Daily, Oct 19th: Nick Sirianni explains why he think Eagles lost to Panthers

What's going on, everybody? And good morning. Today is Monday, October 19th, and this is your daily Go Birds morning update, giving you all the Eagles news you need to know, as well as what to keep an eye out for today. And for the fourth straight week, the fourth straight Monday, we got a loser pod to talk about, a losing pod, maybe the better way to say it. The Eagles fall to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. And honestly, kind of like everybody expected, right? No one expected the Eagles to win this game, and they didn't. They lose 25 to 14 in a fashion that definitely was alarming, I would say, right? I feel like when they lost to the Rams, you could leave with some positives. They had that game in control. For the majority of it, they blow it in the final few minutes. They lose to the Jaguars, they lose in certainly a frustrating way, where a lot of people feel Nick made the wrong decision, but the team fought. They had, I thought, the game in control for a decent portion of it, and they lose. But I don't know what you take away as the positive from this one. Well, we'll talk about a bunch of different things. I guess you could say Tanner McKee made a few really nice throws. I didn't think Tanner looked overwhelmed by the moment. I think you can have some optimism that with eight full days to prepare for the Cowboys game that they will be able to play better on offense, at least McKee will be a little more comfortable. I thought as the game went on, he played better. The throw to Devontae was an awesome throw. Maybe that can be a positive, but outside of that, I mean, it was an ugly afternoon at the link. And I think I tweeted this, or I forget where I said it, but I thought that an objective for the team on Sunday was to give fans reason to believe, and that the game could have gone two ways. It could have gone where they win and everybody's like, okay, it's gonna be all right. They're three and three. Tanner played good enough, assuming they win. They beat a Panthers team that was pretty good. They got three straight divisional games coming up. This is something to believe in. Or it could have gone the way that it did, which was, it was ugly. Now, they didn't get blown out, right? They were actually down three at half, one possession in the fourth quarter. They ended up losing by 11, but the Panthers kind of pulled away at the end, but it was ugly. The offense was really bad. The defense, and people are very mad at me for blaming the defense, which we'll talk about, but the defense wasn't good enough. And the atmosphere in the crowd was bad. And I said this on the post-game pod. I just wonder what Jeffrey Lurie was thinking watching that, watching fans filter out with six minutes to go, listening to the silence at the link throughout the game, watching the offense struggle, watching the defense with so much of his money on that side of the ball give up big plays. What was Jeffrey thinking? Because for so many years, Jeffrey has been able to go to the stadium that he owns and watch a team that he owns and they win, right? He's seen them win NFC Championship games. He's seen them win, not in his own stadium, but a Super Bowl, playoff games, double digit games every year, primetime games, Kelly Green games, right? Like he's had so many times where he's been at that stadium and things have been awesome under Nick. And I know Jalen wasn't there on Sunday, but under Jalen as well. On Sunday, it was different. On Sunday, it felt like a 2020 game. I know obviously the crowd situation is different there. It felt like the 2012 end of Andy era where the fans just didn't believe in the team. And I think that's what sticks with me so much from this is just the lack of belief people have in the team right now. And I don't blame them. Like when it was 10-0, it felt like the game was over. They're two and four. I don't think they're gonna make the playoffs. Like my guess is if they get in, it would be at like nine and eight, right? Like I don't think they're gonna win 11 games. So I don't blame people that don't believe in the team. But when you're Jeffrey Lurie and you're the owner of the team and the product on the field is something your fans don't believe in, like how do you feel about that? And he's gonna have some tough decisions to make. So it was an ugly game. It was a game where the Eagles best players didn't make enough plays to win. And it's a game that now sets them back. It sets them back quite a bit because with three divisional games coming up, look, if they go three and oh, things can be different. And it's possible, like the Giants are bad, Washington's bad, Cowboys are a beatable team. But right now, they just, they need to find something, whether it is like a hitch route on offense, whether it is, you know, a way to get a better pass or on defense, they just, they got to find something that they believe in and can execute. And if they don't, then yeah, like there's nobody that they can guarantee they'll beat right now. Now the Rams lose, right? The Rams are two and four. So it is not a good conference. A lot of teams are struggling. So there are things you can point to outside of the team, where you can, you know, like this and that. What I have found in most years when you are talking about the reason your team can win is because other teams aren't good, then your team isn't going to win anything. And when locker rooms are talking about we need to stay together, that's mostly when seasons are over. So yeah, I mean, they