Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Post-Game Transcript)

Q. How good does it feel to get back in the win column? (Reporter)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, shoot, feels good, right? Obviously, we have some things to clean up, but good energy to get back on the right side of things.

Always better feeling correcting the tape after a win than after a loss that’s for sure. So, we needed to get out of the funk that we were in and sometimes that’s just by getting a win. I thought there were a lot of good things out there today. Obviously, I’ll have to watch it and have some more answers for you guys about that. A lot of good things.

Obviously, the negative things, the turnovers. The turnovers that — and we got a big one at the end. [CB] Kelee [Ringo] had a big play at the end. We have some things to clean up in two-minute drill as well.

But excited to be able to clean those up after getting a win, and getting 11 wins on the year.

 

Q. How do you think QB Jalen Hurts handled the blitz? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: I thought he did a lot of good things and handling the blitz is two-fold. The things we do to put him in positions to make plays, and also him being able to deliver the ball.

So, we did a couple different things. A lot of respect for Coach Wink [Giants Defensive Coordinator Don Martindale]. He’s one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, no doubt about it. I have a ton of respect for him and the things that he creates for the defense.

I thought Jalen played a really good game. Obviously, I’ll have to go watch — the interception is not on him, but I’ll have to go watch the other things with that.

We’ll get better from it. So, I thought he did a lot of good things there even with the pressure, but there are definitely things we need to clean up, and that’s as coaches and Jalen as well.

 

Q. How did you and Jalen Hurts address before halftime when he cut up the field and didn’t go out of bounds and you guys got a penalty out of it to keep the clock there? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think Jalen and I both made mistakes on that drive. I didn’t call a timeout and then the clock was going and I probably wasted 15 seconds there. That’s bad on my part. Really bad on my part.

And Jalen not going out of bounds. Those combined for us not being able to get a full seven. It starts with me. I make that mistake, then Jalen makes that mistake. We have to be better in that two-minute drive. We’ll learn from that.

I got to bang one of those timeouts and he has to go out of bounds and we got a chance for probably another play to see what happens.

 

Q. Do you feel fortunate that LB Haason Reddick at the end of the game he’s getting a roughing the passer penalty; I didn’t see it, so I don’t know if it was a real one. But that, DT Jalen Carter can’t get off the field, and you with a time out, Jalen Hurts with staying in bounds, but getting saved by their penalty. Do you feel fortunate to get a win? (Marcus Hayes)

NICK SIRIANNI: I wouldn’t say fortunate. We’re upset about those things and those are definitely the things we need to clean up.

We have to clean those things up. Like not coming off the field fast, right. That has just got to be something we do on every single punt in case they go fast like that.

Haason’s penalty, we got to be legal on that. We want to get the hit on the quarterback, but we have to do it legally.

What I feel fortunate about is all those things are easily corrected and we got to get them corrected.

 

Q. What does it say about your team that you can endure that and still win? (Marcus Hayes)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think what we’ve shown is that this team is resilient. We have resilient guys. We’ve had to show that a bunch this year. We would love to be winning by multiple scores, but that’s not the reality of the NFL.

I think you have a resilient team because of the resilient leaders we have on this team. And so, we were able to overcome, but to do the things we want to do, we can’t make those mistakes.

Again, like I said, it’s always going to start with me. Any time there is a game management thing or penalty thing, that’s 100% on myself. We’ll get in the film room and make sure we get it corrected.

I’ll own my mistakes and I know the players will own their mistakes and we’ll get better from it.

 

Q. What was the key on that drive following the pick six? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I mean, the key was that third and 20. I mean, what an unbelievable play by Jalen and [WR] A.J. [Brown]. And then being able to ride this momentum, right, to run the ball, and get down there and finish the drive. I think was it [RB D’Andre] Swift that finished that drive? Yeah, man, Swift played a great game, didn’t he?

I think that was the key. Sometimes in those third and real longs it takes a great — like there aren’t a lot of plays you can draw up on third and 20, so it was just an unbelievable individual effort by Jalen, A.J., the offensive line giving Jalen enough time to escape and step up in the pocket and fire the ball to A.J.

So, yeah, that to me is the key. When you’re in a little bit of a rut, and they scored 15 points off two turnovers, we talked about that a lot in training camp. Hey, we’re in a rut. Someone has to pull us out. We have to do a good job as coaches putting you all in position to make plays, and then someone has got to make a play and pull us out, and Jalen and AJ did just that in that particular case.

