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 effort across the board, from offense to defense to even teams special.
Asked for his postgame comments Monday, with the fog of battle completely lifted, Sirianni noted that he couldn’t blame Philadelphia’s first loss since September on a single player, coach or player, with the overall performance just isn’t good enough to overcome the late game exploits of Jayden Daniels.
“A lot of different things. I think when you talk about that too, it’s never just, “Hey, it’s just defense,” or “Hey, it’s just offense,” or “Hey, these are as special teams.” You have to have an overview. We couldn’t do it offensively in the second half – we made four field goals, didn’t we? We finish one of these journeys; it’s a different scenario for the defense. Then you think about your coverage of the kickoff, and that wasn’t up to our standards. So we gave them very good field position on several occasions. We gave them a short field on a turnover as an infraction. All those things come into play,” Sirianni told Eagles reporters.
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“I’m still going to talk to you and our guys about…we had a couple missed tackles yesterday that gave up a few extra yards. We weren’t on the same page here and there. We gave them a few free yards on penalties. We had some sloppy things on defense, but everyone contributed to getting those 36 points on the board, like I said, with the offense and special teams. It’s a team sport and it takes everyone. Just like we get excited about complementary football when we take the ball away and then kick it on offense or make a big comeback and do something good on offense, the same can be said when it doesn’t go as well .
You know, while some fans may not like what Sirianni had to say for taking a more macro view instead of digging into the weeds and calling out specific players for their poor play, it’s long gone been the head coach’s modus operandi with the Eagles: taking more blame on his shoulders than he probably deserves by defending his guys individually, instead of targeting people in a public forum. If the Eagles bounce back in Week 17, playing another complete game against the Dallas Cowboys, no matter who is under center, Jalen Hurts, Kenny Pickett or even Tanner McKee, fans will forget this neglect in no time .
