Nick Sirianni shows accountability for poor play-calling in Eagles’ loss to 49ers

The Eagles are now 1-1 after a tough loss to the 49ers in Week 2, and we had a chance to hear from head coach Nick Sirianni following the game who talked about some of his play calling decisions, what his message to the team was, and what he saw from Jalen Hurts.

Sirianni said that they are “fearful” for Brandon Graham’s injury, so he didn’t want to say for sure whether they’d be without him. He also said he’s still getting information on Brandon Brooks’ injury, obviously he didn’t return to the game, but they are still getting information.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

On the missed TD opportunity early on

Sirianni was asked why they didn’t call a QB sneak after the 91-yard gain by Quez Watkins, and the head coach noted that he didn’t think they were close enough to the endzone for a sneak, but also admitted the play calling wasn’t good.

“I don’t think I called good plays in that area. There’s gonna be times you’re going to look at, and be like, ‘yeah, I want those calls back,’ so when they work it was a good play, they didn’t. It was my fault. I didn’t call good enough plays right there. I didn’t put the players in good enough positions, but we’re all in this together — coaches and players.”

The head coach went on to give the 49ers defensive coordinator credit for some of the false looks they were giving and for the coverage they called. He also noted that the play looked good in practice this week, but Sirianni admits he’d like to have that call back — especially in a close game when they’re near the endzone.

“I have to call a better play.”

On his message to the team

Sirianni said that his message after the game was similar to his message after Week 1’s win: they have to get ready for Round 3, regardless of whether they won or lost, they have to put themselves in a position to win next week’s division game and go out this week and practice hard.

“Obviously, there’s disappointment. We didn’t win the game, and that’s the only goal. Don’t care how you ever win it, you just want to win the game. It was though, ‘learn from this, get up, pick yourself up, and get back to work for next week’.”

On Jalen Hurts’ performance

Without watching the tape, Sirianni said that Hurts made some big plays with his feet, and it’s always a fine line between throwing it on rhythm and extending plays if somethings not there. He acknowledged that sometimes the 49ers defense did a good job covering it, but overall he felt Hurts played well. The head coach also gave credit to the offensive line and to Hurts scrambling to keep a good pass rush to just one sack on the day.

On Jalen Reagor’s negated TD

“Saving room on the sideline with how you release, that’s the main thing right there is how you release to save some room on the sideline, so even if you get bumped you don’t get pushed out. So, he was probably a little closer than what we like. I thought he made a great play, obviously his foot was out — the referees did a good job officiating that.”

Other notables

• Sirianni explained calling a timeout with five minutes left, and noted that they wanted to be sure they had enough time to drive down the field and get the ball back. He said Hurts did a good job on that drive to score late in the game, so it was about saving enough time to put them in the position to have two possessions.
• The head coach was asked about K’Von Wallace’s forced fumble, and he admitted that he was watching live and there wasn’t any replay, so he has to trust what the officials saw and called. He noted that the tape won’t lie and he’ll be able to tell what happened once he gets a chance to see the film.
• Sirianni said that he felt the defense did a good job keeping San Francisco to just 17 points, and the offense just didn’t capitalize on some of their early opportunities. He felt like the game may have gone differently had they gone up 10-0 in the first half instead of playing from behind.