lose. A game I didn't really think they ever had a true chance to win. It felt like at times it was close, obviously. But for the first time in a long time, you watch the Eagles and you're not expecting them to win. You're expecting them to lose. And that has not been the case for the vast majority of the time Nick and Jalen have been here. So we will get into the game. We'll play some audio for you. And as I always say, on the Monday Pods, you're a real one for listening. If you are listening to this one after that loss, I commend you, I love you, and I'm excited to talk to you. So let's get right into it. The schedule for today, Nick Sirianni set to speak to the media at 3 p.m. Now remember, they play a Monday night game, so it's gonna be a bit of a different week. But we'll hear from Nick Sirianni today at 3 o'clock about more of what he has to say about that loss. And we'll play some Nick audio here in a second. I thought he seemed a little defeated at the podium. Now it's hard to tell sometimes with him because I think he goes out there trying to play defense so much and not really being himself or how he feels. And as a result, sometimes I think he comes off in a way that maybe is not how he feels, but how he comes off at the podium is how he comes off. And I thought he seemed emotionless. I thought at times he was just kind of like, yeah, we lost, right? And it was just a different type of Nick than I'm used to seeing. So we'll get to the Nick audio in a minute, but first let's get an injury update as there is a ton of injuries. Obviously, no Seguin, he doesn't play. Drew Kendall, active for the game, but was just there for an emergency. He was riding a bike all game to stay loose. So clearly his knee injury is not just something small. Like he's now missed basically, yeah, three, or no, two games? Yeah, he's missed two full games with it. And we'll see if he's able to play next week. In the game, Nolan Smith suffers a concussion. Obviously, you know, no good. Like you would expect him to probably not play next week. Jordan Davis left the game with an ankle injury. We'll see if he's able to play next week. Carson Steele, who you're probably wondering, why are we giving a Carson Steele injury update? Well, he was the backup running back on Sunday. So Carson Steele suffers a shoulder injury. He does return, but then he leaves again and he's out with that shoulder injury. We will see if he's able to play next Monday. And then Jonathan Grenard in the game, but kind of in and out. He looks like he banged himself up at one point. So we'll see if he's able to go next week. But now six games where they've essentially gotten nothing out of Jonathan Grenard, which certainly I'm sure is frustrating for him and certainly frustrating for Howie and that money of Jeffrey's that they spent on him. So yeah, just a tough, tough loss. So after the game, I do the postgame pod, go down there. And the locker room vibe was definitely what I expected. I said on the postgame pod, it will probably be a quiet, empty locker room. And that's what it was. Like guys talked for sure. Jordan Maillat held court for quite a bit. We'll play some of what he had to say. But so Nick Sirianni steps to the podium, and I asked him straight up, like what stood out to you about why you guys lost this game? And here's what he had to say about that. When you even think about why this game didn't go your way, what are some main things that stick out to you about this game? You know, I talked about with our guys, it's just our detail in a whole. We have to do all the little things better, and I got to coach all the little things better. And, you know, I think that's what, you know, I had thought we played hard, thought we played tough, I thought we were able to mentally overcome, thought we stuck together. You know, I used to talk about tough detail together all the time. I just think that the detail as a whole, you know, we got to get better at that. You know, we had some uncharacteristic things that we got to do better, and, you know, again, I have to do a better job coaching it. So I go back and forth on Nick kind of always leaning on the tough detail together thing. Like, no question about it, they're not detailed right now, they're a sloppy team. Like, Moro Jomo jumps off sides on a key fourth down. By the way, the defense, you know, they get a pump blocked, right? Like, details. You know, Jordan Milata gets a penalty early in the game, a veteran captain. Like, I think it was 10 penalties again in this game. So they are not a detailed team right now, they are struggling with that. And I think Nick's right, like, they're a sloppy team, and when you're a sloppy team, it's really hard to win football games, especially when you don't have the talent to overcome that sloppiness. But the other thing is, you know, I hear a lot of Nick's just repeating himself, like he says the same thing again and again. And I go back and forth on if that's a bad thing. I think on one hand, you want to have your core beliefs, right, to use a phrase from Nick. You want to have the things that you know work for you and that have worked for you and stick to them, right, and not overreact. And Nick constantly going back to them, I think has worked for his football career. But then I also think sometimes the message needs to change, sometimes you have to adapt, and I think Nick knows that. But I can understand a little bit of people being tired of hearing it, but I'm not really sure what you would expect him to do. He needs to kind of lean on what has worked for him. And right now, it's