The Eagles head coach reflected one more time on their season opener, and talked about Jalen Hurts’ mentality, the OL duo of Mehki Becton and Cam Jurgens, and a whole lot more.
The Eagles are back in Philly, and while they have a mini-bye week heading into Week 2, head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters on Monday for another recap of their win over the Packers. He talked about Jalen Hurts’ mentality, how Mehki Becton and Cam Jurgens fared in their new roles, what he saw from Zack Baun, and a whole lot more.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On Jalen Hurts’ performance and approach
The head coach talked about how great it is to have a quarterback who can move past mistakes so quickly and still be successful, rather than get caught up in a downward spiral.
“Jalen was so calm and cool in that area. Yeah, he’s definitely going to want plays back. We all do. He was solely in the moment of ‘How do we go close this game? We had a two-point lead. How do we go close this game?’”
Sirianni went on to say that getting the clock all the way down to 24 seconds before giving the ball back to Packers is a tough thing to do. He lauded Hurts’ shallow pass to DeVonta Smith earlier in the drive, and the slant, and was impressed with the decisions he made on second downs to continue the drive.
“Without that dog mentality, without that mental toughness that Jalen had, it would’ve been hard to close that game out. And so, again, we couldn’t have started that game any worse either. We were down 6-0. How about the mental toughness of the defense to respond with a short field to stop them for six points?
How about the mental toughness of Jalen to put us up 7-6 when we couldn’t have had a worse first quarter to start our season as an offense. So it just happened day in day out.”
Sirianni was asked about Hurts’ turnovers, but quickly noted he was not concerned citing the QB made a lot of good plays in the game, and they’ll continue to work on taking care of the football.
“There was a fourth down throw that he made, 4th-and-3, where I thought he made a really good throw to keep the drive alive on our two-minute drive at the end of the half to DeVonta. So he made a lot of good plays.
Listen, we all have a lot of things to clean up: Myself, coaches included. We have a lot of things to clean up that we want to do better. But, just in those scenarios, being able to take what the defense gives us is going to be probably the main coaching point that we talk to him about.’
On the offensive line
Sirianni said that Mehki Becton and Cam Jurgens did a nice job. He noted that Becton is so big that he was just controlling guys on Friday night.
“He was controlling them at the line of scrimmage and there wasn’t a lot of pushback into Jalen [Hurts’] face because he is so big and so long that he was able to control there. So, I thought he did a really nice job, particularly in the pass game, of keeping the pocket firm inside.”
He also said Jurgens had some really nice plays, and he worked really well with Landon Dickerson and Becton getting to that second level. The head coach pointed to Saquon Barkley’s TD run where it looks like Becton and Jurgens are working a combination block to open up the lane.
“And, obviously, any time you put the ball on the ground two times, there is a miscommunication there. We can’t put the ball on the ground two times. Cam and Jalen touched the ball on every down, so we have to make sure we’re taking care of that football.”
On Zack Baun’s performance
“I think one real good shot of [Baun’s] incredible motor was when he came off the edge on a play, and they threw a little bubble screen to their running back and he peeled off. Then Reed Blankenship made the guy cut back in and Zack came and hit him right on the side and got a hit in on the ball that jarred it a little bit.
Guy did a good job hanging on to the football. But I think that was a great example of how he’s played throughout camp and why we mentioned it during camp. And then that shows up during the game. A great indicator of how you’re going to play in games is how you practice. You know, he’s been relentless to the football. Relentless effort. That really showed up. That showed up with a lot of production in this game on Friday night.”
On the defense’s performance
Sirianni admitted that one area they need to clean up is their tackling. He explained that they worked a lot during camp about not giving up extra yards, but it’s something they have to keep working on and be diligent about.
“I thought [DE] Brandon Graham did an awesome job of controlling the line of scrimmage with his hands and knocking the tight end back. There were definitely performances there. They got some push on us at times as well that led to some of those rushing yards.
But, at the end of the day, we have to tackle better than we did on Friday night.”
Other notables
- As for how they’ll handle Barkley’s workload throughout the season, Sirianni said that it’s more of something they’ll manage during the week at practice. They expect each week’s game plan to change, so there will be games when A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, or Dallas Goedert get the heavy hand and Barkley will get a little bit of a break – so as far as game management, the head coach said that will work itself out throughout the season.
- Sirianni was asked about Bryce Huff getting fewer snaps than Brandon Graham and Nolan Smith, but the head coach explained that’s just how things went on Friday, and it was only a couple snaps different, not a lot. He said they don’t have any concerns about him or how he’ll impact the defense, it’s just how things ended up in Week 1.
- The head coach wouldn’t go into detail about why the Brotherly Shove wasn’t as successful for the Eagles in Week 1, but noted that Jurgens will use some of the secrets that made Jason Kelce so great at it. Some of the circumstances in Friday’s game made it more difficult for them to convert with that play, but he has confidence that they’ll be able to clean it up.
- Sirianni had a really long answer about whether he would consider playing starters in the preseason moving forward, but really just reiterated things he’s said throughout the offseason. It all depends on many factors, but notably making sure their players are available for the long duration of the season. They work really hard at practice, and ultimately, he felt comfortable that the team had gotten enough work in to compete and win against a good opponent.
