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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Charles Curtis

Nick Sirianni’s explanation for the questionable Saquon Barkley pass play wasn’t great

The questions about whether Nick Sirianni is a good head coach won’t go away after the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Atlanta Falcons, particularly because of the late play call with under two minutes to go on Monday.

Instead of running the ball on 3rd-and-3 with the Falcons having no timeouts, Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore dialed up a simple pass in the flat off play action. It would have worked if Saquon Barkley hadn’t dropped an easy catch, but that’s not the point. The clock stopped, the Eagles kicked a field goal, and the Falcons overcame a 99 percent chance of losing to give Kirk Cousins his first win with Atlanta.

Sirianni had this to say:

@nfloncbs

Sirianni explains his pivotal play call that led to Saquon’s drop

♬ original sound – NFL on CBS

“They were running a certain defense and junking it up in the middle, so we were trying to go on around the outside, and it didn’t work,” he said.

“The decision to pass it there, again like I said, when there were junking it up inside, with it being fourth and three to go for it, I thought with them not having any timeouts, I wanted them to be down a touchdown and see if they could drive the field,” he added. “And they did.”

Not great!

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