They love you when things are going well, and for Brian Johnson, it was only a few months ago when he was being discussed as one of the next young, hot-head coaching candidates.
Johnson was promoted to the offensive coordinator position following Shane Steichen’s departure to Indianapolis, and through six games at the helms, he’s started to face severe criticism.
Some pundits blame Philadelphia’s loss on three Jalen Hurts’ interceptions, while others around the league and in the fanbase believe that Johnson has left a lot to be desired at this point.
One growing criticism is the lack of second-half rushing attempts by a team that has been one or two rushing yards over the past few years.
The Eagles ran the ball 22 times on Sunday and went away from the run late in regulation when Jalen Hurts had his turnovers.
On Tuesday, Sirianni was a guest on Sports Radio 94 WIP and gave insight into the offense while praising Johnson’s play-calling.
Sirianni on Eagles run-pass balance vs. Jets
Philadelphia does not perform well when Jalen Hurts attempts 40+ passes in a game, and during Sunday’s loss, he dropped back 45+ times, while the leagues best rushing attack was reduced to just 22 attempts.
"I wouldn't say we had any regrets on how it played out. I thought we did a nice job moving the football…I'm thinking more of the issues are the turnovers, that stalls drives and runs go down."
— Nick Sirianni on run/pass ration this week (@WIPMorningShow) pic.twitter.com/kBTQl75Zje
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) October 17, 2023
Sirianni on OC Brian Johnson
During his Monday session with the media, Sirianni had this to say about Johnson’s performance as a play-caller in the 20-14 loss to the Jets.
I thought [Offensive Coordinator] Brian [Johnson] did a nice job. I think when you really look at it, there are some detail things, right? Again, there are always going to be detail things as coaches you want back. Always going to be detail things as players you want back.
So, there are some detail things there. When we talk about a design of a play, I’m always going to take the brunt of that, of, hey, this design wasn’t good enough. There definitely were a couple of those that the design, I’m like, I didn’t really like the design of this play right here.
To me, when that is the case that’s 100% on me.
And then as you look at it, it’s going to be hard to sustain drives, score points, when you turn the ball over. The turnovers, it was all something different, each one of them. It wasn’t all on one guy. Jalen gets three interceptions to his name, but they’re not all on him.
In fact, I only saw one of them that was on Jalen that he’ll want back.
The other ones were on other things. I’m not going to sit here and say this was on this. One of them was on me. Ya’ll can look to see who you think the other one was on.
So I didn’t think — again, there are some designs you want back, but the main issue is — I thought Brian did a fine job, but I thought the main issue is any time you’re minus four in the turnover category it’s going to be tough to win that game and tough to score points, and going to be tough to sustain drives.
Final notes
Jalen Hurts attempting 45+ passes a game is not a sustained recipe for success, but it also has to be noted that Shane Steichen had his moments where he got pass heavy, and went away from the run in key losses.
Philadelphia can win in multiple ways and Sunday was comparable to stuffing a square object into a round hole, rather than taking what the Jets defense likes to give, and that’s 130+ rushing yards to their previous four opponents.
