Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said he put his team in a “bad spot” in their 15-12 victory over the Saints on Sunday at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
With 14 seconds remaining in the second quarter, the Eagles ran a fake “tush push” on fourth-and-1, but the Saints’ defense was not fooled by it.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts did not run a quarterback sneak. Instead, he handed it to Saquon Barkley, who was tackled short of the sticks by Saints linebacker Pete Werner and defensive end Chase Young.
The Eagles should have kicked a field goal because they were down 3-0. Even if they picked up the first down, they only had one timeout left, so they probably would have settled for a field goal anyways.
“Just so anyone’s wondering, on that fourth-and-1 at the end of the (first) half, I called that. (Eagles offensive coordinator) Kellen (Moore) did not,” Sirianni told reporters after Sunday’s game.
“That’s what I thought was best for the football team in that particular case. That was my decision. I did it. It didn’t work, and I’ll get better from it.”
On the opening drive of the third quarter, Sirianni went for it on fourth-and-4, but the play resulted in Hurts getting sacked. His decision to go for two fourth downs cost the Eagles six points in a game they nearly lost.
Sirianni gave up control of the offense during the offseason and has allowed Moore to implement a different scheme, but he still makes in-game decisions. Over the last two weeks, he has not been a good CEO-head coach.
He made questionable late-game decisions in the Eagles’ 22-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday.
On third-and-3 from Atlanta’s 10, Barkley dropped a pass with under two minutes remaining, which stopped the clock.
Then, the Eagles kicked a field goal on fourth down to take a six-point lead. Both of these play calls backfired because the Falcons scored a game-winning touchdown on their next drive.
If Sirianni doesn’t make better choices, the Eagles won’t consistently win games this season.
During the third quarter, the Eagles received a five-yard penalty on third-and-2 for having too many men on the field. Hurts’ pass fell incomplete on third-and-7. Then, Braden Mann’s punt got blocked by the Saints.
At the beginning of the drive, Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert was called for illegal formation.
These types of mistakes are a reflection of Sirianni’s poor coaching. Since the end of the last season, the Eagles have struggled with penalties, turnovers and other fundamental issues. Now, their coach is putting them in bad positions.
However, Sirianni is confident that his players still believe in him.
“You’re going to have small losses in between in every single game, whether it’s an interception, whether it’s a fumble, whether it’s me going for it in the fourth down scenario and we don’t get it.
You got to overcome those things,” Sirianni said. “And I’m so proud of those guys that they did that. It’s just showed such a resilience and a team, right? A team plays together.
A team has each other’s back. I can’t tell you how many times Saquon (Barkley) and Jordan Mailata and Chauncey (Gardner-Johnson) came up to me, is like, ‘Man, we got your back. We got your back, coach!’ I mean, that’s (special).”
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