The Eagles were able to pull off a big Week 2 road win against the Chiefs, and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters after the game about this team’s ability to win in different way, and calls Jalen Hurts one of best deep ball throwers in the NFL.
Sirianni mentioned his philosophy regarding the double positive — winning the turnover battle and winning the explosive play battle. He’s been happy with the Eagles offense protecting the football and the defense taking it away, but admitted that they need to be better with explosive plays.
“The pass game’s been efficient, we just haven’t hit the chunks. But, what I would say, […] is in a moment we needed a chunk, we hit the chunk.”
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On the team finding ways to win
“Resiliency. Playing for each other, together — not wanting to let each other down. The process that they go through. All the things. The mental toughness that we have. It’s just a bunch of good guys — good coaches, good players.
Our job, especially early in the season is — and I tell the team all the time — find a way to win, take pride in winning anyway that you possibly can, work to get better throughout the week, repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. So, we gotta keep getting better.“
He went on to explain that coming off a season like they had last year, the expectation is that they’ll pick up where they left off, but there are steps to this process. Their goal is to keep getting better and to be playing their best ball at the end of the season, and during that process, find ways to win.
On Andrew Mukuba’s INT
Sirianni reiterated comments he made previously about Mukuba having a knack to find the football, which is something they saw on his college tape, and it’s just something some guys have. He noted that they have guys like that at different levels of the defense, and went on to name Jalen Carter, Zack Baun, Cooper DeJean, and Reed Blankenship (“at times”).
On the tush push critiques
Sirianni noted that they work extremely hard on the tush push and it’s a play that is challenging to rep in practice, but the players do a good job simulating it. He said it all starts with the guys up front and the tight ends, but wouldn’t really elaborate more because he didn’t want to give anything away.
Some were arguing that the Eagles were false starting on the tush push Sunday against the Chiefs, but Sirianni pointed out that he’d argue Kansas City’s defense was in the neutral zone on some of those plays, too. Still, he acknowledged there’s a bit of gamesmanship on both sides, but the Eagles know they have to be perfect in the way they run the play.
“There’s something pretty cool about being able to execute a play when you know exactly what’s coming. And, it just speaks to the volume of our guys. That’s a heck of a football team, with a great defensive line.”
On Jalen Hurts’ deep throws
“I think Jalen Hurts is one of the best deep ball throwers in the NFL. I think he’s shown that. I don’t think people talk about that enough. Go back to last year, and all those fourth downs that went vertical — whether that was in the Browns game in a four-minute, or whether that was in a Giants game on a fourth down, or the Super Bowl on a fourth down that ended up coming back. There’s all this nitpicking on Jalen, but no one talks about all that. He’s unbelievable at throwing the deep ball, which ends up helping set up things underneath.”
Sirianni went on to talk about the connection Hurts has with his receivers, specifically DeVonta Smith, and they were both able to make a play that was really impactful on Sunday. He quipped it’s also no secret that Smith is good at football — which he’s proven time and again.
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