Nick Sirianni
Q. They had some drives into the red zone early. They got field goals. I think they had a drive to the 10, to the 15. At the time, it just seemed like they were scoring more, but as it turned out, those stops you got in the red zone and keeping them to field goals were huge. So, two-part question. Number one, how big was that, getting those stops, and what makes this defense so good in the red zone? (Reuben Frank)
Nick Sirianni: Obviously, the defense there kept the game manageable at first. In that first half, we didn’t have great field position. Then we weren’t, you know, we weren’t doing anything on offense to change the field position. We punt it back to them. We talked about and backed up football a lot, that defense, if you get a stop, that usually leads to points. Their defense was getting stops. But those points were three points as opposed to seven, which is a huge difference in a game like that. So, I really believe that the way that we played defense on those short fields kept the game close where we can make the surge that we did at the end of the game.
So just excellent job there. Our guys do such a good job of matching routes and talking through all the different combinations that we get and being on the same page of how we match everything out. Down there in the red zone, the space always shrinks. So now you have that extra defender on the sideline, you have the extra defender in the back-end line. We’ve just done a really good job there. You know on the one, I think they were third and two and they ran in, but [DT] Jalen Carter created some havoc up front, and they ended up holding them on that, which made it a third-and-10. Then again, another good match in the secondary. I know what we talk about a lot, offensively, is being able to move the ball up consistently in the red zone. That moment you get behind the sticks in the red zone is the moment where it’s going to be really hard to score. We did some good things to limit runs down there. We did some good things to force a penalty, and then we did a good job of matching routes.
Q. When you were speaking about WR A.J. Brown yesterday, it seemed like you were emotional while speaking in length about how he’s carried himself. I’m wondering, among all the things, the many things we talked about in the last couple of months, why that subject had personal significance to you? (Brooks Kubena)
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I got emotional yesterday in the locker room with just the handling adversity. I thought that our guys did a really good job of dealing with adversity throughout the game and just kept getting up. I think that was definitely one topic where I was a little bit emotional yesterday because these guys are going to have to. It’s not just a football thing where you’re hoping that you’re helping guys become better men as well, with the stuff that you can learn through football: being tough, being detailed, being together. They just kept getting up. There’s so many outside things that can sway our thinking, I think too, that we don’t want to live like that in a football building, right?
We want to be committed to our process. We know that it’s not going to be immediate results. We want to be team oriented, because being team oriented, when I say that isn’t just good for the team, it’s good individually too. For everybody. In this sport, you need your teammates to make the plays that you want to make as an individual. Those are two things we’ve talked a lot about. I felt like A.J. really handled himself with a lot of maturity. I listened to the thing yesterday and what I think he’s trying to say in that manner is, we talk a lot about being on the attack on offense, and not really worried about what they do on defense because what we’ve been seeing as a good offense has been a lot of different stuff that you might not be even be able to prepare for.
That’s how I kind of took what he said yesterday also. But I think he’s done such a good job, because I’m not sure he’s gone through the last two weeks without answering those questions every day. You love when someone’s able to answer the bell after going through ups and downs. That’s why I said what I said earlier, as far as being able to handle the dog mentality of getting through the downs and picking yourself back up. I kind of correlate what A.J. had to go through too in that same category. That’s just always something that hits close to home for me is handling adversity, for many different reasons that I won’t get in here today. But that core value always means a lot to me. That toughness, particularly that mental toughness core value really means a lot to me. I think that’s probably where you saw my emotions on that yesterday.
Q. There’s been some speculation that yesterday in the second half, QB Jalen Hurts was calling the plays and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo maybe wasn’t as involved as he normally is. I was wondering if you could clarify if there was any truth to that. Then secondly, what have you seen from their working relationship this year as they get more games under their belt together? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)
Nick Sirianni: Kevin called the plays yesterday in that second half. But make no mistake about it, Jalen does a great job of communicating. Jalen sees the field really, really, well. He can come back and tell you what happened without even looking at the picture. Then you look at the picture like, ‘Yeah, this, that’s exactly what happened’. Jalen has a great feel for how that’s going. So, there’s communication, right? There’s talk through it, everything like that. But yeah, Kevin called the plays. Kevin will continue to call the plays, but I love the communication that we get from Jalen. I love the communication that we get from all our guys. I think we get a lot of good information from our guys, Jalen particularly, and that’s the way it should be as a quarterback, but you don’t trust every quarterback.
