Nick Sirianni

Q. It looked like you were upset with the officials at about the two-minute warning after that first-and-15 play, they had the play action to the tight end, what was that about? (Bo Wulf)

COACH SIRIANNI: I was on them a couple times, so I am not really sure which one you are talking about. Just the heat of the game sometimes, that happens sometimes. I always understand the officials have a very tough job and that their job is hard too. It kind of goes full circle. I’ll recognize that, even though sometimes I get on them. They have a tough job, and they did their job.

Q. You don’t remember what that was about? (Bo Wulf)

COACH SIRIANNI: I don’t. I don’t, actually. I’m sorry.

Q. What was his explanation? It appeared to be an illegal offensive lineman downfield. What was the official’s explanation? (Howard Eskin)

COACH SIRIANNI: I thought it was. They thought it wasn’t. That’s the way it goes sometimes. With that play, our offense, we know we have made strides on the penalties as a team. We have actually stopped running that play because we didn’t think we could get that off without our guys being downfield.

That was my conversation with them. And I have to look at the tape. Again, I know they have a hard job. I’m not here to criticize them at all. They said they were two yards down field which is legal, and so I got to trust that.

Q. On the Chargers’ final drive, what would you have liked your defense to do differently? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: They kept them in the third and one, fourth and one. Obviously, you want to be able to get the stop. I thought they did a good job not jumping offsides. Chargers, I thought they might kick the field goal after they went the no-brainer, but they didn’t. Hats off to them, they executed.

Any time they convert on a short yardage, I mean, I know the percentages are high on short yardage. I’m not sure exactly what they are league-wide, but obviously you just want to get a stop in that scenario. I will have to look at the tape of the execution, the call, and everything like that.

You just want to get a stop in that scenario and give the ball back to the offense. That’s the name of the game and that’s what you want to happen.

Q. 84 completion percentage for Chargers QB Justin Herbert, did Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon mix it up enough to your satisfaction? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously any time you play a quarterback like Justin Herbert — there is no surprise I think he’s a good quarterback, we all know he’s a good quarterback — you have to be on your A game and have to be — starts with us as coaches. So, I’m not going to say Jonathan anything because that’s — my name is on that, right? So, whatever happens on that field my name is on, offensively, defensively. I’m not the offensive coordinator, I’m the head coach.

So, again, it’s all of us together. So, it’s first myself, getting the right calls and putting the players in position, then Jonathan, then the players executing.

So of course, again, when a guy comes away and he’s 84% you’re going to say, ‘We didn’t do our job,’ right? We just got to be better. Again, I have to go look at the tape and all the calls. Obviously not good enough starting with myself and by the defense there with the pass defense.

Q. How do you feel like QB Jalen Hurts handled himself in the fourth quarter drive, the one that tied that game up? (Mike Sielski)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he was a stud. He was a big-time stud. I mean, really I got a lot of respect for [Chargers Head Coach] Brandon Staley. They knew we were moving the ball really well on offense, and he didn’t leave anything — I’m pretty confident that he didn’t leave anything on his call sheet. He started coming with different things.

I think they had a blitz zero on him the last play. Jalen ended up, we all saw that, ended up getting to a play and Jalen ended up doing great communication to tell everybody what the play was and just fired a strike to [WR] DeVonta [Smith].

But I think what was really, really impressive — obviously that throw was really unbelievable in the face of some pressure and in the face of — I know the offensive line did a heck of a job protecting against that blitz zero, but that’s advanced football right there to be able to see what was going on and to be able to get the communication at the line of scrimmage and everybody be on the same page for a 28-yard score I believe it was, and then just a couple of drives he made.

He just was really unfazed by the scenario and just showed a lot of poise. Down seven everything in his eyes said put it on me and let’s go, let’s keep running the ball, let’s keep play-action it, make sure we are converting on third down.

