Back in Philly a day after the Eagles' win over the Saints, questions for head coach Nick Sirianni's press conference cut straight to his fourth-down decision-making.
The Eagles rallied late to beat New Orleans, 15-12, on the road, but did so on the back of mostly stellar defense, big offensive plays from Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert, and having to overcome fourth-down calls that backfired and left the team facing a 3-0 hole all the way up until the fourth quarter – and very arguably in needlessly risky spots.
"I'm making the decision that I think is best for the football team," Sirianni said after the fact on Monday during a video call with the local media. "Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I come back at the end of it and rethink every single time, but in the middle of it, and as it's happening, I'm making the best-educated decision I can to help the football team win."
The Eagles went 1-for-3 on fourth-down tries against New Orleans on Sunday.
With 14 seconds left in the first half, and the Eagles in the red zone trailing 3-0 on a 4th and 1, the offense stayed out and lined up for the "Tush Push," but ran it as a fake to Saquon Barkley to the outside hoping to catch the Saints off guard. The whole play hit a wall instead and got stopped short for a turnover on downs. The Saints then kneeled out the clock to take that 3-0 lead with them into the intermission.
The Eagles got the ball coming back from the break, and after managing a drive down to the Saints' 34-yard line, they were again faced with another 4th and short situation still trailing by three – this time from three yards out.
The call was for the offense to stay on the field. Jalen Hurts lined up in the shotgun to signal a pass. The Saints' defense rushed four. The pocket collapsed immediately and there was no escape. Hurts got sacked for another turnover on downs to leave the Eagles empty-handed.
In both scenarios, a Jake Elliott field goal attempt was easily on the table to at least tie it up with plenty of time still to work with, but Sirianni, who owned both calls, wanted the dice rolls.
Neither worked, but the Eagles managed to recover from them this time.
"I did what I thought was probably best for us in that particular case," Sirianni said of Sunday's first fourth-down attempt with seconds left in the half. "Hey, it didn't work. When it doesn't work, there's nowhere else to look but right here, right on me."
Staying on that specific instance, Sirianni said he knew the field goal try was there in response to a follow-up question, but reinforced that had the Eagles gotten the first down, he believed they would've had two shots at the end zone to try for the lead before the clock ran out. They would've had one timeout to work with under tight constraints if they did, but they never got to find out.
Sirianni's aggressiveness, or lack thereof, on fourth down in questionable spots on Sunday carried over from the week before against the Falcons, when early gambles didn't pay off and settling for a field goal late – after a third-down pass that would've iced the game for the Eagles slipped right through Barkley's hands – immediately came back to bite them in a last-second loss.
It all cost them a game in Week 2, didn't in Week 3, yet left the concerns to linger.
"I'm not gonna get into – I know I tried to share with you guys as much as I could last week – I'm not gonna make that a weekly habit of explaining that to you guys," Sirianni told the media of his fourth-down logic. "Every time I do something like that, I'm doing it because I think it gives us the best chance to win the football game.
"When you don't convert on fourth down, that's going to be 100 percent on me. That's my role as the head football coach, when that play doesn't go the right way, there's going to be blame to be had, and that's going to be on me."
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