You trust the ones that’re telling you what they see. Jalen does a really good job of telling us that in the game. I really like the relationship that they have. Probably a better question for them. But I know they’re close. I know they spend a lot of time together talking through the plan. I know they spend a lot of time together going through situations. A better question for them, but I do value that relationship that those two have, because I think they’re really lockstep and do a great job. I know they both care about each other. I know they both want what’s best for each other. I know Kevin wants Jalen to succeed and he is doing everything he can to help him do that. So, I love that relationship that those two have.
Q. After the game, QB Jalen Hurts gave an interview to Pam Oliver and said that it seemed like they were playing not to lose the game. He said that we have to get out of this playing not to lose, that you played so many different styles in the first half. I’m just wondering if you see any inkling of that. Do you see any of that creeping in that, whether it’s inadvertently the playing not to lose type mentality, playing a little too close to the vest? (Ed Kracz)
Nick Sirianni: Our guys did everything they could do to scratch claw and win that game. I think it goes back to the, what I said with [WR] A.J. [Brown], what we talked about all week, what Jalen talked about, what [Offensive Coordinator] Kevin [Patullo] talked about, particularly in that offensive meeting. When you are good on offense, I know I’ve said this to you guys a bunch, when you got the guys that we have on offense, you’re going to see and you’re explosive in different ways. You’re going to see stuff that you don’t see on tape. What we said all week, particularly Jalen and Kevin, and I thought that this as well was, we’re the offense. We have to be in this mode of attacking, and that’s what our mindset was.
Obviously, the first half didn’t play out that way for multiple different reasons. But I think that’s, you guys can ask them, but I think that’s what Jalen’s saying there. I think that’s what A.J.’s saying here. But what I definitely felt from our team is there was this supreme confidence, especially as we started to chip away. You know, we had a bad first half, then that second half starts like, ‘All right, let’s go.” Here, we regroup, let’s go, and it got worse, right? It got worse. But then, all I saw was a team doing everything they could do to find a way to win this game. I’m just so proud of the guys of how hard they worked, how they just kept getting back up, because we talked about how the second half started, but then it wasn’t like, stop, score, stop, score, stop, score.
There was a little bit of that, but there was stop, score. Then, they drive a field goal block. Alright, boom, we drive, turnover on downs, right? There was still this adversity in there because it didn’t happen just like that. All I saw as a team is just kept getting back. All I saw from our team and our coaches was guys just continuing to fight, getting back up, and shoot that ball could have bounced a different way yesterday and we could have very easily lost that game. Hats off to the Rams, that’s a good football team. But I just saw our guys continue to fight over and over again. Now again, we have a lot to clean up. Like we can’t play that way and win consistently. So, we got in there today, that was the mood of the whole thing, right? And I told you guys this yesterday. Yeah, we’re going to celebrate like crazy on Sunday, but tomorrow we’re going to tell each other the truth and get back at it. That’s what today was all about.
Q. Nick, when it comes to QB Jalen Hurts being assertive during a game like we saw yesterday, how much has he grown in that area? Just the comfort, with the coaching staff and with Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo in particular? (Dave Zangaro)
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I think, again, like I said, he is always had a good relationship with Kevin, regardless of Kevin being the coordinator or not. Jalen’s always saw the field really well. Obviously he gets better and better and better as reps that he takes throughout his career. I think a lot of quarterbacks are that way. We’ve always valued what he sees out there, you know, because he can really tell us what he sees out there even better than a picture can show it when you’re looking at it. That’s a really good asset to have, as a coaching staff because again, you know, Jalen does — all these things that he does so well that helps us win football games, you know, that’s just another one. The way he could communicate and talk to us of what he’s seeing, and again, that’s what you need. That’s what you want out of your quarterback. I’m glad we have a quarterback, like Jalen Hurts that does that and consistently does that.
Q. The record overall, 19 and one in your last 20 games, last 17, that that Jalen has started and finished the game, have all been victories. What kind of things do you think about that come first and foremost to your mind when you think about that kind, that level of sustained success that you guys are on right now? (Tim McManus)
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, that’s a good question, Tim. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is our detail wasn’t what I wanted it to be yesterday, right? And our team feels that same way. The reminder of, hey, ‘we play like this, forget going 19 and one or whatever it is, you don’t win the next one or the next one when you play like that.’ I think about, we’ve been a detailed team that’s had that sustained success. Obviously we have great talent, but we have a team that plays together and, tough, and detailed and yesterday wasn’t detailed enough so that you say that, the first thing I think of is like, well, if we’re going to do that again, we can’t be the type of detail that we had yesterday.
