PHILADELPHIA — Nick Sirianni has been humbled by the NFL. His rookie season in charge got off to an uninspiring start and the ending, despite a late-season charge, came to a crashing halt. But the Eagles coach has lived a mostly charmed life in his second year.
Sirianni deserved much of the credit for his team’s initial success. As any coach would acknowledge, you also need a touch of luck from the football gods to go 13-1. The Eagles were remarkably healthy, the bounces often went their way, and the schedule was kind when they needed it to be.
But the NFL has a way of knocking you down a peg. Jalen Hurts got hurt, and then Lane Johnson, and now the Eagles — after falling to the ailing and flailing Saints, 20-10, on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field — are stumbling down the stretch and have yet to clinch a No. 1 seed in the playoffs that once looked like a formality.
“I don’t get too high when we play a really good game; I don’t get too low when we play a really bad game,” Sirianni said. “We played a really bad game today offensively. We’ll just have to look and get better from it.
“Again, I’m not ever going to be somebody that is going to hit a panic button.”
The Eagles still control their own destiny. A victory over the New York Giants at the Linc would give them a first-round bye and home field throughout the postseason. But they’re limping into a season finale in which they can no longer rest their starters.
Hurts may be closer to returning from his shoulder sprain, as Sirianni said, but the Eagles may be forced to rush the quarterback with so much still on the line. It might be easy to downplay a second straight loss because the team was without its MVP candidate.
Gardner Minshew’s performance against New Orleans made it even clearer how integral Hurts has been to the offense. But Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen delivered their first real dud of the season.
Their game plan didn’t do enough to account for Minshew’s deficiencies, they leaned too heavily (again) on the pass, and they were often a step behind Dennis Allen, the Saints’ defensive-minded head coach.
Case in point: Minshew’s ill-fated pass to A.J. Brown that Marshon Lattimore intercepted and returned 12 yards for a game-sealing interception. Brown runs one of the best slant routes in the NFL. The Eagles have had success with it all season, and did so several times earlier Sunday.
But the Saints, according to Allen, made an adjustment in anticipation of play-caller Steichen dialing up that play again. Lattimore showed press coverage pre-snap, but he backed off and was able to jump the route.
“I was trying to get Gardner’s attention to look up, but he never looked back at me,” Brown said. “[Lattimore] actually caught it right out, and he basically doubled me on the play.”
Minshew, overall, didn’t play well. There were some positive moments in the second half. He hooked up with receiver DeVonta Smith nine times for 115 yards. He found Brown for a 78-yard catch-and-run touchdown. But the play-calling lacked imagination or coherence in terms of getting the backup into a rhythm.
As costly as Minshew’s pick-six was, it was the Eagles’ only turnover. In their previous two losses to the Commanders in November and the Cowboys last week, they had four in each game. Coaches and players after the setbacks focused more on the self-inflicted wounds.
And rightfully so. The Eagles beat themselves, certainly on the offensive side, more than anything Washington’s or Dallas’ defenses did. But this defeat was different. Sure, there were mistakes. There were eight penalties, and six alone on the offensive line.
But the Eagles offense looked outcoached and ill-prepared for the first time. The Eagles went three-and-out on their first four series. Minshew was sacked on four of his first six drops. Miles Sanders got only two carries in the first half.
“It didn’t seem like much was working, so I’m never going to criticize the play-caller in terms of we should have done this or that,” center Jason Kelce said. “We were doing a pretty good job of screwing up everything in the first half.”
Hurts’ return might solve the Eagles’ late-season swoon. The Giants are locked into the No. 6 seed and might rest their starters, ironically. But even if the No. 1 seed is claimed, the Eagles won’t likely have a test that brings them confidence heading into the playoffs.
“I could give two [bleeps] about clinching the first place,” Kelce said. “As you can see right now, we got to get a lot of things fixed. I got to get a lot of things fixed. That’s what I’m focused on.”
In the bigger picture, and perhaps someday in retrospect, maybe the Eagles needed a relative comeuppance. The Hurts injury was unfortunate, but Sirianni and Steichen may have gotten too close to the sun by having the quarterback run as often as he did on the frozen tundra at Soldier Field.
Sirianni’s “How ‘bout them Eagles!” boast following the win over the Cowboys in October and his over-exuberance in Indianapolis after the comeback win over the Colts, following the firing of his mentor Frank Reich, may suggest that he does, in fact, get “too high” after wins.
He’s an emotional coach. He’s a confident individual. But he can’t coach with emotion. And he can’t allow for his players to get overconfident when they’ve accomplished so little thus far.
“We’ve been humble about it,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “I just feel like everyone wants to see the top [team]. I know that for me, when I see the top [team] I want to beat them, so we know that we have a target on our back and people can’t wait for us to fail.
“There’s no pressure.”
There isn’t if you don’t allow it. But there isn’t anything wrong with eating a little humble pie.
“You always understand that — that’s why you never want to get too up, and you don’t want to get too down,” Sirianni said. “We’re here now. We’re 13-3 right now with a chance to go 14-3 next week to win the division. All our goals are in front of us.”
As ugly as Sunday looked, as distressing as two straight losses may be, he’s right.
