Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Post-Game Transcript)
Any initial thoughts on why the offense really had such a good first half, but stalled there in the second half?
Nick Sirianni: Felt like that was kind of our story as the year progressed. Like you said, good first half, didn’t do a good enough job coaching, didn’t do a good enough job executing in the second half, in that third quarter particularly. Some penalties got us behind the sticks, and we had a hard time overcoming them.
Why do you think that became a trend this year?
Nick Sirianni: I don’t know. Obviously, those are things that– we always work our [butt] off to try to fix any situation and every situation that we can. And you know what? At the end of the day, we didn’t do a good enough job of doing that and that starts with me.
Did you feel like you played it more conservative in the second half?
Nick Sirianni: I didn’t. I think that’s always the go-to if it [doesn’t] go the way you want. If it goes the way you want it to go in the first half and then not the second half, I think that’s the go-to of people [thinking] you take your foot off the gas, but we were playing more balanced, got the run game going a little bit, trying to mix our play actions in, trying to get our passes in to create explosives. At the end of the day, we didn’t create enough explosives. They did; give them credit. They made more plays than we did. They coached better than we did, and that’s why they won.
Cameras caught you and WR A.J. Brown at the end of the–
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I was trying to get him off the field because we were about to punt and that was really it. I love A.J. I think he knows how I feel about him. I have a special relationship with him. We’ve probably [gone] through every emotion you can possibly have together. We’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together, we’ve yelled at each other. We’re both emotional. I was trying to get him off the field, and that happens in this game. That happens in this game, but I love him.
Did you talk to him on the sideline or after the game after that interaction?
Nick Sirianni: Yeah.
Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo’s taking a lot of heat for some of the offensive struggles. Obviously, it’s a difficult time, but your first thoughts on his performance.
Nick Sirianni: There will be time to evaluate everybody’s performance. Right now, I feel for all our guys in the locker room, all the players, all the coaches, the front office, everybody that works so hard, the fans that come out and support us, Mr. [Chairman/CEO Jeffrey] Lurie. I feel for all of us, all of them, and there’ll be time to evaluate everything coming up.
On the fourth down, what made you use that timeout there and was it because you were late out of the huddle?
Nick Sirianni: No, it wasn’t because of that. We wanted to see what defense we were in. We didn’t think that there was going to be a great opportunity to get the ball back with enough time to do anything if we stopped them. We knew that that was going to be the last possession, so we took a picture of what they thought they were going to do to give ourselves some information, and that’s why.
How much did the wind affect the downhill passing game?
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I think you saw the ball by both teams. You had [49ers QB Brock] Purdy on the one and an interception that kind of died on him. I think [QB] Jalen [Hurts] had one down the sideline to [WR] Jahan [Dotson] that kind of died on him. So, we’ve got to find ways to create explosives a different way if you can’t do it that way. Again, just didn’t do a good enough job there. Starts with me as coaches and then we didn’t execute well enough.
Some uncharacteristic jobs from WR A.J. Brown today. Actually, more this season than ever. What has been behind that or do you think it’s just a–
Nick Sirianni: He’s got the best hands I’ve ever seen. The way he catches the ball, the amount of different types of catches that he’s made. When you get as many targets as he does, you’re going to have some drops. Not ever using an excuse, but the ball moves differently in the wind. I thought Jalen did a good job of cutting the wind a lot of times, but yeah, we had some uncharacteristic drops. I think the one that he had, we overcame it the very next play with [TE] Dallas [Goedert]. But yeah, I know he will beat himself up on that. I know A.J. He’ll catch 9,000 balls with the one drop that he had.
Was the lack of explosives maybe the most disappointing thing about the offense this season?
Nick Sirianni: You always want to win the turnover battle, which we did tonight. And then you always want to win the explosive play battle, which I’m assuming– I don’t have the numbers yet, but I’m assuming we did not. You’ve got to be able to be explosive. It’s really hard to dink and dunk down the field. It’s really hard to get behind sticks with negative plays. You’ve got to be able to create explosives. Again, at the end of the day, there were a lot of elements [where] you end up with a loss, and we haven’t had this feeling of ending our season since 2023 with the loss. That’s why it hurts because it’s been a while. But yeah, at the end of the day, we need to find ways to be more explosive. Again, that starts with me.
What happened with T Lane Johnson?
Nick Sirianni: You guys saw. He did everything he could do to go, and at the end of the day, he just wasn’t ready.
Was it deflating at all to have the hope all week and then not–
Nick Sirianni: Again. We have so much faith in the guys that are in that locker room, for [T] Fred [Johnson] to be able to step in. Fred stepped in and played a lot of winning football for us to help us win football games. Obviously, Lane’s a big part of this team and brings so much to this team and you always miss him when he is not on the field, but I don’t want to take anything away from Fred. He did a really good job this whole year.
Was all the talent that you had this season, was it really disappointing to see– it seemed like you all were inconsistent all year. There were games that you really could have put four quarters together. Is it frustrating because of all the challenges between RB Saquon Barkley and your receivers, your tight end? Is it kind of frustrating to see this all–
Nick Sirianni: Anytime you lose, anytime you don’t perform the way you want to as coaches and players, yeah, you’re frustrated. What I said to the guys is, ‘Adversity shapes you to who you are if you allow it to.’ There’s a lot to be thankful for, but you’ve got to use this adversity to shape you and that’s for everybody in that locker room: myself, the coaches, the players. Let the pain shape you to what you want to be, and we will use this like we used it at the end of ’22, ’23 because all that was necessary for ’24. We’ll see what the future holds.
When you’re looking to generate explosives, is that a mentality thing on the quarterback, creativity thing on the play call, or what do you do to create those?
Nick Sirianni: There’s many different ways that you can go about that. Sometimes it’s a deep ball down the field, sometimes it’s an intermediate throw, sometimes it’s a short throw that turns into a big one. Many different ways. Sometimes it’s a run. Many different ways that can happen. At the end of the day, we didn’t do enough of those this year.
The 49ers scored twice in the fourth quarter there. What happened defensively? The trick play in particular, what did you see there?
Nick Sirianni: Hats off to them on the trick play. I thought [49ers Head Coach] Kyle [Shanahan] did a good job calling that at the perfect time. I thought that was just two good players making a really good play. That wasn’t an easy throw, that wasn’t an easy catch. There’s a reason those guys are good players there, and sometimes you’ve got to give hats off to them. As bad as it sucks sometimes, those guys are good players, and it was a good call by Kyle.