Nick Sirianni

Q. After the game, a lot of the guys talked about taking their foot of the gas and quotes like that. Just how they maybe thought they had the game won when it was 22-0. Just wondering what you can do as a coach as you see that happening in those situations? What can you try to do to stop it and change that? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: I actually felt like our guys played with relentless effort the entire game. If you every sense that, then you talk about it and you say whatever you need to say to snap everybody back in.

But at the end of the day I feel like our guys – we have a tough, physical football team that’s not only physically tough, they’re mentally tough.

Part of being mentally tough is playing with relentless effort. I felt like we were playing with relentless effort. A couple of flukey plays happened, and it got them back in the game. That’s life in the NFL. That’s life in football.

So I didn’t feel that. I haven’t talked to the guys about that. We talk about everything, so they come up and talk to me about that. So we’ll check back later on that.

I just didn’t feel that in the game. Sometimes you feel that, just going through the motions. I just didn’t feel that. I feel like there were other things that happened in that game that led to it being a tight game. But it’s the NFL. There are going to be tight games.

Q. When you went back and watched those two failed sneaks, what did you see there? Is there anything that would make you hesitate about calling that play again? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: We’ve been highly, highly productive with that play. You make decisions like that, whether it’s a fourth down decision or it’s a two-point conversion from the 1-yard line. I think every time we’ve had a two-point opportunity from the 1, we’ve taken advantage of that and gone for it.

That doesn’t mean we’ve always gotten it, but we’ve gone for it. So you trust your process in that scenario. You trust all the work that you’ve done to help you make that decision. You trust your players in that scenario.

I’m not going to get into the things that Jacksonville did to stop that, but they did a very good job. Credit to them to stop a play that’s been very successful.

You can’t overreact to a play that’s had as much success as that’s had the last three years. So we have a ton of confidence in it.

Again, you don’t have confidence in a play unless you have confidence in the players. That’s what it comes down to. But did we talk about things as an offensive staff on things that we could do better, wrinkles that we could have, different things that we could do off of it? Of course we did. That’s our job as coaches.

But you look at that and you think any time that you fail on something, it’s an awesome opportunity for you to rise. That’s what I feel like we did today as a staff and then with the players. We’ll move on and get better from it.

Q. You had said after the game you were going to take a look at some of the situational play calls you made; the two-point conversions, fourth downs. Curious, after watching that, did you still feel those were the right decisions or if there are one or two of those that you want back? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. Again, any time it doesn’t go how you want it to go, you’re going to go back and look at everything. That’s our job. Our job is to get better. If we want our players to get better, we have to be in that mindset.

Looking back on it and thinking would I do anything different, to be honest, sometimes I say absolutely. In this particular case, I felt like we did the right thing in all those scenarios.

I understand that I’ll always be judged on the outcome, not the process. But I have to make sure that I stick to the process. Same with the players and our preparation throughout a week. We always have to stick to our process.

Man, we’ve been really good at that. It’s helped us win a lot of games. Again, it’s a lonely place. It’s definitely a lonely place when you don’t convert a fourth down. I’ll always take that on my shoulders. Always.

But, at that time in that game and what we’ve done in the past, I was doing everything I thought to help our football team win the football game. I talked to the players about this a little bit.

Two weeks ago when I was explaining the 4^th-and-3 that we went for against the New York Giants, I circled the players and I said, ‘I don’t go for this unless I trust …’ and I circled [QB] Jalen [Hurts] on the screen and circled [WR] A.J. [Brown] on the screen – and we converted.

You have that same trust. Not only do you trust your process, but you trust your players. Doing those two things, trusting your process and trusting your players, has given us a good track record. But hey, it didn’t work yesterday. It’s a lonely place when it doesn’t work.

But, again, I don’t know any other solution than to trust those two things and always try to get better.

Q. T Lane Johnson had a strong game. He didn’t allow a pressure. He’s talked a little bit about what he’s done more as a leader in terms of being vocal, picks his spots when he wants to. It seems like this season in particular, he’s done more of it. Perhaps because there is no more former Eagles C Jason Kelce. What have you seen from T Lane Johnson in that regard? What stands out in particular, or maybe even an anecdote about when he’s come to you and spoke to you about something he’s felt passionately about? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: First of all, [T] Lane [Johnson] played awesome yesterday against a – I think [Jaguars DE Travon Walker] No. 44 for Jacksonville is a phenomenal football player. I thought Lane just did an awesome job against a really good player.

