Nick Sirianni on Eagles Week 12 loss: ‘You can’t turn the ball over four times and expect to win’

Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters after the team’s 13-7 loss to the Giants on Sunday afternoon, and talked a bit about their offensive game plan heading into the matchup, what DeVonta Smith said to him on the sideline ahead of the final play, and his thoughts on the performances by Jalen Reagor and Jalen Hurts.

He was very quick to point to all the turnovers, and their major impact on the game.

“You can’t turn the ball over four times and expect to win. When you lose the turnover battle four to nothing, I mean, nothing good is going to come from that.”

Here’s what else the head coach had to say:

On their offensive game plan Sunday

Sirianni said the plan was to try and run the ball like they had been, and he thought overall they ran the ball well against the Giants. He also noted that their plan was to protect the football, not create short fields, and then be able to hit some of their play-action chunks. The head coach admitted they did one of those things well, and the other two things weren’t done well enough.

He was later asked whether he felt they got away from the run game a bit when Hurts started struggling later in the game, and Sirianni acknowledged they did a little due to some things they saw in the play-action and drop-back game that they wanted to try and expose. They got into some 2nd-and-long situations, and tried some other things, but ultimately yes, he admitted they did get too far away from the run.

On DeVonta Smith and the last play

Before the last play of the game, Smith was seen saying something to Sirianni on the sideline. The head coach revealed that the wide receiver wanted the ball and admitted he loves the fact that the wide receiver wants the ball in crunch time and respects that he was willing to put the game on his shoulders.

The Giants were playing 2-man in that scenario, so unfortunately, the type of play Smith wanted wasn’t going to be good. Sirianni said they had to do what they thought was the best option at the time with the coverages they were given, but they didn’t execute.

Sirianni was also asked if he saw Smith open on that play, despite the ball going toward Jalen Reagor, and he said that he did see the WR put his hand up out of the scramble, but didn’t know where the safety was. That’ll be something he looks at when he watches the tape. The head coach went on to say that Smith wasn’t open on the initial part of the play, so it was definitely off the scramble if that was the case.

On Jalen Reagor’s performance

“Obviously, in that scenario right there, he made a really good play at the end of the first half. He’s gonna want the one at the end of the game, but it never comes down to one play. We turned it over four times, right? So there’s a lot of other things at play there. I know he’s going to want that one back, I know where you’re going there with the question, and he’s going to want that one at the end of the game back. I didn’t see if anyone got a hand in on it. I didn’t see if anyone grabbed his arm at the end of the play. But, he’s going to want that one back.

We gotta do some things to get him some touches, because he is an explosive player — we missed him on a fourth down play on a slant that I thought he ran a pretty good route on —, but right now he’s not having a ton of production and that’s a little bit based on how we’re playing on offense. But, we’re going to need him as we continue through the stretch.”

Sirianni went on to say that there’s no doubt that Reagor is explosive enough to have a bigger role with his play-making ability. The WR is one of their fastest guys, one of their quickest guys, one of their strongest guys, so they do want to make sure they’re getting him some more touches. He admitted that the ways they’ve been trying to get him the ball — on reverses, arounds, jet sweeps, screens — haven’t been working, so they have to find a different way to do it.

On Jalen Hurts’ performance and decision-making

The head coach admitted that turning the ball over three times means the QB didn’t play well enough, but he also said that they didn’t coach well enough, and it’s never on just one guy.

“We’re going to look through that tape, and we’re going to have to make those corrections from that tape, but when you turn the ball over three times — again, there’s different things at play there, but not a winning performance.”

Sirianni said that Hurts had an ankle issue when he was seen limping off the field a little bit, but they got it taped up and it’s something they’ll evaluate. But, the QB was a little bit hobbled at the end of the game.

Other notables

• As for the messaging after the loss, Sirianni pointed out that they try and keep it consistent whether it’s a win or loss — they have to stick to their fundamentals, keep the energy and level of detail high at practice throughout the week, and continue to improve each day.
• The head coach said that he was happy with how the defense played on Sunday, but unfortunately, football is the ultimate team game, so it wasn’t enough to get them a win.
• Miles Sanders wasn’t in for the last series after suffering either an ankle or foot injury — Sirianni wasn’t sure exactly what the problem was, he hadn’t spoken to the medical staff prior to meeting with reporters. The RB did take one more carry after coming off the field, but Boston Scott stepped up after that.