That’s from coaches, players, everything. I don’t think I did a good enough job yesterday. You know, I take a lot of pride that our fundamentals are what they are. Obviously good players allow you to be able to do that — and I say that by saying, you know, we put them in these positions to execute their fundamentals. Obviously again, their talent is what it is. But then it’s my job as the head coach, anytime I say, ‘Hey, the detail wasn’t right,’ I’m the only person I’m looking at is myself first, because I feel like I hold that that to, hey, if our detail’s not right, I put so much time into that as the head coach that I really, I don’t like when that looks like that because I know that I, I didn’t do my job well enough.
I say that with the kickoff return, right. I didn’t put those guys on the kickoff return in enough positions that week by fielding those kicks — even going back now, you learn from that and all I’m thinking about is how we’re going to do that moving forward and get better at that moving forward. It would be the same way if we didn’t have a catch and drag on the sideline on a catch or miss tackles. So when you said that, that’s the first thing that came to my mind. You probably wanted a different answer there Tim, but that, you know, it’s like all those things — you judge yourself coming out of a game. Did you play to the standard of your culture and, win, lose or draw, did you play to that standard?
When you consistently play to that standard with the talent that we have and the talent that [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] has given us, then we know we can put ourselves in the best position to succeed, but when you don’t, you know, those don’t happen without playing to your standard and the talent that you have. That was the first thing that came to my mind when you asked that question, is this, we have to be more detailed. It starts with me and it and anytime it’s, there’s missed tackles or drops or we’re not fielding the ball clean on that, I look at myself first and foremost because that detail and that fundamental is my, is my job.
Q. We see special teams drills on Wednesday and Thursday, but how much time do you guys spend during the week on field goal block? And then a second part of that question, some of the top DTs in the league don’t necessarily play special teams. What is it about DT Jalen Carter and DT Jordan Davis that they’re part of those units? (Zach Berman)
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, and I want you to flip it to the other side, where [T] Jordan Mailata and [G] Landon Dickerson and [G/T] Tyler Steen, all those guys play field goal too. I think that’s just the selflessness of our football team. [DB] Cooper DeJean plays on kickoff, [OLB] Jalyx Hunt plays on kickoff. We just have these guys that are willing to do whatever we need to do to win football games, whether that’s sacrificing, one place or the other, or playing special teams and it’s no different there. I think you look back, like some of our good pushes from the last couple years, you have Jordan Davis on it, you have Jalen Carter, you had [Former Eagles DE] Brandon Graham on it, and it’s like, ‘oh, you know, Brandon Graham’s a 15-year vet and he’s still on this.’
I give so much credit to [Former Eagles C] Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, [Former Eagles DT] Fletcher Cox of them carrying that culture and [T] Lane [Johnson] and now all the guys that we have now of carrying the culture and it’s team, it’s together. It’s one of the things, you’re looking at your detail after a game, but you’re also looking at how you played together. I thought we played extremely hard yesterday. I thought we played extremely mentally tough yesterday, extremely together. Our detail just wasn’t there. I think of it in that way and those guys, man, what a good two rushes that they had. Really that just doesn’t turn on in the moment, if you look back at all the field goals, they’re rushing like that and all the extra points because they know those can change a game.
I think I’d say this too, that [DT] Jalen Carter has worked himself back into to being, [and] is getting himself back into the best shape of his life. Jordan Davis, there’s been a lot of talk about how he’s in the best shape of his life, but you saw that yesterday in the sense that the very last play of a dog fight where you’re in the bottom of the dog fight and you’re trying to fight your way back up, it’s even more tiring. But in a moment like that, they were still able to give this extreme effort to help us win the game, because they still had stuff in their tank because they’ve worked their butts off to be in the best shape of their life. We talked about Jalen [Carter] having to continue to get better at that, and he worked extremely hard at that this week, and he’ll continue to work hard at that, but you’re seeing him come out of the stack getting strip attempts on the football.
I love how hard we played as a team. Those two guys showed that all the way till the very end, which ended up helping us win the game, and then we didn’t need Jordan [Davis] to scoop and score, but he did, and he had the energy and to be able to finish that off as well.
Q. How much time do you spend on Field Goal block during the week? (Zach Berman)
Nick Sirianni: A lot. Just as much as we spend on field goal. We talk about that a lot. We’re in a lot of that, Coach [Special Teams Coordinator Michael] Clay does a really good job of separating out, the time for special teams with the walkthroughs and the practice and the individual drills that we do, he does a really good job there and we spend quite a bit of time on that.