Nick Sirianni’s Eagles Are Connecting and Accelerating at the Right Time
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If you ask Nick Sirianni what he’d remember most from the weekend, his Eagles sure gave him a lot of things to choose from. He could take the 41-yard touchdown pass that DeVonta Smith snatched away from Giants safety Julian Love, or the way A.J. Brown beat Giants corner Nick McCloud for a 33-yard touchdown. Or he could go to Miles Sanders’s 40-yard touchdown to seal Philadelphia’s 48–22 victory. Or the three sacks Brandon Graham posted.
But my guess is he might actually pick a moment from before the game.
And that moment took place at the team’s Saturday-night meeting at the hotel. For the second time this year, Sirianni ceded the floor to a player—he’d done so previously with Graham before the Dallas game—by calling Darius Slay up to the front of the room, and Slay didn’t disappoint.
Slay told the team on Saturday night that he wanted to play his best game for former Giant and now Eagles teammate James Bradberry.
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“He was just talking about how much it meant to him that he plays his best game for [former Giants corner] James Bradberry,” Sirianni told me Sunday night after returning to Philly. “He felt like, Hey, this is his former team. They let him go. And he wanted to go out and do his job to the best of his abilities for James. And he wanted James to play his best, too.”
And that brought Sirianni back to a picture that’s still hanging prominently in the Eagles’ facility today, from the last time they had played the Giants at the Meadowlands—in it, Jalen Hurts has his hands on his knees after throwing an incompletion to end a 13–7 loss, and left tackle Jordan Mailata is standing over the top of him with his hand on his shoulder.
“[Moments like that] happen all the time here,” Sirianni says. “I’m just thinking about what Slay talked about last night, and then also just that picture is a great reminder of what this team is. They’re there for each other. They don’t want to let each other down. And they’re there to pick each other up when times aren’t good.”
Right now, times are very, very good for the 12–1 Eagles. And Sirianni doesn’t think it’s an accident that those other moments flowed into Sunday’s rout of the Giants, which very clearly proved the Eagles are the class of a much-improved NFC East.
Whether or not Mailata picking up Hurts in that moment last year, or Slay wanting to play his best Sunday for Bradberry had anything to do with it, there was very little denying the Eagles’ absolute dominance. It was 21–0 less than a quarter and a half into the game. The Eagles doubled up the Giants (253–123) in rushing yards. They held a 217–93 edge in scrimmage yards in the first half. They were pulling starters with more than five minutes left. They had big plays on offense and defense.
And that they did it coming off a 35–10 beatdown of the Titans—that was the Brown revenge game—giving them consecutive thorough routs of teams with winning records. Those wins go against any notion that the Eagles may lack the ceiling of the 49ers (pre-quarterback injuries, at least), Bills or Chiefs.
“I think it just says that we’re accelerating. We’re getting better as the season goes, which is exactly what you want,” Sirianni says. “There are so many teams that we see so much and in so many years where they start off really hot and then they collapse, or vice versa. And so you want to be just getting better. I think that’s our mindset.”
Which is where, again, he comes back to the relationships he and his staff have built with the players, and the players have built with one another.
To best illustrate that, Sirianni repeatedly raised the word “connect” as the Eagles’ first core value. And that starts with a team that likes being around one another and their work.
“One of the first things we talk about is that it’s gotta be fun when guys come in here,” Sirianni says. “Now, we need to work and we’re going to be very diligent in our work. And it’s going to be very detailed. But when it’s time to have fun, we’re going to have fun. So what does that mean? We have a basketball hoop in the building where they get to shoot with each other in between meetings. We play music when they go into the meetings. The building has pictures of them, the current players, up.
“We have a great game room in our locker room where they get to hang with each other. So they are having fun when they come in there. We try to make practice fun, like in the sense of, We’re working, but there’s going to be compete periods where things are on the line. So you’re competing while you’re having fun. Again, we’re playing a game. I'm 41 years old and I’m still on a team. I mean, how awesome is that? It should be fun.”
And for the Eagles, to this point, 2022 certainly has been enjoyable.
