Is Nick Sirianni’s Time with the Eagles Over?
TAMPA – Now we wait. How long will owner Jeffrey Lurie keep us waiting?
The Philadelphia Eagles owner has a difficult decision to make on his head coach Nick Sirianni – fire him or bring him back with a brand new staff.
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After what Lurie’s team delivered in Monday night’s the Wild Card game, a noncompetitive 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium, the reaction is to fire his coach, after just three seasons.
Will Sirianni’s record keep him from being fired?
After Nick Sirianni took them to the playoffs in all of three of his seasons in Philly, during which he compiled a 34-17 regular-season record and posted back-to-back 11-win seasons for just the third time in franchise history, joining Andy Reid (2000-04) and Dick Vermeil (1979-80), after he took them to a Super Bowl just last year.
Could terminating Nick be a bad decision and make things worse?
That’s what makes the decision so difficult for Lurie, who let Reid run the show for 14 years.
Firing Sirianni would mean the owner would be bringing in a new coach for the fourth time in 11 years, and one of those he fired just three years after he delivered the franchise its first Super Bowl trophy.
Continuity is important for winning organizations.
On the other hand, well, make it two hands, because there are so many reasons that should make the decision easy, other than the obvious – five losses in six games to close the regular season and a playoff no-show.
I have been one of Sirianni’s supporters to return, but after Monday night, I can’t do it anymore. This was embarrassing.
Who was worse, defense or offense?
Surprisingly, the defense did OK. Sure, it gave up points on Tampa’s first four possessions, but three of those possessions ended in field goals and it was just 16-3 when it could have been much worse. Sure, it couldn’t tackle very well and boy they looked the Bad News Bears when Avonte Maddox and Eli Ricks ran into each other on David Moore’s 42-yard catch-and-run TD.
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The Eagles even benched James Bradberry for a drive and Haason Reddick for another.
Overall, though, the defense kept them in it, until a foolish safety was taken by Jalen Hurts with 2:16 to play in the third quarter and, 59 seconds later after the free kick, a 56-yard touchdown to Trey Palmer.
Bradberry missed a tackle on that but where was everybody else?
After that, the Eagles simply gave up and the rout was on. They quit.
It was a one-possession game for much of the third quarter until that explosion, and the Eagles could do nothing to erase it.
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They began the second half with the ball but went three-and-out.
If not for DeVonta Smith’s 55-yard catch that set up the offense at the 5, allowing Hurts an easy throw to Dallas Goedert for a touchdown in the second quarter, the Eagles may have suffered an even more lopsided ending.
Sirianni’s specialty is supposed to be offense, but it was non-existent all night, really for the last two months.
Granted, A.J. Brown’s knee injury didn’t allow him to play in Tampa, and, in the first half, the Eagles lost Julio Jones to a concussion.
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Still, where was the run game?
The Eagles had the best offensive line in football, per Pro Football Focus, and should have been leaned on.
So what does Sirianni do? He dials up four first-half runs for D’Andre Swift, who had 130 on the last trip here on Week 3. It was that same game where Philly ran for 201.
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What would you do with Nick Sirianni?
Everything just seems off with this team, and it has been for the past two months. Lurie can’t ignore that. His decision should be to move on from Nick Sirianni, but it won’t be an easy one.