 

Q. Did you hear the run the ball chants? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, of course you can hear that.

 

Q. Does that affect your play call? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: No, we call the plays we feel like we need to call in the situations we need to call it. I thought we did a really nice job running it and passing it today. Yeah, you can hear that. I think I would hear that even if I had a double headset on.

I hear you, but sometimes we got to let Jalen make some calls at the line of scrimmage. Maybe get that chant going and then Jalen has to quiet them down and let it go down a little bit.

 

Q. The four-minute drive at the end of the game, seemed like you needed every second of that drive. How important was it? (EJ Smith)

NICK SIRIANNI: Really important. Gosh, feels like we’ve had a bunch of four-minute drives this year, sometimes being successful, sometimes not.

We spend a lot of time working on that. Again, some of those runs by [RB D’Andre] Swift and the offensive line to open it up, and the tight ends, it was just a good team effort to take that clock down, be able to — you know, sometimes what’s not said sometimes in the four-minute drive is the field goal was huge to put us up eight.

Getting them to use their timeouts was huge. Management of the game by Jalen to hold the huddle, break the huddle at a certain point to make sure we’re using every second of the clock.

We had one mistake in there. We probably snapped it a little early. I got to do a better job communicating with Jalen, ‘hey, there is a penalty here. The clock is going to run. Let’s use all 40 seconds.’ That’s 100% on me to make sure I’m communicating that.

Really good operation. That’s led by Jalen. The operation out there in a four-minute, because you tell me, where does that drive start? About seven and a half, maybe eight? Yeah, somewhere in there I think it was.

There was a lot of time eaten up off the clock that put them in a position where they had to run a last-second play from the 26-yard line.

So, like I said, just really good job, operation, and then a good job by the offensive line and D’Andre and the tight ends making the run game go.

 

Q. All throughout the season, you guys have been talking about playing your best game, starting to play your best game of the season. How close are you now or will you ever get to that point? (Chris Murray)

NICK SIRIANNI: You hope you’re getting close at this point. We know we have better football in us. To be 11-4 and still have better football left in you, that’s encouraging, but let’s go. We have to get there.

We have to get there and saying we have two more games before the playoffs start, all we’re thinking about is the next game against a team that’s going to come in here and try to take what we have as well.

And so, again, just goes back to the daily grind and having your mind prepared to go through the daily grind.

I can’t say enough about these guys of how much they want to be excellent how much they want to make plays for each other.

We have a great group of guys, and I know they’re working like crazy to get us to be able to play our best ball.

 

Q. The opening kickoff in the second half with WR Olamide Zaccheaus what happened there? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously I’ll look at the tape. Felt like [RB] Boston [Scott] was going backwards a little bit. It’s tough to return the ball when you’re going backwards. Looked like OZ was trying to get a block; got pushed back into it.

That’s why ball security is so important. I’ll have to see exactly what happened. Like I said, looked like Boston was moving backwards to go forward, and that’s a tough spot to put yourself in, and we’ll get that corrected.

 

Q. WR Britain Covey setting the tone with the punt return, but also you got him involved with the bubble screen and north/south. (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, that’s why we wanted to get him that opportunity there. I think he gained about seven on that one and he’s going to tell me he should have housed it.

What a weapon. Do you all have votes for Pro Bowl? Vote for that guy. Who is returning the ball better than him? Who is a better punt returner in the NFL than Britain Covey?

Shoot, he put one on the ground. He’s upset about that. But he changes games. That first one after the defense gets a big stop and then Britain coming and doing what he did, he’s a special returner. He has turned himself into a very special football player who’s a weapon for us.

So, Philadelphia, get out there and vote for Britain Covey for Pro Bowl, because I haven’t seen anybody play better than him and return the ball better than him. He’s a stud.

 

Q. The cameras showed you especially animated on the final drive. What in particular caused that? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I get animated a lot. There are things that when mistakes are happening or trying to get the communication going, just a little bit of that. That happens throughout a game.

It’s going to be between players and players, coaches and players, coaches and coaches. But when you have the relationships that we have and the connections that we have, we’re able to move on quickly.

The guys know all we’re trying to do and coaches know all we’re trying to do is get everybody to play their best and sometimes that’s with a smack on the butt and sometimes that’s with a yell.

But I think all those guys know how we feel about them, and the coaches know how we feel about them and each other.