You know, there’s really no two ways about it: the Philadelphia Eagles played sloppy football against the Washington Commanders in Week 16.
Need proof? Well, look no further than head coach Nick Sirianni, who used that exact verbiage to describe his team’s poor efforts across the board, from offense, to defense, and even special teams.
Asked on Monday to elaborate on his postgame comments, what with the fog of battle fully lifted, Sirianni noted that he couldn’t blame Philadelphia’s first loss since September on any one player, coach, or play, with the overall performance simply not good enough to overcome Jayden Daniels’ late-game heroics.
“A lot of different things. I think when you talk about that, too, it’s never just, ‘Hey, this is defense,’ or ‘Hey, this is just offense,’ or, ‘Hey, this is just special teams.’ You’ve got to look at the big picture of it. We were unable in the second half on offense — we put four field goals on the board, right? We finish one of those drives; it’s a different scenario for the defense. Then you think about your kickoff coverage, and that wasn’t up to our standard. So, we gave them a really good field position multiple times. We gave them a short field on a turnover as an offense. All these things play into it,” Sirianni told Eagles reporters.
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“I’m always going to talk to you guys about and talk to our guys about– we had some missed tackles yesterday that gave up some extra yards. We weren’t on the same page here and there. We gave them some free yards on penalties. There were some sloppy things that we had as a defense, but everyone contributed to those 36 points being put on the board, like I said, with the offense and the special teams. This is a team sport, and it takes everybody. Just like we get excited about complementary football when we take the ball away and then punch it in on offense or have a big return and do something good on offense, the same can be said when it doesn’t go your way as well.”
You know, while some fans may not like what Sirianni had to say for taking more of a macro look instead of digging into the weeds and calling out specific players for their poor play, this has long been the head coach’s MO with the Eagles: taking more blame on his shoulders than he probably deserves while going to bat for his guys individually, instead of singling people out in a public forum. If the Eagles bounce back in Week 17, playing another complete game against the Dallas Cowboys regardless of who is under center, Jalen Hurts, Kenny Pickett, or even Tanner McKee, fans will forget about this sloppiness in no time.
