Nick Sirianni on Loss to Jacksonville Jaguars

[0:01] Nick, the decision not to kick the ball out of bounds at the end. [0:05] Can you take us through your thoughts on this list there? [0:07] You know, our guys fought their butts off today. [0:11] Defense had an outstanding game, keeping us in that game. [0:15] Offense did enough at the end to go win us that game. [0:18] Special teams did a nice job kicking it there. [0:22] You know, I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game. [0:25] And that's what I said to our guys. [0:26] And what hurts there is that, you know, the guys fought so hard. [0:33] And then I don't make the decision that, you know, that I should make it that end of the game. [0:38] And I cost us that game, and I put that fully on me. [0:41] I know there's reasoning behind every decision you do make, though. [0:44] So in that moment, what is the thought process from what you planned, what you practiced? [0:48] Like, what is the decision? [0:49] Yeah, I'm not going to go too much into that. [0:51] But, you know, I don't really want to get into exactly what that is. [0:57] At the end of the day, I didn't make the right decision, and it cost us the game. [1:01] You know, and so there's no other way around it. [1:04] There's nothing really else to say about that. [1:06] It's just, you know, I didn't do my job good enough in that situation. [1:11] Typically, you'd like to kick a game-winning field goal with no seconds left. [1:14] Did you think you could have done something before the kickoff, you know, to have a game? [1:19] Well, they were in some – you would like to have it with three seconds left. [1:27] And, you know, in that situation, we – you know, they used their timeouts. [1:33] We ran the ball at the end. [1:35] You know, you'd love to pick up a first down there and be able to call a timeout, [1:39] grandfather timeout, meaning call it at about five seconds. [1:43] They stopped us there, and we weren't able to do that. [1:45] But, you know, so in that situation, you know, them have – holding on to their timeouts [1:52] helped them to get that last play, but it should have never came down to that. [1:55] They don't have, like, just, like, knelt, you know what I'm saying, [1:58] like just held the ball for a while instead of clapping. [2:00] Yeah, but you don't want to lose too many yards there. [2:02] I mean, it's still a long field goal. [2:05] And so, yeah, that could be something that you would do. [2:08] But when you do that, Jeff, you typically – when you – because there's going to be [2:14] push on the inside, you're probably going to lose two, three, four yards in that [2:18] situation when you do that. [2:20] And that wasn't in our thought process at that particular time because of the [2:23] being able to lose yards. [2:24] Nick, I know there are some decisions situationally that are black and white. [2:28] Was this one of those based on the situation, or was there some gray area with this [2:31] not being? [2:32] There's always – football, we want football to be as black and white as we possibly can, [2:37] but there's gray in it, right? [2:40] You know, there is gray in it. [2:41] Like I said, guys, like, there's really nothing else to say. [2:45] I didn't make the decision, the right decision in that situation. [2:49] They returned it to where they returned it, and then they made a kick. [2:54] You know, credit to them on that. [2:56] And, you know, again, you know, bad job by me. [3:00] I know you watch a lot of other games around the league and try to learn from what [3:03] happens in those games. [3:04] Did the Dallas-Baltimore game – [3:06] Yeah, I watched a ton of those. [3:07] I watched a ton of those situations in – you know, obviously we had one against [3:14] Tennessee. [3:15] You know, I watched a ton of those situations after that Dallas game, and again, just [3:20] didn't make the right decision in this particular case. [3:22] What are the emotions like for you after a game like that, especially when, you know, [3:26] there is such a decision there that might have swayed it one way or the other? [3:29] Yeah, it hurts because in the sense of the guys fought their ass off and, you know, [3:34] had a chance to win the game. [3:36] And then for me to not make the right decision in that, you feel like you let everyone down. [3:41] It's just like you would feel if you missed a free throw at the end of the game or if [3:46] you had a drop. [3:46] I've been in both of those places. [3:48] And those ones stick with you, and that will stick with me for a long time. [3:54] All I know is that I'll work my butt off to get better from it. [3:59] But, yeah, that one will hurt for a long time. [4:02] I still think about those other things that have – I've lost games for us in the past [4:08] as far as, you know, when I played a long time ago. [4:12] So, yeah, that's going to hurt for a while. [4:15] But I'm going to put my chest out. [4:17] I'm going to stick my head up, and I'm going to get better from it. [4:20] I'm going to own it and move forward. [4:23] And if I can take it to the stroke of halftime, there was some outstanding defending on your [4:28] own line, particularly a tackle by Andrew McCumbo on Brenton Strange, world-class tackle. [4:35] Do you think that was going to give you the inspiration at halftime that lift