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Winning ugly is winning. And last night, the Eagles won an important football game against one of the NFC’s best teams, on the road, in dramatic fashion.
Normally that sentence would be cause for the city of Philadelphia to rejoice. Their 10-7 victory over the Packers (5-3-1) in Green Bay was huge for their playoff positioning, further solidifying the Birds’ (7-2) place atop the NFC playoff seeding. Going into hostile territory in prime time and pulling out a victory, backed by a ridiculous effort from the defense, should result in celebration.
And while Eagles fans are happy to come away with a victory, everyone is frustrated.
Once again, one of the most expensive offenses in the NFL played like they were the Jacksonville Jaguars for all but two series last night. Yes, the Packers have a good defense, and if this were a one-week aberration, one could chalk it up to an old-fashioned defensive struggle between two stout units. But that’s not the reality.
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Two weeks ago in New York, the offense was imaginative and fluid. The play calling was deft and bold. There were changeups and wrinkles. Somehow, coming off a two-week bye, Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo’s offense went backwards. Not only was this one of the worst offensive performances of the Sirianni/Jalen Hurts era, it was strikingly similar to many we’ve seen from the offense this season. That the Birds are 7-2 speaks more to the individual talent on the offensive side of the ball overcoming their own coaches than anything else.
It took two ridiculous individual efforts for the Eagles to score their lone touchdown last night. First, this Saquon Barkley catch and run on a dump-off after the original play design failed…
…then, a phenomenal contested catch by DeVonta Smith.
The Eagles have perhaps the best offensive roster in the NFL. There is literally no excuse for them to have just 13 first downs last night, or 111 rushing yards, or 183 net passing yards, or to go 7-for-16 on third down conversions. There’s no excuse for them to be 20th in success rate, 11th in EPA per play and 12th in total EPA through nine games.
There is no excuse for last year’s 2,000-yard runner, Barkley, to have just 60 yards on 22 carries, or for A.J. Brown to be targeted just THREE TIMES in the entire game. How does that happen? You want to know why Brown is upset on social media? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?
One of those targets came on the Eagles’ final offensive play of the game, a head-scratching decision by Sirianni to go for it on 4th-and-6 from the Packers’ 35-yard line with 33 seconds left. Everyone watching assumed that Sirianni would eschew the 52-yard field goal attempt and punt the ball away. Even if they only obtained a net of 15 yards on a touchback, that would be 15 additional yards Jordan Love would have had to pile up with no timeouts remaining and scant time left in order to get his injured kicker into field goal range.
Asked after the game about his decision to throw a go-ball to Brown in a spot where every metric in the world was screaming for him to punt, Sirianni seemed to think that his only two options were to kick a field goal or chuck it deep.
“So the end of the game, we are up three and I would have liked to be in a little closer to kick a field goal. Again, you play every situation a little bit differently, but it was into the wind on that one. I knew the kick would have to be a little bit lower trajectory of a kick on that particular one. I’ve got a lot faith in our offense. It didn’t work out on this one.
”We just didn’t get it, but I stand put on that decision, especially being up three because you go up six, they are still going to need a touchdown. So we would have ended the game if we would have got that and I’ve got a lot of faith in our guys to be able to do that. But the reason I didn’t kick the field goal, again, being up three it was just the trajectory into the wind there on that particular one.”
The fact he didn’t even bring up the possibility of a punt tells me that, in retrospect, he realizes he should have punted, and it’s possible Sirianni never intended for this ball to be thrown. Following the incompletion, you can see Sirianni asking audibly “Why? Why?” Is it possible Hurts and Brown went rogue once again, like they did late in Seattle in 2023? Is it possible Sirianni was covering for his two stars once again?
Yes, that’s all possible, and perhaps even probable, because this decision defied logic and every other decision they have made all season long.
If so, it forced Sirianni to unleash one of the bigger whoppers you’re likely to hear from him this year.
“I’ve got a lot of faith in our offense.”
This is the same Nick Sirianni who has, repeatedly, run the coward’s draw on 3rd and long all season long, the same Nick Sirianni who, in this game alone, showed zero faith in his offense over and over and over again.
And yet, in the moment where the correct decision was to actually be conservative, Sirianni’s inconsistency of thought was as egregious as his timidity. If this truly was Sirianni’s decision, it would have been one thing if Sirianni had been acting like Detroit head coach Dan Campbell, a no-brakes decision maker who lives and dies by his aggression, all game. The decision to go for it on 4th-and-6, although still wrong, would have at least been consistent. That he decided a deep pass to a wide receiver he had ignored for the first 59 minutes and 30 seconds of the game was appropriate in that moment was even more nonsensical.
Certainly one can argue the offense shouldn’t even have been on the field, that the punting team should have been in the game, regardless.
The only instance where Sirianni and Patullo acted with the appropriate aggression on 3rd and long in this game was on their penultimate drive. With 5:05 left in the 4th quarter and clinging to that three-point lead, the offense needed to run out the clock. Facing a 3rd-and-12 from their own 26, Hurts hooked up with DeVonta Smith for a huge 16-yard completion, earning the Eagles a desperately-needed first down.
Why has the coaching staff been so afraid to let these talented players go for first downs on 3rd-and-long? The answer is simple.
They don’t trust Hurts and the offense not to turn the ball over.
Sirianni and Patullo’s ultra conservative approach proves they have little confidence in their players, despite his statement above, and despite the existence of a Super Bowl MVP, two of the 10 best wide receivers in football, a top-five tight end and one of the best offensive lines in football. It also makes his decision on 4th-and-6 with 33 seconds left even more insane.
How can you turtle up on virtually every 3rd and long all season and then suddenly decide that, with 33 seconds left and on 4th-and-6, that this is the moment you’re going to show faith in your offense?
Is there a plan? Is there an overall philosophy? Or are we just winging it based on feel?
Look, the Eagles won this game and that’s great. Being 7-2 and holding an important tie-breaker over the 5-3-1 Packers is huge. It would take a ridiculous reversal of fortune for Green Bay to overtake them in the NFC standings at year’s end. That the defense was able to stand up and prevent the offense’s conservatism and cowardice from resulting in a loss is a testament to them.
Winning ugly is all well and good. If the Eagles end up winning another Super Bowl with nothing but ugly wins in their wake, the parade on Broad Street will be just as sweet. However, at some point ugly wins turn into losses. Vic Fangio’s defense isn’t going to be able to bail out his inept offensive counterparts every time, and no one wants it to happen in a playoff game or an important regular season match-up.
Somebody please make it make sense before the Eagles lose a game that could end their season prematurely.
