The defining moment arrived long before the confetti began to fall, long before “Dreams and Nightmares” began to play, long before Nick Sirianni celebrated his Super Bowl berth with a promise that the journey was not yet complete. Peel back the layers of touchdowns and penalties and knockout hits that rounded out the Eagles’ 31-7 victory over the 49ers in the NFC championship game, and this is where you will arrive:
Fourth down. One yard to go. Six minutes before halftime. The ball on the Eagles’ own 34.
This was it, the moment that won it, subsequently buried beneath all of the mayhem it spawned. That’s sometimes how it goes with great coaching decisions. The outcome makes them seem so obvious in hindsight that you forget they were not a simple matter of course. But nothing that Sirianni does is as simple as it seems. And fourth-and-1 from his own 34-yard line was no exception.
