Philadelphia Eagles

Sirianni's answer to this mess? ‘Double down on dog mentality'

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They’re 2-5, they’ve lost five of their last six games, they’ve allowed 162 points in their last five games, they’ve trailed by at least 19 points in four straight games and they’re allowing the highest completion percentage in NFL history.

The Eagles are an embarrassment right now.

Fortunately, Nick Sirianni has the answer.

“I definitely feel like when you have a slow start – with 2-5 – people are going to look to me of what my leadership is and they're going to look at me and kind of see what my direction is,” Sirianni said Monday.

“We actually talked about that with the team even before adversity hit. Even in preseason, like, ‘Hey, when adversity hits, here is what we're going to double down on.’ 

“Everything was the connection, the compete, accountability, football IQ, fundamentals. Then we have some other things that we really hang our hat on, like dog mentality.”

Yes, an NFL head coach really said this.

When adversity hits, hang your hat on dog mentality.

“That's my direction as far as that goes, is just to double down on all the things I believe are true,” he said. “Again, scheme can change. Practice schedules can change. Schedules can change. But the things I know to be true, we have to double down on. That's definitely where I'm at at this particular time.”

We’re not here to embarrass Sirianni, but if his answer to a 1-5 stretch and another double-digit loss is to double down on dog mentality, the Eagles are in trouble.

Seriously, what kind of answer is that?

The Eagles can’t cover anybody, they can’t sack the quarterback, they can’t convert third downs, they can't stop the run, they can’t (or don't) run the ball, and their young quarterback keeps missing open receivers. They need more than just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo catch phrases to turn this season around.

Because right now they’re just not competitive. 

They trailed the Cowboys 27-7. They trailed the Chiefs 42-23. They trailed the Panthers 15-3, the Bucs 28-7 and the Raiders 30-7.

They rallied late to beat Carolina and made the other games closer with meaningless late touchdowns.

But so far, this is a historically bad football team. Since Week 2, they’ve been outscored by 68 points in the first three quarters.

“Obviously, losing a game is never acceptable,” Sirianni said. “We always are going to go through and we're going to correct a game the same way regardless of if we're 5-2 or 2-5. That's the message of, 
‘Hey, let's get this thing right, get these corrections made.’ That's all it's ever about, is getting better as a team.”

Getting better as a team?

How exactly are the Eagles possibly getting better as a team?

“We always want to improve our fundamentals,” he said. “We feel like we are getting better fundamentally, just knowing the scheme, knowing the system.

“Again, when you're 2-5, you're going to question a lot of things. But getting better, too, is not these drastic jumps. It's just little by little each day. So we feel like we're getting better in a lot of different areas, figuring out who we are, what we do well. Those are some of the areas we're getting better at.”

You want a standard set. When the standard's met, you get excited about it. When the standard's not met, you make the corrections. We're just business as usual right there.

Again, things can change as far as your scheme. Things can change as far as different things. But what the standard is, the accountability is always the same over and over again.
  
The same accountability we've had throughout. Obviously losing a game is never acceptable. We always are going to go through and we're going to correct a game the same way regardless of if we're 5-2 or 2-5. 
That's the message of, ‘Hey, let's get this thing right, get these corrections made.’ That's all it's ever about, is getting better as a team.

The accountability -- we've talked about accountability a lot. Accountability is not only making corrections, right? It's also pointing out when things are right as well. It goes both ways there.

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