The Eagles had a short week to prepare for their Black Friday matchups against the Bears and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke with reporters one last time on Wednesday before game day. He talked about his confidence in Saquon Barkley, why it’s not just on Jalen Hurts to protect the ball against a good Bears’ defense, and why he misses C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
He wouldn’t divulge what his message to the team was this week as the cameras rolled for Hard Knocks, and just said that the team talks about everything and their attention needs to be solely focused on what they need to do. Sirianni said whether it’s Hard Knocks filming, Thanksgiving, or playing on a short week, none of it matters, they have to prepare the same as they would.
He also didn’t want to go into what the specific responsibilities were for every member of the staff, or specifically for Jeff Stoutland.
“Stout’s a huge part in what we do with everything. Whether it’s the run game, whether it’s protections, fundamental stuff, everything. We have a collaborative effort with everybody, and we won’t get into specifics of each individual person.”
Here’s what the head would talk about:
On his confidence in Saquon Barkley
“We look at how everything looks when they got the ball in their hands. I see explosiveness, I see power, I see all the things that have made [Saquon Barkley] a great football player through the NFL for the past however many years he’s been in the NFL. And, again, sometimes it’s not happening in the run game but you see that explosiveness also in the pass game, and we got a lot of guys that have the ability to do those things. So, just have to find ways to get him the ball different ways, get him in space, and that’ll be our focus.”
Sirianni was asked about why Barkley is getting hit so much earlier with the ball in his hands this season compared to last, and the head coach explained that they look at all the details of a play because it’s never just one thing. He noted it’s the ultimate team game and they have some ideas of things they can do to help get the run game going.
On C.J. Gardner-Johnson
“I love C.J. [Gardner-Johnson]. We’ve had some great times together. Been to one Super Bowl together, won another one together. I always loved the emotion that he played with, and how he went about his business. So, miss him — I miss him, and he’s playing good football.”
On the Bears defense
The head coach talked about how the Bears are No. 1 in the NFL in takeaways, but the Eagles are No. 1 in the NFL in protecting the ball. He noted that protecting the ball is always a top priority, and that they’ll have to play aggressively while also being aware that Chicago’s defense is really good at catching the ball.
Sirianni made sure to point out that it would be easy to put that responsibility solely on QB Jalen Hurts, but it’s also on the receivers to make sure they’re tight with their break points and route discipline, the protection being clean, the running back getting out into the checkdown in a timely manner, and Hurts reading the coverage and making decisions.
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