It was great to see good player against good player. I’ve got so much confidence in Lane. He’s a special, special, special player.

His play speaks for itself, and it’s done that. I’ve always seen him from afar, and then the four years I’ve been here, he’s been one of our best players at all times. Lane does a great job leading by example. I always admire that Lane always points out the scout team players, how much they’re helping him get better and how much they’re helping us get better as a team.

You praise different people, you always do different things like that, but I always admire that about Lane. How good he’s been at encouraging those guys. I think any time Lane comes off the field, he’s got a great feel in-game of when to make suggestions and why you’re making those.

You can go back. There are a lot of different things that are said on the sideline, but Lane has a really good feel. You can see it in Lane’s eyes, like, hey, we’re going now, let’s go. I want this play or that play.

Him and [G/T] Mehki [Becton] had some combination blocks yesterday that were unbelievable. It was really exciting. Mehki played a really good game also. You feel that from Lane coming off. And then you talk to him, and he has great suggestions coming off. And they’re the ones out there playing the game. They’re the ones out there feeling it.

We might run a play based off a certain technique or a certain look or whatever it is, but you are not getting the look of exactly what it is for them out there. Lane is awesome in that. He’s been awesome in that every year I’ve been here. And I think even more so now with his leadership continuing to take rise.

Again, Lane has been a good leader and captain since I’ve been here. I see an awesome leader that’s continuing to get better at his craft as a tackle and his craft as a leader of this football team.

Q. In that deep shot to WR DeVonta Smith, not the touchdown, but the 46-yarder, it was more traditional play-action, under center. It looked like Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore had been setting that up for a couple weeks. You guys had success in Cincinnati, but it was more from the gun or play-action from that standpoint. How important is it to get that more traditional look? Or is it not? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, you try to marry things to look like the run game that you’re doing. So if the run game you’re trying to marry a play-action with is under center, then you do that.

If the run game you’re trying to marry the action with is from the gun or the pistol, then you do that.

If it includes a motion, then you include that.

So again, you’re just trying to marry and mesh things together to put as much deception in the mind of the defense as you possibly can.

Great call by [Offensive Coordinator] Kellen [Moore] in that particular case. Well-executed by our players. Jalen made a perfect throw. [WR DeVonta Smith] Smitty ran a perfect route and beat his guy.

And the protection, again, it was a really good sell. So good job by Jalen and the back. Again, it wasn’t 1-on-1 this time that [TE] Jack Stoll was in, but he had help from [TE] E.J. [Jenkins]. They did a great job on the edge against a really good rusher. I think it was 44 there.

So they did a good job. Pocket was firm. Allowed [Jalen] to step up, and it was a big play in that football game to help us turn the tide and the momentum back in our favor.

It was a really big, big play. Great call, great timing by Kellen, and then just well-executed by our players.

Q. What kind of update can you give us on WR A.J. Brown? Also looked like RB Saquon Barkley was working through something. What can you tell us there? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’ll see as the week progresses. Bummed any time you don’t have A.J. in the game because he’s such a great player. We’ll see how it goes. Haven’t gotten with the medical staff today yet. I’ll get with them a little bit later today.

But A.J. was in good spirits today. We’ll see how it goes.

Q. And RB Saquon Barkley? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Same. Yeah, he obviously was in playing. So we’ll see how the week progresses.

Q. Last week whenever you were talking about Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore, you said you see watching film late and some of the ideas – you talked about the 3^rd-and-17 call yesterday. When you see him working on plays like that, how far does he go back? What’s maybe one of the stranger ideas that he’s presented to you and the source of his creativity? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, Kellen is a former quarterback. Every quarterback that I know goes back an endless amount of times against a certain opponent, or a certain style of defense, or a certain situation.

I’ve seen film from Dallas with Kellen. I’ve seen film from the Chargers. I’ve seen practice film from both those teams that he’s showed us. I’ve actually seen a couple plays from Boise.

I think that he’ll go back to get a look to be able to coach the guys and paint the picture to the offensive staff of what he wants. I just admire that because you’ve always got to paint a picture. You could draw it on the board and explain it, but everything comes to life with a picture.

