Nick Sirianni

Q. We talked after the game and also this morning about the idea of invisible progress behind the scenes. I was wondering how hard it is to keep with the process if you don’t see the results on the field? And if that’s something in your career, there was a point you weren’t good at it, now maybe you have more patience. (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: I think that’s with everything in our society now, just with instant gratification things. I think that is difficult. I’d be lying [if I said], ‘Oh no, that’s easy.’ It’s difficult. It’s just a reminder. We have past experience on these things as well, like, ‘Hey, just stick to it.’ Eventually the turnovers will start to happen, a lot like the 2024 season.

But fair point. Definitely, that’s not an easy thing to grasp, especially in the world that we live in. You grow as a person; you grow as a coach all the time. That’s a lesson that you learn over time, but that’s why it’s so important that you’re convicted in what you’re doing. That doesn’t mean just because you’re convicted, it works, but the combination of the success and the conviction goes a long way, and then you have to be able to double down on things that you believe in, even when the results in certain categories aren’t happening.

Q. It seems like the pass protection versus pressure, especially in this past game, was not up to standard. What needs to happen to improve that? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: There’s obviously different reasons somebody would get home different times. Sometimes you don’t have a hat for a hat. Sometimes they bring one more than you could actually get. Sometimes it’s losing a one-on-one matchup at offensive line or back or tight end. We just all as a whole have to be better against pressure situations.

There’s been times that we’ve done that. You can’t look at just one game and say that’s who we are. You’ve got to look at the sample size of what we’ve done. We’ve had some good moments of handling pressure. We won on a blitz zero in the Tennessee game, where [QB] Jalen [Hurts] drifts away from it and throws the touchdown where they had it against us in that game. Again, we didn’t coach well enough. We didn’t play well enough in the last game that we played, and that’s what today has been. Not only an introduction to the Rams and your Wednesday work on the Rams, but also fixing the things that popped up from the game on Monday night.

Q. What do you make of the slow starts coming out of halftime? And are there things you guys can do to maybe jumpstart that? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: I’m not going to get into what we’ll do as far as that goes. I don’t think that’s good for anybody, but we’re going to go about some things — If you keep doing the same thing over and over again and it’s not working, then you’ve got to try to move on and fix it.

A couple things that we’ll try to do that we’ve been able to accomplish sometimes in the past. Those are critical moments, in the sense that you go down and you kind of work a double dip, meaning you score at the end of half, you turn around and then you score again. That’s a big momentum switch, especially if that’s like 14 points. I mean, even if it’s a field goal. Field goals– that’s six points. We know how critical that is and we have to fix that portion of our game right now. It hasn’t been the same thing. The failure coming out of the half hasn’t been the same theme on the defensive end. We’ve got to look at ourselves first and fix that portion of it. We’ve got a couple things that we’re working on with that while we plan our first- and second-down game plan.

Q. Does the pressure affect how often you’re going to play action? There’s some success that start with the run game and almost got — (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: No. It’s hard to look at it and say, ‘Hey, the numbers say this.’ Obviously, we had success on our run game in the first half. Then, in the second half, we weren’t in phase as much as we’d like to be. When the run game was clicking, we kept calling runs, and we were moving the football that way. Then, in the second half, it felt like we weren’t able to run our whole offense the way we wanted to run our offense because we weren’t quite in phase. We weren’t getting the six- or seven-yard runs. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it on first down. I understand that, but I just felt like we weren’t quite as in phase there as we were in the first half that caused some of that. We want to be able to run it. We want to be able to do play action off of that and with the runs that we have. That is definitely an emphasis, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re in phase to be able to do that and run our offense the way we want to.

Q. A couple players, defensive players, used the words ‘miscommunication’ and ‘not on the same page’ to describe things that went wrong on Monday — (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: That’s how we talk in here. That’s one of the things we say: ‘Hey, when we’re trying to master the things that require no talent, one of those things is being on the same page. Communication doesn’t require any talent. Doing your assignment doesn’t require any talent.’ I think that’s probably the language I say a lot. I know some teams say, ‘Do your job.’ My way of saying that is, ‘We all need to be on the same page.’ That’s kind of how we correct things on a daily basis in here when we’re not on the same page. I imagine that’s why they’re using those words in that situation.

