Eagles’ bye week illustrated Nick Sirianni’s brilliance

The Eagles gauntlet resumes on Monday. We have to wait another day for football. The bye week already went about as bad as it could have with the Lions, 49ers, and Cowboys winning, and all three are easy favorites this week. They could kick off on Monday with all of their breathing room for the 1 seed gone. But they do have one big advantage.

Last Week In Dumb Coaching

Everyone makes dumb mistakes in life. When you’re a head coach in the NFL you can only make them for so long before you’re no longer a head coach.

I have talked about this before, one of the things that really impresses me about Nick Sirianni is how he rarely makes dumb mistakes. He’s not perfect, no one is, but in his young career none of his peers have done a better job of not harming their own team. This week, even though he didn’t coach, really highlighted that.

-Sean McDermott, praised for years for the culture he built in Buffalo, fired his offensive coordinator after his defense (literally, he is also the DC this year) allowed the Broncos to get into field goal range with 1:55 to go and then his defense and special teams screwed up and put too many men on the field. There are no goats left for him to scape. Love what Sean McDermott is building up there in Buffalo.

-Kyle Shanahan brought Christian McCaffrey back into the game up 34-3 to try to get him an 18th consecutive game with a touchdown. McCaffrey was given the ball on five straight plays, including four in a row inside the 10 where he was tackled hard on all of them. He did not get the record. This season McCaffrey is currently on pace to finish second in the league in touches, and for the second highest workload in his career, he missed 13 games in the season following his highest workload season. So sure, get him some hard earned touches that will not in any way, shape, or form help you win the Super Bowl and only increase McCaffrey’s already high risk of injury.

-Up 42-7 against the completely inept Giants, Mike McCarthy pulled Dak Prescott in the 4th quarter but kept playing CeeDee Lamb, the one skill position player who has been good this year.

-Frank Reich took back play calling after giving it up three weeks ago.

-Coaching genius Arthur Smith took the field.

Hard to see Nick Sirianni doing those things. (Well he’ll take the field, but not with a bad mustache that he shaved off then regrew.) I don’t care about Coach of the Year, any award they give Jason Garrett is meaningless. But he’s one of the best coaches in the league, in part by not doing the dumb stuff. That will get you far. You don’t go 8-1 in back to back seasons by accident.

A Salute To The Bernard Williams Era

By now you’ve read the news that the NFL fixed their glitch and cleared out reserve lists and the Eagles released Bernard Williams, who was suspended in 1995. Where were you in July of 1995? Were you even anywhere?

Here are all the players currently on the Eagles who were alive when Williams was initially suspended on July 25, 1995: Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Julio Jones, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox, Darius Slay, Bradley Roby, Rick Lovato, James Bradberry, Kevin Byard, Marcus Mariota, Haason Reddick, Zach Cunningham, Dallas Goedert, Jake Elliott, Boston Scott, and Nicholas Morrow. That’s it. Everyone else had not been born yet.

Here is a not at all complete list of things that happened during Bernard Williams’ time on the reserve list:

-Kelly Green jerseys were retired and brought back as throwbacks.

-Brian Dawkins started his NFL career and was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

-Dawkins and Donovan McNabb both started their NFL careers and had their jerseys retired by the team.

-David Akers, Trent Cole, Hugh Douglas, Jon Runyan, Tra Thomas, Jeremiah Trotter, and Brian Westbrook started their NFL careers and were inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame.

-The Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, and Houston Texans debuted.

-Super Bowl winners Doug Pederson, Mike Tomlin, and Sean McVay had yet to coach a game of football at any level anywhere.

-Nick Sirianni, Zac Taylor, Kyle Shanahan, Jim Harbaugh, and Ken Whisenhunt had yet to coach a game and reached the Super Bowl.

-Swoop was born.

-The Eagles won 17 playoff games. They reached three Super Bowls. They won the Super Bowl.

Thanks for the memories Bernard!

College Football Week 12 Watch List

Late - North Carolina vs Clemson

Possible draft QB1 Drake Maye vs the suddenly surging Tigers. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. #54 started off the season rough but has played well as of late and the idea of him in an Eagles jersey is salivating. But his LB partner Barrett Carter #0 is more the type of linebacker the Eagles prefer.

Night - Washington vs Oregon State

The Huskies are loaded with NFL talent, the Beavers are perhaps loaded with the extra motivation that they, along with Washington State, now literally own the Pac-12. Michael Penix and his WRs will get the headlines but there are three offensive tackles worth watching in this game: Washington’s LT Troy Fautanu #55 and RT Roger Rosengarten #73, and Oregon State’s RT Taliese Fuaga #75.

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