Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Post-Game Transcript)

Q. How much of a character win was this?

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, it was a good win. Any time you can get a win in this league it’s huge. That’s a good opponent. So much respect for the coaches on that opposite team and the players on that Washington team. Again, so much respect for [Commanders Head] Coach [Dan] Quinn. He’s done an unbelievable job. We knew we had to be on it today. Played a good opponent on a short week. It was big to get a win.

 

Q. Saw you go over K Jake Elliott when he was having struggles. What did you say to him?

NICK SIRIANNI: Jake has been so clutch his entire career and his entire time that I’ve been here, too. Just like I would say to somebody that fumbled or dropped a pass in a moment, ‘We believe in you. You’re going to have to make a kick to help us win this football game.’

He did to get us up 16 points and 8 points or whatever it was. We have so much faith in him and that’s what you do. You can really build connections through tough times, right? So obviously he was going through a tough time, but this team believes so much in Jake Elliott because of his track record and who he is and the teammate he is and the captain he is.

Just wanted to let him know that we all believe in him and can’t wait for him to get his opportunity to go out and do it again.

 

Q. Commanders WR Terry McLaurin only had one catch; he didn’t see the ball until the fourth quarter. I think CB Quinyon Mitchell lined up against him 20 times and had zero targets. What was the key to shutting him down?

NICK SIRIANNI: First and foremost, Terry McLaurin is a phenomenal football player. I liked him coming out. When I was in Indy– he was an Indianapolis kid– we did a lot of work on him and I really think the world of him, the player, the person. He’s been awesome in his career.

With that being said, I think our guys did a nice job going against him. I think it started up front. We were able to get some pressure on the quarterback and force some scrambles, and we a good job plastering on some of those scrambles.

But it’s just good team defense. A lot of credit to Q [Quinyon Mitchell] and [CB Darius] Slay and the underneath coverage that was helping them go other places with the football. Good team defense takes being on the same page, playing with great effort to the football, which I saw a lot in this game, and then just tackling well.

We probably missed a couple more tackles than I’m used to us missing, but credit to their players. [Commanders RB] Austin Ekeler, I was fortunate enough to be with him in 2017 with the Chargers. He’s still everything I remember because he’s pretty elusive in the open field.

That’s the key: getting off blocks, playing physical, and I thought our defense was lights out tonight.

 

Q. The fumble recovery by TE Grant Calcaterra, how big of a play was that and what does it say about him that he was already down there?

NICK SIRIANNI: First, [TE] Dallas [Goedert] has got to do a better job protecting the football. He swung the football there and we’ll get that corrected. Dallas was bummed about that.

But good things happen when you get to the football. We talk about that on defense. We talk about that on offense. When you’re hustling to the football, getting to the football, playing with relentless effort, good things happen.

And I think that we’ve made a big emphasis on after the catch, ‘Who can you flip and find,’ meaning who can you flip and find and get a block on him to be able to spring that thing open even more.

So that was just effort by Grant of trying to set his teammate off to get a big gain. Then he was around the football to be able to pick that up there. In 2022 I think [former Eagles WR] Quez [Watkins] lost a similar fumble in this game against the Commanders where it was on a deeper pass, but they were able to recover it.

That was a huge recovery.

But again, we’ll stress that, we’ll really talk about that, because again, good things happen when you get to the ball. Again, Dallas will get all the yards for that, but Grant made a huge play right there.

Grant continues to do things with the ball in his hands, without the ball in his hand, whether he is the No. 1 tight end, the No. 2 tight end. We’re winning football games because Grant is playing good football. It takes everybody. Not everybody’s role is the same, but everybody’s role is vitally important.

That’s team football, and that’s where you’re proud of the guys for just playing good team football together.

 

Q. DT Jalen Carter had a season-high in tackles tonight. I know you haven’t seen the tape, but is there anything you can see from the sideline on his game, and how has he progressed these last few weeks?

NICK SIRIANNI: He’s just a freak athlete. I really think that Jalen Carter, whatever sport he would’ve put his mind to, he would be a big-time player in that sport.

He’s just such a good athlete and able to get to the football. He’s violent when he gets there. There was a draw that they ran or kind of — I think it was a draw — that he retraced and made a play and got a big hit on [Commanders QB] Jayden Daniels.

So, I just think that he has been playing more than all the — and you guys would tell me. I know recently he has played a lot more than the other guys.I don’t know the exact snap count, but he plays with relentless effort, he plays with great athletic ability, plays with great violence when he gets to the football.

Everyone will talk about the fourth down stop, but there were a couple plays he made behind the line of scrimmage that put him the that fourth down on that drive which was a huge stop for our team.

 

Q. The fourth down stop, what did that do for the team?

NICK SIRIANNI: That was huge. That’s huge. That’s a turnover in our eyes. It looked look they had something with the snap. I didn’t see exactly what happened. Not only did they have something with the snap, but we got pushed back. I don’t know who that was. We got pushed back on the center and on the guard I think.

Then, again, we were flying to the football. I think we’ve shown great athletic ability on defense. Again, it takes relentless effort. Shoot, you need good athletes out there doing it.

Credit to [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and his staff for the guys on this field. We’re an athletic defense that flies around and hits. As that play got strung out, you could see the effort to the football and also you could see the athletic ability to the football to make that play. Jayden Daniels is obviously a really good athlete, really good football player, and it was good to be able to string that thing out and get the stop. It was huge.