Q. Are you seeing the operational breakdown in communication? (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: We had a couple the other day, and anytime that happens, you can’t look at the result and say, ‘It’s OK that this happened because the result didn’t hurt us.’ Now, in the game the other night, it happened a couple times, and the result did hurt us. That’s always going to be critical to understand, no matter what it is, regardless of what the — And that’s being process-driven over outcome-driven. We’re very outcome-aware, but we’re process-driven because, on the negative side of that, it’s like, ‘OK, the outcome was what we wanted, but we messed this up and we weren’t on the same page, but we can brush that [off].’ It doesn’t work that way because you never know when it’s going to get you.

Q. How concerning is just the lack of big plays from the defense? Talk about turnovers, I think three sacks all year, just the absence of those impact plays. (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Again, I think those have a tendency to come in waves. We’ve been disruptive, particularly up front, but those things tend to come in waves and it goes back to, are you willing to continue to put the work in and go through the process even when you’re not seeing the results?

We’ve had games where you’ve had pressures, but maybe the sack didn’t come. I understand that when you’re looking at the stat sheet, you’re saying, ‘Hey, how many sacks do they have?’ We think that’s a big deal, too, as far as how you’re affecting the quarterback and getting them behind the sticks and getting them in negative situations and second-and-long situations. You also look at like, ‘Alright, are we taking our attempts at the football when we have the attempts at the football?’ Eventually, that tide turns, and it all goes back to the way we go about our business and the way we go about our process. It’s still a small sample size, but would we like to have those things? Of course.

We’ve just got to keep chipping away at it and controlling the things that we can control. Sometimes guys have really good ball security. I’m not saying that’s always been the case, but you’re getting your attempt, and the guy had a good ball security on that, so you didn’t take it away. We’ve got to be committed to what we’re doing Monday through Saturday to be ready to play on Sunday.

Q. When you’re breaking down games, how do you evaluate coaching performances? With players, I guess film, that’s one thing, but how do you assess and correct coaching? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: Good question. A lot of different ways. You’re making sure that you had answers versus the different things that the defense could do. Are the players consistently on the same page? That comes down to us. As I’ve told you guys in the past, regardless of what happens on the field of who makes a mistake, I’m responsible for all those things. That’s how you get better, and that’s how you get an entire team to buy into ownership, because if I’m not taking ownership, then why would they?

What I mean by that is like, ‘OK, we’ve missed this type of tackle, or we haven’t got this strip attempt.’ You find those common denominators of things that you felt like, have we done a good enough job coaching this or drilling this and putting them in positions to succeed that way? Definitely that way as well. I look at that for myself. Did you attack? You go through a checklist of things at the end of a game, and some of the things are coach-driven and some of them are player-driven. Did they do what we expected them to do? Did we adjust if they didn’t do something that we expected them to do?

There’s a lot of things like that, without getting into too many of them. I guess long story short, or longer, the best way to say that is, my job is to coach everybody and not just the players. At the end of a game, you go through a process that evaluates both ends of it. Because again, we’re in this together. They’ve got to understand that everybody makes mistakes, coaches [and] players, and that’s why you have to be good at evaluating both of those things.

Q. Has your view of when and how often to use the tush push changed since a few years ago? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: No, not necessarily. Which play in particular are you referring to?

Q. We can talk about the goal line with QB Andy Dalton. There are situations in the game, and I understand that the one-yard’s different than other spots on the field, but where you might have been more inclined to use it in the past. (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: We want to be able to run it in on — I think we should be able to run it in on a first-and-goal from the one. In that situation, we didn’t have the best play design, and then in the next one, we didn’t execute it as well as we could. Then we lost yardage in that situation. Now, it puts you out of that.

I wouldn’t say it’s changed there because I still have a lot of faith in the play, and we’ve gotten some — I don’t know exactly what we are on the play right now, but I think it’s pretty good. I think we’re perfect on it right at this particular time, but we still have to continue to do the things that are helping us do that. I still have a lot of faith in it and when to run it and how to run it. I wouldn’t say that [has] changed all that much.

