McMullen: Nick Sirianni's 'Accountability' Claim Rings Hollow as Situational Failures Mount

To know Nick Sirianni is to understand the Eagles coach’s obsession with situational football.

For that reason, Sunday’s late-game implosion in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars was the exact kind of failure Sirianni cannot afford.

In a matter of moments, Jake Elliott’s 48-yard field goal had the heavily slanted Eagles crowd in a celebratory mood, with the pubs surrounding Tottenham Hotspur Stadium preparing for the onslaught of midnight green.

To those who value results over process, Cam Little’s 57-yard bomb seven seconds later that resulted in a 19-17 Jags win meant the most sensible decision with Jacksonville out of timeouts was instructing Elliott to try for a touchback on the subsequent kickoff after his successful boot, or at least a more controlled “dirty kick” to make things tougher on veteran kick returner Ameer Abdullah.

Instead, Elliott aimed a typical kickoff directly into the landing zone, and Abdullah returned it 53 yards to the Eagles’ 39-yard line.

Had Philadelphia’s kickoff coverage executed none of this, it would not even be thought about, or never mind, discussed. There's a lot to that, though, starting with the fact that one of the Eagles' top coverage players -- Jeremiah Trotter Jr. -- was ejected for scuffling on the opening kickoff that was returned for a touchdown by Jags rookie Josh Cameron before being wiped out by offsetting penalties.

On the final kickoff, after taking the lead and needing to circumvent only eight seconds, Arnold Ebiketie was a little loose with his lane discipline, and Abdullah burst through the gap. Ultimately, fate took over from there when Jonathan Jones caught the speedy running back, but he did it one second too soon.

An empty feeling

A Philadelphia Eagles fan holds a sign during Sunday's game calling for the team to fire head coach Nick Sirianni. — Philadelphia Eagles fans haven't been pleased with Nick Sirianni's performance this season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

To the torch and pitchfork crowd, all that was validated was that Sirianni’s miscue was the reason a trip to the United Kingdom felt empty and the coach wasn’t in the mood to put up any kind of fight afterward.

“What hurts there is that the guys fought so hard and then I don’t make the decision that I should make at the end of the game and I cost us that game,” said Sirianni.

He told the locker room the same thing, taking the kind of accountability that will resonate in-house. That’s also the right public stance, even if it does not erase the damage.

As a CEO coach, though, situational football is the area Sirianni has long presented as a strength. He drills it relentlessly beyond the obvious third-down and two-minute spots.

Sirianni talks process until the word almost loses meaning. He wants his teams to take pride in winning by any way that is required. Saturdays are spent going over every possible game-day scenario.

Late-game special teams strategy and clock management sit squarely in that lane, as does Makai Lemon stepping out of bounds instead of forcing Jacksonville to take its third and final timeout, two plays before Elliott stepped on the field to kick his FG.

Had Lemon gone down before crossing the sideline, the Eagles would have bled the clock to three seconds, and Elliott’s kick would have been the game-winner.

Sirianni’s public accountability comes across as empty when he fails to explain the fallout.

“If I followed it, the process, then obviously that turns out to be the wrong decision,” he said. “If I didn’t follow it, then obviously that was the wrong decision.

“Either way, I’m wrong. That’s all I’ll say about that.”

A coach who treats process as the North Star cannot land on “either way, I’m wrong” without the foundation looking cracked.

Owning the result while declining to explain the reasoning leaves the process looking more like a plot twist than a working tool.

That’s not acceptable for a CEO coach.

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