We went down and made it a two-score game. Was it 19-10 when we made that?

 

Q. 12-10.

NICK SIRIANNI: So huge, huge, because then we went up two scores. Big stop. But, it wasn’t like it was a short field. The offense had to go do its job. We were able to lean on the big guys up front.

How special were they tonight? I’m really excited to watch that tape. Obviously, [RB] Saquon [Barkley] will get all the credit for that. Again, you can’t be great without the greatness of others.

Saquon was great tonight, but that offensive line was really good. Even on Saquon’s touchdown, we’ve got the receivers running off on that play. Smitty [WR DeVonta Smith] is running off. [WR] A.J. [Brown] is running off to that side. That’s effort.

I think our guys have been playing with extreme effort, and good things happen when you’re doing those things.

 

Q. The running game as a whole, probably on paper not where you wanted until the fourth quarter, and then it just — do you get a feeling for that?

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I thought [Offensive Coordinator] Kellen [Moore] did a great job calling the game. It was tough sledding at the beginning, but he kept leaning on the run game as the game continued on. When you’ve got a back like Saquon– I mean, how about [RB] Kenny Gainwell? How about how well he played? He came in for Saquon when Saquon needed a break. We were going on the ball because we were having some good tempo.

We kind of had them on their heels and we just kept going. Kenny played his butt off. You get the feel of that as the game goes on. We felt like we were getting some movement up front. Again, that’s a really good defense, great defensive coaches, great defensive players over there. They got some good youth over there as well that you notice and have some speed.

But it was huge. It was huge that we were able to get that going and Kellen sticking with it even though some of it was muddy early. But that’s how it goes sometimes in the run game. It’s ugly sometimes. It’s grimy sometimes.

But you continue to grind that out and that really helped us put that game away.

 

Q. At the beginning of the game, QB Jalen Hurts was kind of off. It seemed like he was holding the ball too long or just his timing was off. Was anything wrong or was he just holding the ball too long?

NICK SIRIANNI: I’ll have to look at the tape. Again, it’s everybody that contributes to a slow start offensively. It’s not just one person. This is a team game. It’s always a team game. It’ll always be the team.

So, I’ll have to go back and look. I’m proud of the offense and what they did tonight. They found a way to continue to put points on the board and to be able to stretch that game out.

Obviously, the defense did a great job holding a good offense down, but the offense just kept finding a way.

We will look at the tape and see what happened. Obviously wasn’t a great start for us. It was ugly. Sometimes those ugly moments turn into — again, part of it is the run game was a little ugly and wasn’t as clean.

I’m just so proud of the guys. They truly have this dog mentally of, ‘All right, it’s not going good. Well, what are you going to do about it?’ All you can do is learn from what happened, and sometimes it’s hard to learn from what happened within the game because you don’t know exactly sometimes what happened.

But you put your head down and know that the only play that matters is the next one. This is such a resilient group that can really put bad plays behind them and move on and put good plays behind them and move on.

Like you said when we went up, whatever, we were up 12-10, we got the stop, go up 19-10. That was a good drive. We get the pick by [S] Reed [Blankenship] and go score another touchdown. It’s so much easier said than done of how do you play the next play, but the guys did a good job of that.

 

Q. What was it like at halftime from your perspective as QB Jalen Hurts is getting checked for the concussion? Were you putting in contingency plans for QB Kenny Pickett at that point?

NICK SIRIANNI: I got information really early on as I was going into the locker room that Jalen was going to get checked. He cleared. But really what we talked about at halftime was that, ‘Hey, this is going to be a grimy, gritty game. Just keep going. We know we are grimy and gritty.’ We know that team is grimy and gritty. A lot of respect for them. We kept going and that was the talk at halftime.

It’s a street fight and it’s not about who is tougher, but about who is tougher longer. We all said that to each other and I think we went out and I think they got points right way, right? I think they got three points right away. Then, again, just great resilience by our guys.

 

Q. What does a great defense do for a team’s mentality?

NICK SIRIANNI: I think similarly to like when you’re running the ball like we’re running. We really pride ourselves. I think since I’ve been here the last four years, when we have played our best we’ve played with extreme physical toughness: mental toughness, physical toughness, relentless effort.

You think about the run game when you do that. You talk about the defense. Again, what part of those things — when you describe defense, good team defense, we start with being on the same page. Everything else is about effort, physicality, toughness, the way you strike blocks, get off blocks, the way you tackle, all those things, fundamentals and toughness.

We’re tough on this football team because we got tough guys. That’s so important. You can’t be tough if you don’t have guys that are tough.

So, I think it just emphasizes what we want to be as a team. The physical toughness, the mental toughness, relentless effort, all those things umbrella over the word “tough” in our mind. That’s a core value of ours and it’s huge for the football team.

Just like a big catch or big run, a big hit does the same thing. Whether it’s finishing somebody on the sideline as an offensive player or getting a big hit or a push back on the defensive line. We’ll highlight the crap out of those when we review this tape. We’ll look at those. We just want to build on that.

 

Q. The trick play, what was the thinking there?

NICK SIRIANNI: Trying to get a big play.

 

Q. What went into the preparation?

NICK SIRIANNI: A lot of preparation goes into trick plays. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. A lot of preparation goes into it. They got us on that one.