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Lawrence and the Cowboys' defense held the Texans out of the end zone on four plays, giving the ball back to the offense, which drove 98 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
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The Cowboys were considerably less impressive than the Eagles on Sunday.
Facing the 1-10-1 Texans, they went into the half trailing 20–17 and fell behind 23–17 by the end of the third quarter. And in the last few minutes of regulation, it looked like they might actually lose the game—Texans corner Tremon Smith picked off Dak Prescott with 5:37 left to give Houston a first-and-goal from the Dallas 4-yard line up 23–20. A touchdown there would have made it difficult for the Cowboys to come back.
So in a certain way, we learned more about the Cowboys (10–3) in their 27–23 win than we otherwise might have.
What do I mean by that? Well, really, a blowout of the Texans wouldn’t do much other than confirm a bunch of things we already knew. The way things actually played out generated a nice learning experience for the players and good information for the rest of us. And if you want that confirmed, you can listen to what the Dallas defensive guys themselves were saying in the huddle before the Texans’ offense got lined up.
“I was just letting the guys know, ‘Man, it’s now or never. This stop right here will solidify if we’re gonna win or lose. Just buckle down and get ready to play,’” defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence told me. “I saw it in everybody’s eyes, man. We were waiting for this moment. The game didn’t start off how we wanted it to, but just being able to go out there and have your brothers to fight by your side for 60 minutes straight—that’s all we can ask for.”
They got a whole lot more on those four crucial snaps.
On first down, end Sam Williams and linebacker Leighton Vander Esch met Rex Burkhead in the backfield and dropped him for a one-yard loss, moving the ball back to the five-yard line.
On second down, Jeff Driskel, platooning with Davis Mills at quarterback, bootlegged to his right and found Chris Moore in the flat in front of him. Dallas’s Carlos Watkins ran down Moore from behind and dropped him just short of the goal line.
“That’s just the will of our defense, man,” says Lawrence of the stop. “Not trying to bend or break for anything—we go out there and play our style of football. Through the blessings of God, man, we got the stop. That’s all I can really say.”
Third down was even more dramatic, with Lawrence’s bursting into the backfield and burying Burkhead to move the ball back to the Dallas 3.
“From my perspective, I mean, it’s goal line,” Lawrence says. “They’re gonna go for it regardless. I just put a move on the offensive lineman, got in the backfield. And they ran it to my side, and I made a play.”
And then came fourth down, and what Lawrence and the Cowboys saw as a crucial mistake by the Houston staff. That Driskel was in the game, first and foremost, was a tell that the Texans planned to involve the quarterback in the run scheme. That they didn’t have anyone release into a pass route at the snap basically confirmed it and allowed for every defender on the field to play the run.
“I mean, they messed up on their play call,” Lawrence says.
Neville Gallimore and Anthony Barr benefited from that, getting a bead on Driskel taking the keeper, and then bringing him down after a yard gain, two shy of the goal line. That gave the offense the extra possession it needed.
“We think it’s just a testament to let the offense know—we had Cooper Rush’s back, and we’ve got Dak’s, too,” Lawrence says. “I mean, when you’re in these types of situations, you can’t shy away from greatness and you gotta continue to chase it. I’m just glad that we came out with the dub.”
Prescott helped deliver it from there by piloting an 11-play, 98-yard drive that gave the Cowboys a 27–23 lead and the Texans just 41 seconds—effectively ending the game. And what the goal line stand, and that drive, showed everyone was that the Cowboys can still win on a day when their A-game has escaped them.
What they’re left with now, then, going forward, is a defense that’s really putting it all together around coordinator Dan Quinn and star linebacker Micah Parsons. It may not just be a sidecar to the offense anymore.
In fact, when I asked Lawrence whether this is the best defense he’s played on, he wasted no time answering.
“Most definitely,” he says. “We’ve got more chemistry and attention to detail. We love the game, and I feel like our bond just continues to grow. So we’ll see where we end up.”
To get wherever that is, the Cowboys know they’ll have to play better.
But, again, there was plenty to take from being just good enough Sunday.
