Red-Zone Inconsistency Sinks Eagles Against Explosive Chiefs
PHILADELPHIA - If you're looking for the difference in what was a 42-30 Eagles loss to Kansas City on Sunday, the most obvious one was the explosive Chiefs offense which featured five Patrick Mahomes touchdown passes, three of them to Tyreek Hill, and 200 yards rushing.
Peel the onion back, however, and you'll find red-zone defense where Kansas City managed to put up a fight on occasion despite allowing 461 total yards to Philadelphia's offense.
Between the 20s Jalen Hurts and Co. often moved the football with impunity but once the space got a little tighter things got tougher.
It started on the opening drive where a Hurts misfire to Zach Ertz on what should have been a touchdown resulted in a 3rd-and-8 from the Chiefs' 16- yard line. The QB scrambled for five yards on the play creating with the analytics community calls a green-light situation, especially against the K.C. kind of offense where field goals aren't going to cut it.
Sirianni, usually more conservative than not, took too long to make the decision and get the play in on a 4th-and-3 play forcing Hurts to call a timeout. With time to rethink Sirianni took the easy way out and a 29-yard Jake Elliott field goal.
The early 3-0 advantage was wiped out quickly when the Chiefs got the football for the first time and took eight plays to go 77 yards.
“I was trying to get the ball snapped,” Hurts said. “We ran out of time, so I ended up using a timeout. ... It was an assumed delay of game, [whether] we probably would’ve went for it or probably wouldn’t have, it happened the way it happened.”
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Sirianni took the blame for the misstep.
“I didn’t get the call in quick enough," the coach admitted, "and once we got to that, I thought it was important that we got points on the board at that particular time. I thought it would be too much of a momentum swing if they stopped us on fourth-and-3, so I decided to kick the field goal.”
The red zone has been a bit of a bugaboo early in the season for Sirianni especially against San Francisco in Week 2 when he faltered with the so-called "Philly Unspecial" that drastically shifted momentum in what turned into a 17-11 setback.
Against the Chiefs, some of the play calls were also head-scratchers eliciting the occasional boo or two from fans in attendance.
Kenny Gainwell celebrates a 7-yard TD run against the Chiefs
A swing pass to Miles Sanders, that was announced in the press box as a rush, never had a chance in the second quarter and a third-and-goal in the third quarter where Hurts didn't even seem to have a real option stood out.
A potential TD to Ertz was also wiped out by J.J. Arcega-Whiteside not flashing enough subtlety on a rub route.
"They thought that he pushed him downfield, and they thought it was [OPI]," Sirianni said. "You know what, they have a tough job. The referees have a tough job, we have a tough job, the players have a tough job. They're trying to get it right. I know they're trying to get it right. They are trying to do their best to get it right. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
"I'm not saying one way or the other if they got that right. I'll keep my opinion to myself. But they have a tough job just like all of us."
There were successes as well, particularly dialing up a Kenny Gainwell run on 3rd-and-goal from the 7-yard line that cashed in.
"I think we were 5-for-6 before this game today. We had the one in San Francisco where we weren't good enough. (Sunda) 3-of-6. When you're playing a team like that, you have to convert there," Sirianni said.
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So what are the issues?
"It’s everything. It's the plays I'm calling. It's the lack of execution. I'll always have it start with me," the coach said. "When the plays don't work, that's on me. I have to call better plays. I have to put our guys in better positions to win."
Against a team as effective as Kansas City is on offense, near perfection is needed and the margin of error was just too small for the Eagles.
"Everyone is going to look at themselves on all those plays too and say, ‘I could have done that better on this play. I could have done this better on this play.’ It’s the greatest team sport there is," Sirianni said. "It starts with me. The plays that didn't work, that's on me. I have to come up with a better scheme and put the guys in position to make a play."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and 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
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
