Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Post-Game Transcript)

Q. On that final offensive drive on the first and 20, you went QB run, QB run and screen to RB Kenny Gainwell. Why go conservative there? Were you playing for a field goal in that situation? (Jimmy Kempski)

NICK SIRIANNI: I don’t think that’s conservative there if they are blitzing a bunch of gaps there, you’re running a gap scheme that has a chance to hit for big yards that we needed to get back into it. We could have thrown it there, too. We chose to go there. Hey, it didn’t hit. But I think that sometimes with the gap scheme stuff that you do, it’s more of, you’ve got to do some different things to cancel out gaps if they are bringing everything out.

So that’s why we went that way. It didn’t work. The screen, we were third and, what was it? That’s tough, you’re going to have a hard time converting. We’ve got to get ourselves into range. The wind was blowing into our face a little bit on that side earlier in the game, so we needed to get into better range to make sure we took a three-point lead there. And, hey, they went down and scored and we didn’t win the game.

 

Q. Why were you without timeouts at the end? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: We had a couple miscommunication things that we had to use timeouts early on. Right there, that’s always going to be on me. I’ll always take that. If we don’t have timeouts at the end of the game, then something obviously went wrong most likely as a communication thing and I’ll take that.

 

Q. What was wrong with the defense today? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously they controlled the game by running the football. We weren’t good enough there stopping the run and they were able to take a lot of chunks off the clock. I think they did a good job executing. But we know we have to be better putting the guys in positions to succeed and also executing.

 

Q. It’s Week 17. You’ve made a coordinator change. How do you fix it at this point? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I do believe. I still believe in the guys in that locker room, the players. I still believe in the coaches. I think we’ve got the guys in this place to get turned in the right direction. We don’t have much time, obviously, right. We’ve got one more game before playoffs starts, and we’ve got to do everything we can do to get back on track this upcoming week.

I think there’s been spurts, obviously, the last couple games where we played good ball on defense. Tonight wasn’t one of those times.

 

Q. Do you think Cardinals Head Coach Jonathan Gannon’s knowledge of your defense or your schemes, anyway, I know it’s a new defense, new players, new coaches, but was that a factor in him maybe knowing how to attack? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think he probably thought about the Washington game last year where Washington was able to control the clock and keep our offense off the field.

He probably thought about that. You’ll have to ask him. I don’t know. But good game plan by them and they obviously executed and hats off to them.

 

Q. There were a few situations where QB Jalen Hurts slid producing long third downs. Whenever you ran into those situations, did you expect those choices to be made? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he needs to protect himself at all times. Obviously, he played an unbelievable game. The ball didn’t touch the ground very often. I don’t know what all his stats were, but I know the ball didn’t touch the ground. He was in complete control of the game, and he needs to protect himself in those times.

He took a hit on one of them earlier but obviously he’s able to get chunks in the run game. So, we still need to be able to use that. But when it’s time to call it quits, he’s got to do that, and we want him to do that.

 

Q. On the onside kick, what’s your mindset when you get that? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Go score. Go score. Obviously, there were five and a half minutes left on the clock. Try to take some time off the clock. If you don’t, that doesn’t mean you don’t — if you hit a big one, to [WR] A.J. [Brown]; if A.J goes and catches that slant, which he did, and takes it all the way for a touchdown, right, score. Don’t not try to there. But try to waste as much time as possible while still trying to get a touchdown.

So, you’re into a four-minute mode but you’re still being aggressive because they still have all the time outs. So, you’re able to pass. You’re able to get out of bounds. You’re able to get the first down. All those different things. Hey, they executed and they got off the field and they held us to a field goal. Just didn’t work out tonight.

 

Q. Did you know the onside kick was coming? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: I had no idea. It was a good job by our special teams. They continue to do a lot of good things.

Coach Clay [Special Teams Coordinator Michael Clay] has them ready for anything like that, any situation where — with them having three timeouts and there’s five and a half minutes left to go in the game, we always tell them to be alert for, watch, see the ball before you leave, and [CB] Eli [Ricks] did a good job of doing that and getting on it.

They weren’t in their onside. It was a surprise onside kick. We didn’t know, obviously, that was coming but good execution by our guys.

 

Q. One win since Thanksgiving. What’s your message to the team at this point? What can you say to them? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: Stick together. Stick together. Everyone’s got to stick together. I think there’s going to be a lot of people trying to point the finger at different things and everybody’s got to stick together, right. We win as a team. We lose as a team. And together is the most important thing that we can be right now.

We are in the playoffs. A lot of teams want to be in the playoffs. We are in the playoffs. We still can do some things here and our goals are still in front of us. Can you get the 1-seed? Can you win the division? I know you can’t get the 1-seed now, but can you still win the division? Yes. Stick together because we still have goals, and we still have things that we want to accomplish.

 

Q. How much harder do you make that path if you have to go on the road? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, obviously it’s been done. All those teams have been able to do it. Obviously, you always want to play at home. You always want to win the division. You always want to play at home. Path might be harder but shoot, our goals are ahead of us. We have to get things fixed and we have to get them fixed fast. We are not where we want to be right yet as far as how we are playing right now and how we are coaching right now but we’ve got time to get it fixed and we’ll get back to work tonight and tomorrow.

 

Q. Defensively, what did you think of how they were able to run the ball on you guys today and what are problems that you saw? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, obviously that’s something that I’ve got to go watch the tape. Did different things to try to get it stopped. It just felt like nothing was working right there. That’s why there was such a big difference in the time of possession.

But again, any time we come out in something like that, it’s always look at me first. We’ll look at it. We’ll get our ideas together of how we get that fixed. But they executed and we didn’t.

 

Q. How concerned are you by the way you’re playing? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, we are not playing the type of football or coaching the type of football we want to be right now at this time. Again, we have to go back to the drawing board and think through everything, what we’re doing.

So, concerned? No, I don’t think we think that way. All I think we think is how do we get these things fixed. How do we get these things fixed. How do we put the players in positions to succeed. How do we execute as a team. And so that’s what’s going to be on our minds is how do we get these things fixed.

Worry and concern doesn’t get any problems fixed. It doesn’t fix anything. Getting in there, grinding, figuring out what the answers are, that’s what gets things fixed. Worry and concern does not.