1995 NY Giants 2011 Washington 1991
Those franchises would kill for a trip to the big game. It has been 30 plus years for WAS and almost 30 for Dallas. That’s mind-blowing when you really think about it.
Buffalo has been terrific in recent years, but hasn’t been to the Super Bowl since 1994. The Ravens have had some great seasons. They haven’t been to the Super Bowl since 2012. Green Bay hasn’t been since 2010, despite having a Hall of Fame QB for most of that time.
There are times when I’m ready to be done with Sirianni. Then I think about who would replace him. Maybe you hit a home run and hire the next McVay, Shanahan, LaFleur, O’Connell, etc. But you can’t count on that. You also have a bunch of failures. There are plenty of teams who would love to have Sirianni’s issues if that also meant winning games and going to the playoffs.
The way this season plays out will determine his future. If the Eagles go to the playoffs, he’ll likely stick around. If the team falls apart, he’ll get his walking papers. The situation gets complicated if the Eagles finish 9-8, but miss the postseason. I certainly hope that doesn’t happen. Fly or fall. Something in the middle would lead to a miserable start to the offseason.
I know some people think Sirianni wins purely because of talent. Howie’s built a good roster and Sirianni does just enough to deliver wins. I think that is selling Sirianni short. I’ve been following the league long enough that I don’t think many coaches win strictly because of talent. He’s hired good coaches during his tenure (with the exception of last year). The players seem to like Sirianni. His aggressive play-calling has given the Eagles an advantage at times. Those decisions haven’t been as good this year and the rest of the league has caught up with the Eagles aggressive approach so this isn’t the advantage that it was.
I don’t have a problem with people being critical of Sirianni, but it just felt like it started to get out of control. We’ve seen some bad coaches and some bad people in the NFL. Sirianni has been a winning coach and the people around him seem to like him. Rip him for his faults, but make sure to give the guy credit for the good stuff as well.
*****
Jordan Mailata is going to miss a couple of weeks. That means Fred Johnson will probably take over at LT. The Eagles have options, but he makes the most sense.
Darius Slay is day-to-day so nothing too serious with him.
The Eagles beat the Browns on Sunday. That’s good. The score was 20-16, a lot closer than most expected. That’s not so good. The overall performance was up and down. Nick Sirianni had an odd day, which I’ll get into later. It was a complicated win.
One of the focal points for the offense was getting off to a quicker start. The Eagles didn’t score in the first quarter, again. They are the only team in the league not to score a point in the first quarter this season. The first two drives ended in punts. Then the Eagles got a FG, TD and had another drive that got into scoring territory. They settled for a FG attempt, but it was blocked and run back for a TD to make the game 10-10 at the half.
That wasn’t the first quarter or the first half the Eagles envisioned. It certainly what I was hoping to see.
The Eagles kicked a FG to go up 13-10. The Browns tied the game at 13 and then the Eagles scored a TD go up 20-13. Cleveland added a late FG to cut it to 20-16, but never got closer than that. The Eagles never trailed in the game, but they couldn’t put the struggling Browns away. They were up 10-3 and driving late in the half. Saquon Barkley caught a short pass in the flat and only needed a yard to get a first down. He focused on getting out of bounds to stop the clock, but didn’t get the yard. Jalen Hurts was sacked on third down and then the FG disaster came on fourth.
If the Eagles got any points there, it would have given them control of the game. Instead the game was tied in a flash and the Browns suddenly had life. That feels like the story of the Eagles this year. They get close to things going well only to have some bizarre mistake undo everything. There was the Saquon drop against Atlanta. There was Hurts INT in the red zone against the Packers. There was the muffed punt in Tampa. You can mix in Sirianni’s game management decisions as well.
This team continues to be frustrating.
There is good news as well. Hurts started 0 for 5, but then went 16-20-264 with a pair of TDs. A lot of the Eagles season hinges on Hurts playing well. He got the ball to his star receivers and they made plays. Hurts protected the ball well. No turnovers. He ran 14 times for 33 yards. Several of those went for first downs (at least 5), including one late in the game.
On the broadcast they said Jim Schwartz commented that “Brown’s strength is his strength”. Boy could you see that. Brown’s TD came with a DB draped on him. There were multiple times when DBs failed to tackle Brown and he added RAC yards. Brown really is the key to the offense.
The Browns did a good job on Saquon Barkley, holding him to 18-47. A lot of that was on the OL failing to consistently get push. Barkley didn’t have much room to run. He had a terrible sequence late in the first half. He failed to get a yard after catching a pass in the flat. All he had to do was extend the ball. That set up 3rd & 1. Barkley failed to pick up a blitzer and Hurts was sacked. That led to the blocked FG. Barkley can’t afford mistakes like that.
The defense had a good game. They held the Browns to 244 yards and 9 points. The Eagles had 5 sacks and held Cleveland to 0 for 1 in the red zone. They did give up 100 rushing yards, not great when the team has a banged up OL and backup RBs. Deshaun Watson went 16 for 23. He only had 168 yards, but you would like a few more incompletions.
I think the Eagles tackled better, aside from Nakobe Dean. He still missed a couple out in space. I think the defense played hard. I was impressed by their effort. Rookie Cooper DeJean played in the slot and had a good game. He had 6 tackles and half a sack. DeJean brought some energy and enthusiasm to the defense. Encouraging start for the rookie. He also did well as the punt returner.
The defense can build on that performance, but will need to be better when going against offenses that aren’t dead last.
Nick Sirianni was under fire the past couple of weeks. He needed the Eagles to win. That happened. But the Eagles were 9.5 favorites. They were expected to beat Cleveland comfortably, not in the final minutes of the game. During the game Sirianni was seen getting into what appeared to be a shouting match with a couple of Cleveland DBs. Sirianni said after the game he was just having fun with former Eagle Rodney McLeod.
Late in the game Sirianni was arguing with some fans.
Eagles HC Nick Sirianni appears to have some words towards the crowd as the clocked ticked down in the Philly victory. pic.twitter.com/XILkMvVamD
If the Eagles won 47-9, he would have bragging rights. Beating a bad Browns team by 4 points…shut up. That isn’t time to engage the fans the way he did.
In the postgame press conference Sirianni brought his kids out with him. That wasn’t well received by the media. It looked awkward. You bring your kids when celebrating a big win or a key moment. Scraping by Cleveland was hardly a memorable event. Was this Operation Human Shield? Bring your kids and hope the questions aren’t as bad or that your answers aren’t as scrutinized. I don’t think Sirianni would do it for those reasons, but it sure wasn’t a good look.
Sirianni needs to be himself, but he’s got to be careful to make sure what he’s doing is actually worthwhile. Yelling at fans was dumb. Bringing the kids out today was weird.
The Eagles got to 3-2. They’ve still got some things to figure out, but they at least took some steps in the right direction.