to really drive on [4:39] then in the second half? [4:40] Yeah, you know, there was a lot of energy throughout the game, particularly on that stop. [4:46] And then a lot of energy on that stop that we had on, you know, goal to go at the end [4:54] of the fourth quarter as well. [4:56] Yeah, and it's a game of momentum, you know, and it's a game of can you put good plays behind [5:03] you and put bad plays behind you and play the next play? [5:07] We knew they were going to be able to do that. [5:08] Obviously, there was a lot of momentum going into halftime, but we knew there was a whole [5:12] second half to play. [5:14] And like I said, our defense fought throughout the game and proud of the way they played today. [5:20] If you continue to struggle, particularly in the second half, what do you attribute that [5:24] most to? [5:25] Yeah, you know, I know we played it a little bit different today than how we have. [5:33] And, you know, obviously, it wasn't it wasn't quite good enough. [5:37] So we have to look at ourselves as coaches first. [5:40] How do we get ourselves and put our guys in position to succeed? [5:44] And then it's an exit. [5:45] And then it's with execution. [5:46] It's never just one thing. [5:49] But we got to figure out our second half offense because we put together some nice first half [5:54] offense and have a lot of opportunities to put the game away. [5:57] And we haven't been able to do that again today. [6:00] It shouldn't have mattered if I do the right thing there. [6:05] But, you know, you know, we got to figure that out in the long. [6:09] We got to get better at that because that's going to bite us in the butt, continue to bite [6:13] us in the butt if we don't. [6:14] I think you talked to us about adversely this week. [6:17] Sorry, you talked to us a lot about adversely this week. [6:19] And, you know, I doubt your players may have faced as much as they have this week. [6:23] They've had to listen to the media speculate that the Eagles are ready to give up on the [6:27] season. [6:27] They've had to deal with the loss of so many key players. [6:30] It's a tough loss to take today. [6:32] And nobody likes to talk about moral victories. [6:34] But what positives can you take home back to the U.S. today and going forward for the rest [6:39] of the season? [6:40] I think you have a team that's together. [6:42] And I think you have an extremely mentally tough, physically tough football team that [6:47] fought and played their butts off. [6:51] So, you know, those are the positives, right? [6:54] We'll have to watch the tape and see, you know, there's obviously going to be other things. [6:58] But, you know, I just thought the guys fought like crazy, you know, and picked themselves [7:05] up after, you know, last week's tough loss. [7:08] But, you know, so that's why you'd like for the game to go the other way. [7:11] But, you know, it didn't. [7:12] On the kickoff, you're focusing on the decision. [7:14] But on the play, what broke down? [7:16] Yeah, I'll have to look at that, Zach. [7:18] You know, in those scenarios, you know, when you are going to kick it deep, you put three [7:22] guys, you know, I don't want to get too much into it. [7:25] But you've got to put some guys in at safety to make sure it doesn't get out. [7:31] I'll have to look at the play. [7:33] But I should never put them in that situation. [7:34] It's clear some of the personnel was different there because of injuries. [7:38] Did that affect you guys? [7:40] No, no. [7:41] Everybody that's on that field, we have total faith in. [7:46] And like I said, should have never got to that. [7:49] And I take full responsibility for that. [7:51] Why is it so important for you to take accountability in front of the team? [7:54] I mean, I think it's so important for every person to take accountability because that's [8:02] the only way you get better. [8:04] And you build trust that way. [8:10] I just think that's the key core value to our program, accountability. [8:18] So, you know, again, just like the way that went and my decision went there. [8:23] Yeah, it was a great atmosphere. [8:31] I wish I was coming in here in a better mood, but a great atmosphere. [8:38] And, you know, I've only been in two international games as a coach here in Brazil, and both were [8:47] awesome. [8:48] Everything about it, first class, appreciative to London to be the host that they were. [8:55] And, yeah, I was appreciative of all the Eagles fans that traveled because it was loud. [9:00] You could see that they had some issues, you know, handling some of that noise in that [9:06] game. [9:07] So, you know, I think the crowd was definitely on our side. [9:10] If I can just follow up, Nick, because you tell us all the time that these decisions are [9:13] not made in the moment. [9:15] Did you follow the pre-established rules that you had? [9:16] Like, was the process what you wanted in that situation? [9:18] Yeah, again, like I said, not going to get too much into that. [9:21] Obviously, if I followed it, you know, if I followed it, the process, then obviously that [9:29] turns out to be the wrong decision. [9:31] If I didn't follow it, you know, then obviously that was the wrong to say. [9:35] Either way, I'm wrong. [9:36] And that's all I'll say about that. [9:39] All right. [9:39] Thanks, folks.