And he made some unbelievable plays on third down. That play where he jumped over top and did the flip, I think if we had won that game that would be a play they showed over Philly for a long time. He just was really composed in a tight situation. That’s what you want out of your quarterbacks. That’s what I’ve seen out of good quarterbacks in my past.

So, we definitely have to build on this. There is no secret. Jalen has had good practices the last two weeks, played two good games in a row, so we just have to go back and have another week like we did last week, offensively, to put ourselves in position to win next week.

Q. How much did the running game help set up Jalen Hurts’ throwing, especially in the second half, like later in the second half? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think when you’re running the ball like that, defenses have to do different things to stop the run, right? I think that’s — I’m not sure exactly what we had. What did we have, guys, 170 or something like that?

When you’re running the ball like that, again, there are different answers that defense has to come with, because you just never, as a defense, want to get the ball pushed down your throat.

So, they end up doing different things which ends up naturally opening up some different avenues. There are a lot of different things they could do. They could blitz a linebacker, leave somebody alone, one less zone in the secondary, they can knife defenders, knife the nickel, knife the defensive end, which sets up some of your outside zone stuff.

We just have to identify what they’re doing and then attack from there. I think our offensive coaches did a nice job with just kind of seeing what they were doing, communicate what they were doing so we could get to the answers off some of the things that the Chargers were doing to us on defense.

So good job by the coaches, but even better job by the players executing with the run and play-action game.

Q. What was this week like for WR DeVonta Smith? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: You know, I’m not going to go there. You guys can ask him if he wants to open up about that. Every conversation I have with players is going to be private. He handled himself like a pro, so I’ll let him answer that.

Q. So then your vantage point of knowing what he went through this week, to watch him go out there and play like he did… (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, DeVonta, he’s just a — again, I don’t know exactly everything. Again, you’ll have to ask him, and he can open up with that. Obviously, I would think that’s going to be on his mind. I’m not in his shoes in that scenario. It’s on his mind. He went out and did his job this week, and, again, that’s what I expect out of him, because he’s a high character person, high character kid, high football character. Loves this game, and happy with the way he played today.

Q. What type of growth have you seen over the last couple weeks even in this loss from all three units? (Mike Kaye)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think one thing that as we continue to cut down on some self-inflicted wounds. We had some today in some critical scenarios where we are going to need to get back and go back to the drawing board.

But in this league so many times my experience has been that you can lose games instead of win games, right? So, we’re trending in the right direction in that. We would like to take the ball away more on defense and we’re going to continue to strip at it. Those come in bunches when you get it.

Offensively, starting with [QB] Jalen [Hurts] because the ball touches his hands every down. He’s done a good job taking care of the football. When you take care of the football, you give yourself a chance to win at least every week when you’re taking care of the football.

So again, we have a lot of growing to do still. The formula is not easy. The formula of getting better is not easy, but we know what it is. It’s going to work every single day. We can go on a run, but what I told the guys is there is no eight — we don’t come in this next week and get all eight wins right there if that’s how many games we have left. You have to go 1-0 each week.

The only way to do that is to grow every single day and to go to work like they went to work last week. So, I do see growth in this football team. I think we all see that. But we have to keep growing. There are no moral victories in this league, right? A loss is a loss is a loss is a loss. That one hurt, and we have to get back and get better from this.

Q. Why do you think the pass rush struggled to get home today? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: [Chargers QB Justin] Herbert does do a good job getting the ball out and [Chargers WR Keenan] Allen had some good things where he can work the middle of the field. Kind of seen that with him over the years with Keenan being able to work the middle of the field.

So, when they’re able to get the ball out quick we have to be able to tighten up with the coverage to be able to get Herbert to hold the ball a little bit. They did a nice job on a couple boots. I think they took advantage of a couple things with our defensive ends pinching down where they did a couple nice things with boots and getting Herbert on the move.

They had the big, long pass to get him on the move there with the long one to [Chargers WR Mike] Williams.

But again, those are some of the things we have to be able to fix to get after the passer.