If he is sincere, he could take the next week to recondition a defense that doesn’t tackle, making some lineup changes and mixing in a little more of an attack mentality. Once, twice, too many times Sunday, Sirianni went with the do-a-better-job routine, barely seeming to realize that it’s not Week 2 of preseason anymore but just about midseason. To borrow a game Sirianni will use to audition players, anybody care for a rock-paper-scissors showdown to predict who is going to win that referendum, either at the NewsControl Compound or among the tailgating crowd? On the other was Cox, demanding a more aggressive approach. On one side, there was Gannon, who has smeared a fan base used to Chuck Bednarik and Reggie White, Brian Dawkins and Jim Johnson, Marion Campbell and Jerome Brown, Bill Bergey and Andre Waters, Malcolm Jenkins and Buddy Ryan with a passive defense.
Whether Cox meant to draw one or not, that meant there was a line scrawled across the Eagles’ room. “For us, it’s the little things,” Cox said. While it may not have been as blatant as that time in 1991 that Seth Joyner blasted Rich Kotite with criticism in a postgame verbal hurricane, it was the 21st-century equivalent.Ĭox has had about enough of a defensive scheme that was hit for 41 points in Dallas, a 42-spot by the Chiefs, for 28 only because Tampa Bay ran out the clock without taking the option to make it 35, and then for 33 in Nevada.Īnd that was a locker-room firewall Sirianni could not afford to have collapse. Fletcher Cox, as close to a franchise face as any player the owner still employs, openly challenged the coaching staff to do something different. You have to play what’s being called.”Īnd there it was, the opening bell, loud and clear, perhaps even reaching the plugged ears of Jeffrey Lurie. On defense, they were unwilling to blitz, incapable of clogging the middle, stumped by the Raiders’ screen passes and unable to avoid penalties.Īfterward, Cox dropped this one: “When you are so used to playing aggressive over the last how-many years I have been playing, it’s just changed.
On offense, the Eagles didn’t catch passes with precision, protect Jalen Hurts at a reasonable level, sustain a running attack after the early-game loss of Miles Sanders to an ankle injury and were unable to avoid penalties. It was their fifth loss in six games, four of the unsightly variety. The Eagles had just lost, 33-22, in Las Vegas, after trailing by a 30-7 margin, with the 40-year-old Sirianni seeming to coach by random guessing and his 38-year-old defensive brainiac Jonathan Gannon unable to signal anything to stop Derek Carr from completing 31 of 34 passes.
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