Eagles Preach Turnovers and are Earning Them

PHILADELPHIA - Days after Nick Sirianni balked over the idea that his team’s other-worldly turnover ratio could be at least partially tied to luck, his defensive coordinator did the same on Tuesday.

“I kind of laugh at that," said Jonathan Gannon. "That's the first time I heard it's luck,” Jonathan Gannon said. “We coach that and we have players that take the ball away. There's nothing lucky about that.”

Luck is probably a poor word to describe the Eagles’ plus-15 turnover ratio during a perfect 8-0 start to the season, a number greater than 50% better than No. 2 Baltimore, which is plus-7 through nine games.

The Eagles lead the league with 12 interceptions, which marks the most they have had after eight games since they had 12 in 2015.

The last thing coaches want to hear is the hard work done by the players and the staff boils down to some intangible, nebulous force.

The Eagles work very hard on ball security and assistant head coach Jemal Singleton has the sore hands to prove it from pounding at the football with boxing gloves at each practice. Sirianni himself lit into his team earlier this year when he thought the players were a little too cavalier during ball-security exercises.

It’s an emphasis and the results are showing up.

“Our goal every week is to be plus 2 in that turnover category,” said Sirianni, indicating Philadelphia is actually a tad below that standard which would be plus-16 at this point.

There are always outliers, though.

“I would say the Jacksonville game, I'm not sure that the five turnovers is sustainable,” the coach said. “But we plan to take care of the football. Plus-2 is a goal for a reason, because we plan to take care of the football, and we want to get at least two turnovers during the defensive game, so we definitely think that's sustainable.”

The latter is sustainable because of the playmakers added to the defense like strip-sack specialist Haason Reddick, interception-machine Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who leads the NFL with five picks, and savvy cornerback James Bradberry, who baits so well he could join the Pro Angler’s League.

“The way we come after the football, the way we get pressure on the quarterback, and the way I feel like we have some DBs back there obviously in Slay [CB Darius Slay] and James and Chauncey and Marcus [Epps] and Avonte [Maddox] that can make you pay if you make a mistake,” said Sirianni.

"That's always something that you're aware of as an offensive coach, like hey, if I make a mistake, is this guy going to be able to make us pay, and we've got guys back there that can.”

If you replace the word “luck” with “randomness” the Eagles’ coaches will start to listen a little more.

Philadelphia lost its first fumble in Week 9 at Houston.

“[Jalen Hurts] got hit from the back,” offensive coordinator Shane Steichen said. on Tuesday. “He didn't see the guy. That was a tough look for him, and sometimes that happens at the quarterback position. Especially when you're going this way and the guy is coming from blind side and you are going to throw it and the ball is up.

“Those are the tough ones.”

Gannon also noted the streaky nature of turnovers.

“I always say takeaways come in bunches,” the DC said. “You might go a couple games and not have one and all of a sudden you have a takeaway explosion. What we've done is consistently when we get - I think that's the main thing is when you do get your opportunities, do you capitalize on them? Where we dropped some last year and we had some chances, I think we're doing a good job of capitalizing on them.

“As long as you're capitalizing on your opportunities when you get them, because you don't know when they're going to come up, that stat should stay where it's at for us.”

The Eagles’ turnover luck isn't luck at all. It's earned.

“I think sometimes there's a tendency for people to think, oh, they're getting lucky in the turnover category. To me, luck has nothing to do with it,” said Sirianni. “We talk about it more than anybody. We live it. We preach it. We rep it. There are fundamentals to it. Our coaches are all over it.

"Our players are all over it. It's constantly on our mind. Nobody thinks about turning the ball over or protecting the football more than we do. I think it's sustainable because it's part of our culture and what we live and preach every single day.”

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen