The Eagles head coach acknowledged that the details and fundamentals from the whole team were not up to their standard on Sunday against the Bucs.
Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters following their loss in Tampa Bay, and he once again took responsibility for the team’s failings, and shared some of his plan for the upcoming bye week.
“We obviously didn’t start well… I mean, down 24 to nothing to start things off. Obviously, no excuse for that. We didn’t come out — we didn’t coach well enough, and we didn’t play well enough.”
When asked about the sloppy and undisciplined play on Sunday, Sirianni admitted that whenever they go out there and lay an egg, and get down 24 to nothing, it’s going to ultimately be on him for not getting the team prepared.
“But, our fundamentals weren’t what we needed them to be. We’ll make sure we’re working hard on that. Bye week’s coming at a good time. We gotta get our bodies right, and we gotta make some changes as far as what’s going on fundamentally.
Early on in the game, I thought we had some missed tackles, thought we had a couple drops, and those are gonna stop drives, and those are gonna extend drives. That’s where we gotta — it’s gonna have to start with fundamentals, and looking at what kind of positions we’re putting guys in.”
Sirianni explained Saquon Barkley only having two carries in the first half, pointing out that they only had nine total offensive snaps, three of which were third downs. He acknowledged that when you’re going three-and-out, no one is getting touches, and they’re not sustaining drives. As he continued to elaborate, eventually he just reiterated that they didn’t coach well enough and didn’t play well enough.
As for losing the turnover battle in each of the four games this season, Sirianni waved off concerns about Jalen Hurts’ pocket presence, and noted that the strip sack wasn’t really the QB’s fault because he was beginning to throw — later explaining that coaching points for protecting the ball involve two hands, which you’re not doing as you throw.
“At the end of the day, it’s a team game and it’s on all of us. To be minus six [in the turnover battle], we all own that, all of us are responsible, starting with me as the head football coach. And that’s that, because minus six is on offense and defense, and so if we’re not taking the ball away enough, well enough, and we’re not protecting it well enough, then look no further than me.”
So, that specifically isn’t a concern, but overall he felt like the details and fundamentals throughout the team weren’t up to their standard. They plan to look at all the turnovers during the bye week and figure out how to improve on that moving forward.
The head coach said he plans to take a hard look at everything this week, including making sure they’re doing the right things at practice. They’ll do a deep dive, not only into the scheme, but all look at how they’re doing to help the guys get better fundamentally.
As for what he wants to look into first, Sirianni said that the offense hasn’t scored on any of their opening drives this season, and getting out to a faster start is going to be a priority. He’ll take a look at everything, including the plays being called, how they’re playing, and what they can do at practice to simulate different scenarios.
