Nick Sirianni sees the positive in his players’ frustration originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles just won their ninth straight game on Sunday as Saquon Barkley broke the franchise record for rushing yards in a season.
But it wasn’t an overly celebratory locker room. At least not everywhere.
Several offensive starters lamented the lack of success in the passing game after the team finished with just 83 net passing yards in a tight 22-16 win over the Panthers.
There was some clear frustration in that locker room. And on Monday, head coach Nick Sirianni said he sees some positives in that.
“When you guys asked me yesterday what I thought, normally I always have to watch the tape, but it’s no secret that we weren’t up to our standard in that area yesterday,” Sirianni said. “It’s just going back to work. What I do know, I love that guys care. They care about how they perform, they care about us meeting our standard and that just leads into getting better.
“My only thought on that is we’re going to get to work today, which we already did and watch the tape with them and make the corrections. Be critical with ourselves as coaches and how we can put them in better situations, how we can do different stuff to help out. And everybody doing our part. It’s just an opportunity for you to grow and to get better. That’s anytime you step on the field, there’s an opportunity for that.”
Among those to voice some frustration were A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson. We’re talking about star players who weren’t thrilled with the lack of cohesion in the passing game in Week 14 of the season.
It’s a concern.
Jalen Hurts on Sunday completed just 14 of 21 passes for 108 yards but also took 4 sacks for 25 yards. Hurts had a season-high time to throw of 3.47 seconds but averaged a season-low 5.1 yards per attempt, per NextGen Stats. He also took 4 sacks on 9 pressures.
During the last couple of months, the Eagles have been able to lean on their run game but it would have helped to have a more efficient passing attack on Sunday.
“I don’t think the offense in general, as far as the pass game, was to our standard yesterday,” Sirianni said. “But make no mistake about it, and I know the question is coming about Jalen, make no mistake about it, we’ve won nine games in a row and Jalen Hurts is a big reason why we’ve won nine games in a row.”
Brown didn’t see a target in Sunday’s win until there were under 2 minutes remaining in the second quarter. It seemed like there were chances for Hurts to hit him earlier than that but the ball didn’t make it there.
At one point, Brown went to the bench and slammed his helmet in frustration.
“A.J. is a great football player that we are always trying to get the ball in his hands,” Sirianni said. “There’s no doubt. Because he’s a great player. It doesn’t always work as simple as that. There’s other factors of things they can take away, you’re running the ball well, the situation in the game. There’s a lot of factor that go into that. I think what’s important, that we talk about always, is controlling the things that you can control. What A.J. can control is going out there and beating the man over top of him when he’s running and route and blocking the guy he’s supposed to when he’s in the run game.
“A.J. missed three games and has 800+ yards so he’s making a big contribution. But I know he wants the football because he knows how much he can help our team when he touches the football.”
The Eagles are 11-2 and they actually clinched a playoff spot later in the day on Sunday with some help. But they obviously have bigger goals than just getting to the playoffs. They are legitimate Super Bowl contenders if they play the way they think they’re capable of playing.
They didn’t do that on Sunday.
But after the win, Sirianni made a point to tell his team to enjoy the win. Sure, they have things to correct, but wins are hard to get.
“I like the fact that guys when we don’t reach our standard of how we want to play and show everybody how we play each week, that they’re disappointed in that,” Sirianni said. “But you also have to remind them in those moments that it’s hard to win. You have to enjoy those moments. Because I know this, when you lose that will sit with you and you’re sick about that. You have to balance that out from when you win to enjoy it.
“It’s about enjoying the locker room after the game because so much went into it. There’s so much that goes into each week. You empty the tank every single week to try to win a football game. When you win, there should be joy in that because you worked so hard at it.”
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