Nick Sirianni Needs His Running Game to Avoid Shootouts

The Eagles rookie coach may think a little too much of his offense right now

ARLINGTON, Texas – In a city where many in the fan base still believe a sentiment from generations ago in the NFL still applies, Nick Sirianni hit a new low in his third game as the Eagles head coach.

And the bar wasn't about getting trounced by Philadelphia's most-heated rival, the Dallas Cowboys. It was how Sirianni, sold as an offensive wunderkind, went about things in the 42-21 setback.

You've likely heard many times over the years how prior Eagles coaches like Andy Reid and Doug Pederson disdained the running game.

Those coaches never ignored the running backs like Sirianni did against the Cowboys, however.

Three was evidently a theme for Sirianni on Monday because that's how many times his running backs carried the football with Miles Sanders getting all of two totes and Kenny Gainwell getting one. The total of three was the fewest of any NFL team over the past two decades.

The run percentage as a whole was a little bit better when you factor in quarterback Jalen Hurts but the 9.4 percent mark was still the fourth-lowest mark over the past 15 years.

What's strange about the whole thing is that Sirianni seemed to identify that the Cowboys' offense was going to be a bit of a problem but assumed the way to combat that issue was to match the explosive unit.

MORE: Jalen Hurts Has to Better, But it Starts With Nick Sirianni

“We wanted to make sure we were able to keep up with them," Sirianni said. "We knew they were an explosive offensive. We wanted to be able to push the ball down the field and hit some of the underneath zones that we saw while also obviously mixing the run game in there. In the screen game, again, you fall behind a little bit and you have to get off that game plan a little bit.

"We knew we had to score with this team because we knew they were able to score and score quickly.”

Others would have taken a different path realizing the Eagles don't have the playmakers to get in a Paul Westhead-like shootout so shortening the game would be the old-school approach.

Admittedly, that kind of thinking is often mocked by the current league mindset which is all about probabilities that turn every 4th-and-5 or under in plus territory, a green light situation.

Over a large sample size, the numbers proved that thinking to be true but the short sample size of an explosive team vs. one scared to use even one pre-snap motion dramatically affects any ability to succeed.

MORE: Here are 10 Observations from Eagles' Blowout Loss to ...

For most teams in most situations, the analytic bent is the way to go.

For SIrianni's Eagles on Monday night in North Texas, the goal should have been to keep Dak Prescott and Co. off the field as much as possible.

“When your game plan doesn’t work and you lose by 20 points, you’re always going to say 'yeah, let’s do the opposite thing,'" Sirianni said. "That’s for you to say after the game. When it doesn’t work and you lose like that, yeah, you think to go the other route. That’s just the nature of this business."

After the loss against San Francisco Jalen Hurts broke out a "no losses, just lessons" mantra.

For Sirianni against the Cowboys, it was another ugly loss tied to him directly with no lesson learned, at least in the immediate aftermath.

"You’re going to have to keep up, there," Sirianni said. "I don’t want to say it puts unnecessary pressure on me. You’re going to have to call the game a certain way when you’re down multiple scores. I don’t feel like that put pressure on us. We just had to go and execute the plan when we were down two scores but we didn’t do that.”

With other explosives offenses like Kansas City and Tampa Bay due in Philadelphia over the next three weeks, Sirianni would be wise to avoid any shootouts moving forward until he has the ammunition to compete.

"Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us," said Sirianni, "and we’re going to have to move on."

MORE: More Bears Than Bulls on Eagles' Stock ... - Sports Illustrated

-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.