Nick Sirianni

Q. When the defense is playing well and you’re not going to win, how do you make sure those guys don’t get demoralized by it? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: This is the ultimate team game, and one phase has to pick up another and there could be games like that. There can be games the opposite way, but that’s the important part of always connecting with everybody in the building, controlling the things you can control, all those different things.

Q. When you open up the offensive playbook just a little bit, how do you balance doing that versus maybe asking some guys to not do something that they’re familiar with at this point? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I mean, there’s different ways to– it’s just a difference of a formation or something like that. There will still be concepts that you’ve run throughout the year. Maybe you do one with play action as opposed to doing it with drop back, but you always are mixing things and introducing new things as the year continues to go on, too. As you see, there’s sometimes you see something on tape that fits something that you do with a little bit of a difference, and I think that’s just kind of been business as usual as far as that goes, as we put different things in throughout the year. But it always goes back to, does it fit with what you’re kind of going for that week, what your identity is and what you want to do.

Q. Usually when you have a guy coming off IR, you give him a week to practice and then he’ll go play in the next game. S Marcus Epps came right off IR, hadn’t really played defense all year. What made you confident in having him come right from IR to play and what’d you think of the way he played? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I thought he did a lot of good things. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Marcus. That dates back to when he was here prior. We were really excited to get him back, and until he got injured, was giving us good reps on special teams and even some time on defense. I have a lot of confidence in him and the things that he can do, and I thought he did a lot of good things. Everybody’s a little different, right? Just because one guy took a week to get off– Everybody’s bodies are a little different, everybody’s situations are a little bit different, so it’s not written in my notes to say, ‘Hey, this guy will go after one week on it.’ It’s more like, ‘Is he ready?’ Then you go with it. If not, then you wait another week.

Q. The fact that T Lane Johnson did not go on IR would suggest this general timeframe was a possibility. How’s he coming along and are you expecting him to practice this week? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, he’s working hard. He is working hard to do everything he can do to get back as fast as he possibly can. Obviously, he’s a great football player, great team leader, and we’ll see. We’ll see where that is as we continue on. We’ve got to a walkthrough today being that it’s a short week for us, but we’ll see. We’ll see as the week continues.

Q. What were your takeaways from the chance that QB Jalen Hurts was taking over the middle in the passing game? There were some interceptions, but it seemed like his timing was better, especially that overtime throw to WR DeVonta Smith. Overall, what was your takeaway from that and what he could build on? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I think that he did a good job of taking some of those opportunities that he was given, and I think he’s always done a good job of taking what the defense gives him. Obviously, I never want the turnovers, but he did some really good things. I’m always going to look at the win-loss, the turnovers, and look at that and say that, but there were a lot of good things on offense. We were able to move the football against a really good defense. Now, we didn’t finish drives for multiple different reasons, and we turned the ball over for multiple different reasons, but there was a lot to be encouraged by that we’re continuing to go into the right direction that we need to go [in.] That will be something that we talk about today in our meetings. But I thought he did a good job taking what they gave him. And again, for different reasons, there were some plays that didn’t work out and there were some plays that were explosive.

Q. WR A.J. Brown had two plays that were drops. Over the middle of the field that led to the interception, then the one in the end zone. I was wondering what the teaching points are on those two and what kind of your thoughts on the plays were overall? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: Obviously, uncharacteristic of A.J. to have drops, no doubt uncharacteristic. Just like we’ve talked about with Jalen, uncharacteristic interceptions as well. I haven’t even [gone] over the tape with him yet. I would hate to say, ‘Hey, here’s the coaching point,’ without– but when you talk about drops, sometimes it’s just a drop and sometimes there’s a coaching point that you reiterate off of a drop. We’ll go through that today. We’ll have our conversations in here about it, but anytime it comes to a drop, he wants to catch it more than anybody. If there’s a good coaching point, you go over it. If not, you’d say, ‘Hey, make sure you work this catch 10 times more than you would’ve had you not dropped it.’ That’s kind of how we go through that.

Q. The play before halftime, why did it not seem, with two timeouts, that there was any option in the middle of the field to maybe get the easier field goal attempt? (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: You’ve got the ball there at the 30 with two timeouts. We’re trying to advance it. We’re trying to advance it. The way we tried to advance it was to the sideline, and it didn’t work. We have plays in our offense to be able to advance it without getting too much in the middle, and then we have plays in our playbook that try to advance it on the sideline. We chose the one on the sideline and it didn’t work.

Q. Some of the things that went well for the offense, RB Saquon Barkley took some handoffs when QB Jalen Hurts was lined up under center that ended up in some chunk gains. What about those plays in particular worked well and how do you feel like you can replicate them? (Olivia Reiner)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, many different ways that you can create explosives in the run game; under center, in the gun, there are screens that are like runs, there are shovels that are like runs, so there are many different ways to go about it. I think at the end of the day, there were good schemes introduced by the coaches, and then there was good execution by the players with really good fundamentals. On those particular ones, Saquon found some light and was able to get free and that was huge.