The Panthers have won three of their past four games under Wilks, who hopes to get a second chance as a head coach after being fired after one season with the Cardinals.
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Steve Wilks knows it when he looks out at his Panthers—there’s a real future for the group they have and a reason why there was no fire sale in Charlotte ahead of the trade deadline a little over a month ago.
“No question,” Wilks told me from the team plane Sunday night. “We’ve felt like we’ve got a core base. There was a lot of speculation about [Brian] Burns and what we could get for him, and there’s no way in the world we were gonna trade him. You just mentioned Burns, Derrick Brown, Jeremy Chinn. We got Jaycee Horn. That’s what it’s all about. I know Shaq [Thompson] is an older veteran, but he’s still a big part of what we’re doing.”
“We got a strong nucleus that we can continue to build around, so there’s a lot of promise for the future.”
And then there’s the rub—Wilks has no idea whether he’ll be part of it.
So he’s trying to live in the present and, all of a sudden, the present in Carolina isn’t so bad anymore. On Sunday, the Panthers, again, found a way, outlasting a good Seattle team 30–24 on the road.
The win was the Panthers’ third in four games. It also pulled Carolina (5–8) within a game of the Buccaneers (6–7) in the NFC South. And, yes, Wilks’s crew really is in contention only because of the state of that division. But that they’re in any race is pretty good, considering where they were a month ago. Matt Rhule was fired, the coaching staff was reworked and a game of musical chairs at quarterback commenced.
Even better, what happened Sunday looked like absolutely zero fluke, which Wilks pointed out in his own way when I asked what made him most proud of the team in Seattle.
“I will say this—I’ve built this team since I’ve taken over, so everything we do starts up front, and we’re trying to create a mentality of smash-mouth, run-the-ball football,” Wilks says. “I know this is a pass-happy league, but the way we ran the ball today, and the time of possession, is phenomenal. And people don’t understand, and they’re like, O.K., this is not the sexy NFL. You know what’s f---ing sexy? Winning, and how you get that done.”
If you wanted the perfect picture of the Panthers’ unsexy-sexy approach, you got it like an uppercut in the fourth quarter. They got the ball up 27–17 with 6:17 left. And the play selection from there went like this: run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, with four of those runs bolstered by tackle Cam Erving moving over to tight end to essentially put a sixth lineman on the field.
When it was over, Carolina kicked a 39-yard field goal to push its lead to 30–17. Seattle was out of timeouts and getting the ball back with less than two minutes to go.
Ballgame.
And from here, the Panthers have a relatively workable slate. They get the Steelers and Lions at home, then play at the Buccaneers and Saints. Winning three of four won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible and would probably be enough to take the NFC South.
So that’s where, for now, Wilks’s focus is. He says he’s emphasized to his coaches his desire to give the players clarity and honesty in what could be an awkward situation, and believes that it’s working and apparent in the team’s starting to turn things around.
He’s also well aware that this may be his only shot at being an NFL head coach again, and that it could be over in a month regardless of how well or poorly the Panthers finish up. And that’s why he’s trying to appreciate the opportunity for what it is—the special chance to lead a team that he’s worked with for years near where he grew up.
“No question it is,” Wilks says. “Being here, from Charlotte, and having the opportunity to come back and be a part of that success that we had before, it’s definitely meaningful. But my approach with the players is the same approach that I take with myself. I’m just trying to win the day, and I’ve seen this before—Rich Bisaccia and I coached together in San Diego. And I know the tremendous job that he did last year in going to the playoffs and still not getting the job.
“So I know that is part of the deal, and I’m happy with what we’ve been able to do to keep this thing afloat. But I’m still not naive to know that you never know what’s gonna happen in this profession. I’m confident in what we’re doing as a staff, confident with what I’m doing as a head coach, but we’re gonna take it day by day and see what happens at the end.”
It’s fair to say, at this point, Wilks has acquitted himself pretty well. The Panthers outgained the Seahawks 223–46 on the ground and possessed the ball for nearly 40 of 60 minutes. Which means, for now, it’s safe to say it's Wilks’s team.
For how much longer, of course, is another question entirely.