Q. Do you still like Andy Dalton as your backup quarterback? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I have a lot of faith in both of those guys. Obviously, what happened in the game, we don’t want turnovers by anybody. Whether it was that one, whether it was Jalen’s interception, whether it was [RB] Tank [Bigsby]’s fumble, that has not been our winning formula. We can’t turn the ball over, and we did in a situation and lost points from it. I still have faith in [QB] Tanner [McKee]. I still have faith in Andy. I still like the way that [QB] Cole [Payton] is developing. I still love that room.

Q. Looking at the second half offensive struggle, not just coming out of half, but overall, are there any common themes you’re noticing as to why you guys haven’t been able to really sustain drives in the third quarter? (EJ Smith)

Nick Sirianni: I think it goes back to not being ahead of the sticks. Again, we had the one — I say ‘again’ because a lot of interviews mesh to me. I think I answered it. When I say ‘again,’ and you’re like, ‘Again? You didn’t already answer it,’ but I did, and I think I did this morning. [Laughter.]

But we started the half with a run where [Bears LB] T.J. Edwards was free in the hole, and [RB] Saquon [Barkley] made him miss, and we were ahead of the sticks there. Then we get a negative play after that on a screen to Saquon, and now we’re third-and-six and, OK, we don’t convert. We were ahead of the sticks in that one, then we got behind them and didn’t convert. I still think it goes back to being able to run your entire offense and not having to be in a get-back-on-track type of deal.

Q. What’s going to be required to handle a Rams team that’s obviously very talented, but also motivated? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: We’re motivated also, and I have a lot of respect for this football team. We’re going to have to play our best game to date. I’ve got a lot of respect for their players. They’ve got a lot of respect for their coaches. They have new pieces in there since the last time we played them that have been great football players in the NFL.

We have to have a great week of preparation because it just doesn’t magically happen. You don’t go out there and hope that you’re going to play a good game. You have to do the steps in the week to be able to do so. We’ll have to execute the things on our game plan that we need to, our keys for offense, defense and special teams. They’re hungry, we’re hungry. They’ve got a bad taste in their mouth; we’ve got a bad taste in our mouth. It should be a good football game against a good opponent that’s really well-coached.

Q. Nick, you didn’t really answer the question. Is there a chance QB Tanner McKee might be number two? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Like I said, I answered it how I wanted to. I’ve got a lot of faith in everybody in that room.

Q. Did the change of voice and cadence on that first-and-goal have any effect on the play, just getting people off? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: The backup quarterback’s job is to mimic the cadence exactly the same way as the starter does, right? You go through it, everyone kind of has their own twist in how they do it, but that’s always been the backup quarterback’s job: to mirror and mimic the starters so when they do come in, there’s not a change in that, so that doesn’t affect it. I don’t believe that’s what happened there.

We talked about that. We didn’t love our design in that particular case. I think that had a lot more to do with it than that, and we constantly work on that in quarterback-center exchange where they’re doing their best to mimic Jalen because he’s going to always get all the snaps. Then boom, if another guy comes in, that has to sound exactly the same.

Q. How would you assess WR Makai Lemon through three weeks, the impact that he’s had, his usage, and are you seeing him build the level of trust you hope to see him build with QB Jalen Hurts? (Johnny McGonigal)

Nick Sirianni: I think I’ve answered this before in the sense of Makai gives you confidence as he’s getting more and more touches. Or, if he’s not getting the ball early on and will start to get touches later, it has to happen — That trust has to build, obviously, in a different way. It’s got to build through practice, but it’s got to build also through the things that he consistently does on the field without the ball in his hands.

I think that’s what’s been good with Makai, is that he gives you a lot of faith that he knows what he’s doing in all situations. When the ball starts to come to him — more chances will come to him because he consistently does his job with other factors without the ball in his hands. I think he’s scrappy. I think he is consistently on the same page. He blocked his butt off the other day in that game and played a solid game.