Q. From your perspective, there looked to be, to us at least, some different additions into the offense and you mentioned the ball going the right way. How much of that is trying to get that involved versus QB Jalen Hurts deciding, ‘Okay, this is where the football needs to be on a certain play.’ (John McMullen)

Nick Sirianni: Every time that Jalen has the ball in his hands, he’s got to make the decision of where the football goes based off of the read on the play and what the defense is doing. I don’t think there’s anything different as far as that goes. I’ve had some of those concepts in before, did a couple of them a couple different ways to create some explosives, but again, I thought there were some things to be encouraged by. We thought we were more explosive than– we won the explosive play battle, I guess is what I’m saying, but just got to win that turnover battle and we’ve got to finish drives to see the full array of what we want to be on offense.

Q. When it comes to anticipation for the quarterback, how can you guys help him get better at that? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: We constantly talk through and think through– I guess it’s like really anything, right? You constantly talk through what your timing is of your footwork and then you watch the tape when it’s on, and you praise when it’s on and you correct when it’s off. That’s no different than a receiver in his route and their footwork being on and them being in the right spot. That’s how you coach it. First of all, your job description’s clear with what the read is, what you want to happen on the play, and then you get into walkthroughs and you get into practice and you correct it or you praise it if it’s met. There are different things we could do scheme-wise that we have without getting too much into that, but all those different things. I thought that he had a lot of good throws that he was anticipating and that was a result of him taking the proper footwork, him going through his read in a great time and getting to the right guy.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley has said that during the week, the vibes of practice and the locker room are really high, but then on Sunday, he’s noticed it’s been a problem. I was wondering what you see, and maybe if you agree, why the good vibes during the week don’t seem to be transferring to the sideline on Sunday? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: I think Sunday is about being locked into what you’re doing. Not that Monday, Tuesday, that is too, but everybody’s in a routine on the sideline, right? It’s like the free throw shot. You want to go through your same routine every single time in between series. Sometimes you’re focused on the routine and sometimes it’s a result of, ‘Hey, it’s not going the way you want it to go.’ There’s a difference between being completely focused and locked in when it’s not going well. The vibe might not be as high when it’s not going well. I mean, I think that’s human nature, right? You’re not going to be like, ‘Yeah, we punted on whatever.’ I think that’s natural of that in the sense of– [Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Jeff Stoutland] Stout always says execution fuels emotion. [What] we’re focused on, locked in on, is executing. We’re focused on trying to get them in the right positions to succeed and go from there. I think you’ll see more vibe, I guess to say, because we’re confident as we start to execute and coach even better.

Q. With the reads and the run game for the offense on Monday, were there more opportunities where QB Jalen Hurts might’ve had an opportunity to run and it just didn’t happen in those plays or– (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: Without getting too much into that, we had some runs called early on into that football game and they did a good job of stopping it. Just like you adjust to try to attack things that you think you can attack, you do that same adjustment for something that might not be working at that particular time. Hats off to them. They were able to stop some of those types of runs, but we always want that to be part of who we are and what we do.

Q. After a four-interception game, five years into this, are you tougher on QB Jalen Hurts or are you trying to build him up? How do you approach that relationship at this point? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: We know each other well enough and we’re always just doing everything we can do to get better, so won’t get too much into that. Like I said earlier, you always praise the things that they do well, and you correct the things that you want them to improve [on.] That’s our job as coaches. The tone or the energy or whatever you do, won’t get too much into that. You may not coach everything exactly the same as far as demeanor. There’s a time to yell, there’s a time to bring [it] up, but it always goes back to, and I think there’s an art to this, it always goes back to the standard. Did you meet the standard, or did you not meet the standard? Then there’s an art to how you correct it in the sense of that. But it always goes back to the standard. Did you meet it? Great, and you’re going to praise that. Did you not? Then you correct it.

Q. After review of that last interception, what’d you think of the play call, the execution, and then the decision by QB Jalen Hurts? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: Obviously, it didn’t work and they got an interception from it. Obviously, a really good play by their corner and the safety. The corner did a really good job of mid-pointing it and getting his hand on the football and knocking it away but won’t go into what was the fault or anything like that. That’s for us in here. I always respect the job that you guys have to do but always keep the things in here of what I thought between us and the players. Definitely coachable moments for all of us in that particular moment, but great play by then.

Q. What do you think of CB Adoree’ Jackson’s play over the last couple of weeks? In particular, on Monday night. (Johnny McGonigal)

Nick Sirianni: I think he’s been doing some really good things. Obviously, had the big interception with the pressure that we got right there, but was in a good position. I always think he’s in good position to make plays. Willing tackler, willing to throw his body around to make tackles, and so he’s been doing a lot of good things. I think last week the defense as a whole did a really good job and Adoree’ certainly was a big part of that.