That’s how we try to coach our guys, and Kellen does that and leads the offense through that.

Q. T Lane Johnson said yesterday he felt like you guys could have put up 40 points in that game. You’ve had three games now, Cleveland, New Orleans, now this one where you’ve really dominated the game statistically, yet it came down to the wire. How do you view games like that, when you really dominate a game statistically, but you sweat it out to the end? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I don’t like sweating it out. That’s always tough. You want to be able to put teams away. [You] want to be able to pull away like we did against Cincinnati, like we did against the Giants.

[We’ve] studied that a bunch, four-minute football or end-of-game blown leads, anything like that. We’ve talked a lot about that and studied that a bunch.

There are a lot of different theories and philosophies that I have. One of them is always going to come down to turnovers and being able to give them a quick score or short field when you do have a lead like that.

Other things that go into that – again, not going to get too much into it, but I’ll give a couple things. Explosive plays against your defense, but you still want to be aggressive, and you still want to play football.

It’s called four-minute football for a reason. There are different times you go into that, based off the score and this and that. But you don’t go into that too early because that puts you down.

I think that we have been good at winning games in these scenarios, when we’ve had two-score leads. I don’t know exactly what the records are. Is it always the prettiest? No. Yesterday wasn’t the prettiest, but they came back. Credit to them. They took advantage of a mishap that we had and got back into the game.

Again, you’re doing everything you can do to win the game in that time, whether you’re trying to shorten it while still being aggressive or shorten it altogether. Again, I think we’ve been pretty good with two-score leads in the second half.

You guys would have to tell me. Yesterday, obviously you’d like to pull away. But they’re professionals, and they did a good job to close back into that game.

Q. I know Tuesday is the game planning day. What was the reaction in the office today when the Cowboys QB Dak Prescott news came out? What value are Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore and Quarterbacks Coach Doug Nussmeier this week, given the knowledge they have on the personnel and some of the scheme there in Dallas? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. You always think about the help you get from different guys that have been with different coaches. Whether that’s a player, whether that’s a coach. We’ll use that throughout the week.

As far as the [Cowboys QB] Dak [Prescott] news, we’ll see what happens. I know there are a lot of things that can happen. I have so much respect for the Cowboys and how good they’ve been. Since I’ve been in this division, they’ve won 12+ games every year. I’ve got a lot of respect for their coaches and their players. I know it’s going to be a dogfight.

Q. It can be a nerve-wracking time when the trade deadline is coming up. How do you approach dealing with a player whose name is popping up all the time in potential trade rumors, or have you? How do you go about addressing that? (Chris Franklin)

NICK SIRIANNI: I’m sorry, say that again. With one of our players that’s on it?

Q. Yeah. If there is a player whose name pops up in trade rumors out there and stuff like that, how do you approach dealing with that player? (Chris Franklin)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I don’t pay too much attention to trade rumors. Again, I know everything that’s going on in our building with the communication that [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and I have.

So the only way I would find that information out is if I was scouring the internet for it. Unless it was something that that [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and I had discussed. We like our team. We like where we are.

I won’t dive too much into that. Maybe I should to help players get through that. I urge them not to read things and get involved in that and control the things they can control. So I try to do the same.

Q. Just wondering, did you get any further clarification from the league on the RB Saquon Barkley fumble? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: No. We’ll get those back as we continue on. I’m sure you guys will ask me Wednesday.

As you look at it, we know they have a hard job to do. We’ll see what happens. Referees have a hard job to do. They’ve got to do those things in split seconds, and there are a lot of things going on as they review and everything like that.

Yeah, so we’ll see. We’ll see what that is. I’m normally going to keep conversations with us and the league, or me with players, or me with other coaches private. But we go through our process like we always do.

Like I said, tough job that they have, and these things have a tendency of evening themselves out. You think you get screwed in one sense, and then you get a call the next week or in the same game where you’re like, man, we shouldn’t have got that call.

It’s easier said than done when you’re going through it. I think you’ve seen me argue a call or two. So I’ve tried to tell myself in those scenarios, these things have a way of evening themselves out, and they’ve got a hard job, and to move on to the next play.

Doesn’t mean we don’t get animated at times, but you move on to the next play and control what you can control.