The Eagles made a change on defense last week by making senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia the defensive play caller instead of defensive coordinator Sean Desai, but their losing streak has not lead to any changes on the offensive side.
Sticking with the status quo led to a question for head coach Nick Sirianni at his Wednesday press conference. The Eagles have not scored more than 19 points in any game during their current three-game skid and Sirianni was asked why he chose to make a change on defense rather than offense.
Sirianni’s response began by saying that the recent performances “have not been consistently up to our standard,” but that the overall body of work this season has not been at that level. Sirianni went on to say that he put the offensive scheme in place when he was hired in 2021 and that its success or failure is on his shoulders rather than offensive coordinator Brian Johnson or anyone else on the staff.
“We have to put the players in more positions to create explosive plays,” Sirianni said. “But make no mistake about it, this offense is being run the exact same way the offense was run last year and the year before that. This offense is my offense; right? This is my offense. So, the criticism on the offense I think unfairly goes to Brian. Brian calls the plays. Brian calls the plays. It unfairly goes to Brian. The criticism on this offense should come at me because this is my offense. I was hired to do a job here and got hired because I was successful as an offensive coordinator with our schemes and the different things that we did to coach players and help players win. I’m committed to that. Like I said, the criticism should come at me, and I think it unfairly goes at Brian a lot of the times because he’s calling the plays.”
Wherever one chooses to point the finger regarding what’s gone wrong over the last few weeks, the Eagles know that they need to find a better course on both sides of the ball if they are going to make the kind of playoff run they are hoping to make next month.