Yes, the Falcons had to drive 70 yards to win the game. They shouldn’t have had to.
Facing third and three from the Atlanta 10 with 1:46 to play and the Falcons out of timeouts, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni dialed up a pass. It looked like it was working, until it didn’t.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts faked a handoff to no one, rolled right, and threw to running back Saquon Barkley. He dropped the ball. The clock stopped. After the field goal that pushed the score to 21-15, the Falcons had more than enough time to steal the win.
During his post-game press conference, Sirianni was asked about the decision to throw the ball.
“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,” Sirianni said.
Sirianni also was asked whether he thought about going for it on fourth down and three. Failure to convert would have given the Falcons the ball at or around their own 10, needing a field goal to tie. Instead, they started from their own 30 with a chance to win.
“My — 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,” Sirianni said. “And they did. Hat’s off to them.”
And, yes, as Sirianni later he’s not the offensive coordinator; Kellen Moore is. Moore calls the plays. But in a spot like that, it’s on the head coach to approve or reject a decision that could — and did — go very wrong for the home team.
Sirianni suggested that reporters might try to “stir something up” about that. Still, Sirianni initially said “my” before saying “the decision.”
It’s unclear why he corrected himself. Regardless, “the decision” is “my decision.” And this one is on him.
What seemed to be a certain win became an actual loss, and instead of being 2-0 the Eagles are 1-1. While there are still 15 games to go, the difference between a win and a loss in Week 2 could come back to haunt them when the time comes to figure out the spots on the playoff tree.
