Nick Sirianni
On being aggressive on fourth down:
“Every game is going to be played a little different depending on who you are playing. Right there in that game, I thought [Washington QB Taylor] Heinicke started off hot. And I know I’m going to get some questions about how the defense started. Did you see some of the throws Heinicke was making early in that game, getting away from the pressure that we were getting? The guy was playing good, so I felt like in those scenarios, we had to be aggressive. I’m always going to look at the chart, see what it says and then I’m going to make a decision based on what I think is necessary for that game. That’s why we did what we did today with some of those fourth downs down in the redzone. Great job to our offensive line to be able to run it in and our backs and our quarterback and the tight ends and the receivers, everybody involved to make my decision. That’s awesome team football.”
On what it means to come out of this season with a winning record:
“Again, we’re taking each week week-by-week. When you’re 2-5, if you look at how you’re going to get four wins in a row or whatever it is or how you’re going to get back to 9-7, that looks really tall. That mountain looks really tall to climb. But when you focus on one day, one meeting, one walkthrough, one practice at a time, it becomes way more manageable. And that’s all we tried to do. I’m obviously pleased with the situation we’re in right now controlling our own destiny. I’m really pleased with the way we responded in today’s game. I’m thankful to this team and the guys we have on this team that fought through hard times. What I felt on the sideline today was this calmness. There was a calmness throughout the entire game. We’ve had more double-digit wins. I think we’ve only had one game that was not a double-digit win – correct me if I’m wrong – against Carolina. But that whole game, there was just this calmness from our leaders on the team that reflected to everybody else. Fletch [Fletcher Cox], Rodney McLeod, Jason Kelce, Jalen Hurts. Jalen was so calm throughout the entire game. That’s what you do when you take things little by little. When you’re down two scores at the end of the first half, you’re not going to get it all with one drive. You’re going to go down there and make it a tighter game with the drive, but you can’t get all your points back. Just like you can’t get your wins back when you start low. It’s just us recovering from the 2-5 to where we are now, it prepares you for games like this where you’re in a hole and you’ve got to chip away at it. That’s what our guys did today.”
On if the calmness today was a reflection on QB Jalen Hurts:
“I think that is definitely a reflection of how the quarterback is and how he was all day today and how he is in general. And the leaders on our time like I said. All the guys, Alex Singleton, Fletcher Cox, Rodney McLeod and Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. Those guys are calm. They’ve been in these situations before. What a great resource to have those guys to not only make the plays that they made throughout the entire game but have that veteran leadership like we have. Like you said, it starts with Jalen as one of our captains. You know, Darius Slay, who’s not a captain but shows that confidence and calmness throughout an entire game. T.J. Edwards. We’ve just got some great guys on this team that know what it is to put their head down and work, whether things are going good or things are going bad.”
On S Rodney McLeod’s interception:
“I didn’t get a great look at it and they weren’t showing it up on the scoreboard. Shoot in that scenario and when Rodney coming off and standing on the bench and hyping up the crowd, that told me everything I needed to know. And then I just wanted to give him a hug and tell him thanks for the whole entire team. That was just an unbelievable play, great coverage by I think it was Anthony Harris on the play to be right there in the guy’s hip and to have Heinicke sail that just a little bit where Rodney can make the play. So great play. Again, like I said, I didn’t see it. I’m getting word from above, from the guys upstairs telling me that they think that his hands are under it. Then the referees do a good job of communicating that with me as well.”
On the decision-making process when going for it on fourth down:
“When you get into that four down territory potential, when there’s potential to go for it on fourth down, you’re talking on first down, right? You never in anything you do in this game, you don’t want it to be split decision really. Right. We don’t just make a split decision on third down ever. With the play we’re gonna call, it’s detailed out. We talked about it the whole week, and then we talk about it in between series. Same thing with red zone. And that’s the same thing you get when you’re deciding to go for it on fourth down because you want gonna be able to play third down and second down and first down knowing what you have to get to or what you go for it with. And so that’s something I get great communication upstairs of what the chart is saying. Again, it’s ultimately, me to make the decision. I lean on our guys a lot. I lean on [Pass Game Coordinator] Kevin Patullo a lot to talk through some things and [Offensive Coordinator] Shane [Steichen] are great resources to have. And [Quarterbacks Coach] Brian Johnson, [Tight Ends Coach] Jason Michael, all those guys, Jim Bob. There’s just a lot of good voices I have to bounce things through. There are some conversations on second down if we get to fourth and two, are we going for it? Yeah, okay so let’s have a fourth and tow call ready. You just don’t want to make those snap decisions. I’m not saying they don’t happen. You just want to think through those things just like we do in everything else. Just like we want our players to do, we want to be an example for that as well. Those are talked about early in the drive, pretty much on first down once you get into those moments where you’re contemplating going for it on fourth down.”
On QB Jalen Hurts running the ball:
“Jalen awesome today. We all know he is dealing with an ankle injury and fighting through it. He’s tough. This guy is so tough. I mean, just to see it every day. I love seeing that every day. I’ve said this plenty of times, high character, physical, tough, smart guys are gonna reach their ceiling. This guy is so tough. He looked at me at one point in this game and said, obviously the whole game was tight, so tight part of this game, he looked at me and said, whatever, you gotta call, call and I’ll make it work. What he was saying to me was run, pass, quarterback, run, quarterback read. Whatever you call, I know how much this game means to our team, I’ll make it work. And that, gosh, the calmness, the confidence, that installs calmness and confidence in everybody. And so again, I can’t say enough for him as a leader, can’t say enough for him as a competitor, can’t say enough about his toughness. I hope everyone knows when I give a player the compliment of being a tough player from me, that’s the best compliment that I can give. I just think so much of our players that are tough. We got a lot of tough guys on this football team. That’s who I think we are as a football team and Jalen Hurts is the epitome of that.”
On the win:
“Yeah, this game’s so emotional. You have to fight back in tight games like that. You gotta fight back tears of joy. It’s just such an emotional game. That’s why we all love this game so much. There’s so many ups downs. It’s so lifelike and there’s so many ups and downs throughout the game and the excitement and the joy when something like that happens when you can win with I guess you say a walk off interception. I mean, it is pretty special to be a part of.”
On punting on fourth and four and calling a timeout on third and one:
“Bo, I’m not gonna tell you what the chart says. I should have ended it right there. No, I’m kidding (laughs). I wanted to punt in that scenario. I wanted them to make them go the long way. Third and one, I was confident that our defense was gonna stop them there and we were gonna get the ball back and be able to make it a three-point game. We didn’t. Sometimes that decision works, sometimes it doesn’t. Shoot just like the field goal. I mean, I call the time out before the field goal, the guy missed it. You’re like, oh man, he missed this one and he got a practice one. He made the next one. I try to put myself in those scenarios before they happen. We try to do that as much as we can as a staff before they happen. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but I’m never gonna second guess myself when I feel confident in something. I felt confident in both those things.”