Nick Sirianni

Q. On the first drive, can you explain what happened on the fourth down, deciding whether to go for it, and the timeout, and the field goal? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: We went all the way down there, we had a really good drive. We ran out of time on the play clock on the one. I didn’t get the call in quick enough. So, once we got to that, I thought it was important that we got points on the board at that particular time. I thought it would be too much of a momentum swing if they stopped us on fourth-and-three, so I decided to kick a field goal.

Q. What was the conversation with the ref, because if you’re going to kick the field goal, there’s no need to take a timeout? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: I’ll keep that conversation between us. I’m not going to make an excuse about anything. I got to be better.

Q. How about the offensive foul on WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside on that touchdown? What was the conversation like there, and did you get an explanation for why that was called? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: They thought that he pushed him downfield, and they thought it was [OPI]. You know what, they have a tough job. The referees have a tough job, we have a tough job, the players have a tough job. They’re trying to get it right. I know they’re trying to get it right. They are trying to do their best to get it right. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

I’m not saying one way or the other if they got that right. I’ll keep my opinion to myself. But they have a tough job just like all of us.

Q. Can you walk us through the decision right before the second half with the short pass to RB Kenneth Gainwell? You didn’t call a timeout there. (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: We do a ton of studying of all those situations throughout each week. We felt like we could get a play off that was going to go out of bounds before that. So, we wanted to save that timeout.

All those times right there, when you can save a timeout right there, I’ll double down on that call. It didn’t work that time. He got a sack. It was a long thing. But I’ll stick with that call all day because I’ve put myself in that position a thousand times when I’ve watched it.

So, because of where we snapped that thing, if it got a little bit lower, then I would have clocked it or called a timeout. To have that timeout right there when an NFL defense — what an NFL defense will do, is if you don’t have a timeout, play a sideline defense, where now it’s making it almost impossible to get to the sideline.

I stick with that call, I stand by that call. It didn’t work. I have to sit with that.

Q. Do you feel like the rush play accounted for the poor protection? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: I don’t. We’ve run that play a bunch in my past, not just here in Philadelphia. We’ve run it a lot in Indianapolis and San Diego. When I was in Kansas City, that was our out-of-bounds play. You know what, it didn’t work this time.

Q. Big picture, what is your assessment of this game? What is the primary emotion you walk away with? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: You’re upset. You’re furious that you go to 1-3. But we can also see there are some things that are to build on there.

The self-inflicted wounds have to stop. I know I sound the same, but it’s still true. We have to stop the self-inflicted wounds of putting ourselves in holes with penalties.

The guys did a good job. We won the turnover battle. Our defense took it away; we didn’t give it away. They forced another fumble on special teams. There are some good things obviously right there.

Obviously, we’ve got to do things better both offensively and defensively and special teams-wise. There was one time we started inside the 15. We have to use this tape and get better from it. My message is never really going to change win or lose: We have to make our corrections and get better from it.

There are a lot of guys that battled their tails off today. There are a lot of guys that played good football today. You’re happy with that. But obviously you’re never satisfied, and you’re always upset when you lose.

Q. Executing in red zone situations, what has been the problem with that? That was the case in the San Francisco game and that was the case in this game today. (Chris Murray)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think we were 5-6 before this game today. We had the one in San Francisco where we weren’t good enough on. Today three of six. When you’re playing a team like that, you have to convert there.

It’s everything. It’s the plays I’m calling. It’s the lack of execution. I’ll always have it start with me. When the plays don’t work, that’s on me. I have to call better plays. I have to put our guys in better positions to win.

Everyone is going to look at themselves on all those plays too and say, ‘I could have done that better on this play. I could have done this better on this play.’ It’s the greatest team sport there is. It starts with me. The plays that didn’t work, that’s on me. I have to come up with a better scheme and put the guys in position to make a play.

Q. When did you find out about T Lane Johnson? How tough was it to adjust at the last minute? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: I found out a couple hours before the game. I think [run game coordinator/offensive line coach] Jeff Stoutland and [offensive coordinator] Shane Steichen did a phenomenal job getting everybody ready to go. Jeff Stoutland, our offensive line coach, he’s got everybody ready to play in all these different scenarios if different scenarios happen. Well, we were posed with one of those scenarios today.

I thought the offensive line battled. I thought they played really well. That’s just a tribute to Coach Stout of how good of a football coach he is.

He’s gotten the guys better, as a whole, with their fundamentals and he mentally prepares them. Then just a tribute to the guys who stepped in and played. They really played well. I have to watch the tape to tell you exactly how they played, but I thought they battled. They played their tails off. They played hard. They played physical. We have a lot of warriors right there in that group. I thought they did a good job in the circumstances that they were put in.

Q. Is Lane Johnson here? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: I’m not going to discuss anything about Lane. Just a personal situation. I’m just not going to discuss that right now.

Q. You mentioned some of the self-inflicted stuff. The illegal man downfield stuff. How do you deal with that? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Well, they’re calling it. The referees, they’re calling that pretty hard this year. Probably a little bit harder than they have in the past. So, we have to adjust.

That starts with me. We have to adjust how we’re blocking it, how we’re teaching the blocking schemes to not allow the guy and how we’re reading it, or just don’t call it. That’s what we’re going to have to do because you obviously can’t shoot yourselves in the foot. That’s my fault. I have to get better at that with that. It’s not [T] Andre’s [Dillard] fault he was downfield on that one because the timing was pretty good.

The referees I thought did a good job of refereeing it.

Q. Three touchdowns came off the board because of the penalties. From a big-picture perspective why does this keep happening? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I mean, they had, what was it, the PI that I answered about [WR] J.J [Arcega-Whiteside], then the illegal man downfield that I just answered. The other one was the guy out of bounds.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I answered the first two. The last one right here. He ran out of room. I said the same thing with [WR] Jalen [Reagor] on the other one, that he’s got to work a better release at the line of scrimmage. [WR] DeVonta [Smith] will be the first one to tell you that, to save the quarterback room, there was some hand fighting, some pushing.

Like I said, the referees have a tough job. There was hand fighting on both sides. I don’t blame them. We have to save room. It’s a technique thing. Then you know my answer to the other two.

Q. We know the Chiefs are a very good offense, but how do you think the defense performed today? (Mike Kaye)

NICK SIRIANNI: They got a lot of good players. Obviously, [Chiefs QB Patrick] Mahomes is a really good player. He’s an NFL MVP for a reason. [Chief Head] Coach [Andy] Reid is a really good play-caller. Coach Bieniemy [Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy] does a great job getting his guys ready. You see [Chiefs TE Travis] Kelce and [Chiefs WR Tyreek] Hill. They got really good playmakers.

That was a tough challenge for our defense today. You’re always going to look — when a team rushes for that many yards, you’re always going to look at that and say, ‘We got to stop the run on that.’ That’s going to always be the first emphasis.

I obviously need to watch the tape on a lot of that. A lot of times I’m looking down at my play sheet to see what I’m going to call next. I’ll have a better answer for you. Any time you rush that many yards, you know you are going to have to improve in that area.

Q. What did you think of QB Jalen Hurts’ performance? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: I kind of talked to somebody in there. I just said, ‘That’s one of the better quarterback performances I’ve seen.’ And I’ve been around a lot of good quarterbacks, Phillip Rivers and Andrew Luck. He battled. He made good decisions with the football. He got out of trouble when there was trouble. He made good checks. He made good reads. That’s the best I’ve seen him in practice. That’s the best I’ve seen him in a game since I’ve been here. Hats off to Jalen, he battled. That’s going to be important for us moving forward.