not working, but I do agree with the idea of invisible progress, that's not showing up on Sunday, but maybe showing up during the week and it might show up eventually. But right now, yeah, they are way too sloppy of a team. So the other thing that was a big story in this game, excuse me, that was a big story in this game that got people worked up was, I think Tanner McKee ends up having 45 passing attempts, if I'm not correctly. It was something like that. I can check. Yeah, Tanner McKee, 26 of 45, 215 yards, one touchdown, zero interceptions. Very similar to the box score that Jalen put up last week. So Nick was asked about, you know, why pass the ball so much? And here's what Nick had to say about that. By 45 times, was that a game plan thing or just maybe being a little undermanded? Yeah, you're down, when you're down 19 to 7, and the turret skews it, like where you are. So we had to go fast to, you know, with, I don't know, 12 minutes left or something like that. You know, two possessions, you've only scored seven points at that point. You got to go fast to give yourself a chance to score, which we went down and scored and then get it back. And that was the mode that we've had had success on. We did it again. And, you know, obviously, right now, we're not running the ball the way we want to. And so you do whatever you got to do to try to win the game. And that's what that game called for. And obviously, we didn't win, so. But that's what that game called for, and there's circumstances that go to that. So I'm actually on Nick's side with this one. Look, I think Nick deserves blame for how the game went on Sunday, obviously. But I don't get the call to run the ball. They didn't have Saquon. They didn't have Tank Bigsby. They didn't have Will Shipley. They averaged 2.9 yards per carry. They didn't have Carson Steele. They literally only had Damon Pearce. And they had an offensive line that has barely ever played together. The best players in that game were in the passing game. Devontae, Dallas Goddard, Dontavian Wicks, Darius Cooper, Mackay Lemon. I don't know why. I get wholistically. If we're having a discussion about a football team, then yes, you want to run the ball. It makes life easier on the quarterback and all those things. They can't run the ball. They can't run the ball when they have Saquon, let alone when they don't have their top three running backs. So when you're down, you need to move the ball. I don't blame him, or I guess just to say Sean Mannion, for calling mostly passing plays. They were behind the sticks a lot. They on one play spiked the ball behind Tanner McKee, and all of a sudden, you're in second and 16. And I don't know why you're running the ball with Damon Pierce there. So I do actually disagree with the people that say he needs to run it more. Like the personnel just wasn't there to do it. But speaking of Sean Mannion, Sean Mannion obviously not a good game for the offense. Nick was asked kind of how much he puts on Sean Mannion in the scheme. And here is what Nick had to say about that. Look at the offense, how much do you put on Sean in the scheme? Like I said, I feel like I've said that earlier, we gotta be able to score more points, period. And it's the game of football. So it's on everybody, right? It's not just on, not one coach, I don't know who I said this to, it's not just one coach on an island. It's not just one player on an island. It's not just one side of the ball that's on an island. It's the ultimate team game. And so we all have to do better. So I can't put it into words perfectly. So maybe I shouldn't try to put it into words, but since I love you all, I'll try. Like Nick defends Shawn Manyon, but I do think there is a little bit baked in there of like he needs to do a better job. Like I can't fully explain it, but he was, you know, two weeks ago, he was asked something like this and he kind of said unprompted, you know, like I'm not gonna, you know, like Shawn, you know, we're not thinking making a change or something like that. Like, and I'm paraphrasing loosely there, but just the way he talks about it, it doesn't sound to me like a full, like chest out, full throated defense. I don't think they're gonna replay Shawn Manyon. I don't think they're gonna take play calling from Shawn Manyon, but I definitely get the sense like maybe Nick thinks like, I mean, Shawn Manyon's a rookie coordinator, right? So I think when he says it's everybody, that's a staple of Nick. He always says that, but I don't know, this is just my opinion, but the way he talks about Shawn doesn't sound like the full-throated defenses he's given of coordinators in the past. Now, the question is, and this kind of leans into why I think people are a little off-base blaming the offense for Sunday. What did people expect? How many points did you think they were gonna score? They had Tanner McKee at quarterback, Jake Majors at center, Willie Lampkin at guard, Damon Pearce at running back, Markel Bell at tap. How many points did you expect? 21? 17? How much did they truly underperform by? I understand they had a bad day on offense, but I don't get how people thought they were going to play. So it also comes back to Shawn Mannion where I'm trying to remember what I said about the offense and training camp, but I feel like I said the offense wasn't that good in training camp. And I think Mannion had good days, right? There were good play calls. There were times where I thought situationally where they did like two minutes and stuff, the offense moved decently at times. But I don't know what people expected. Shawn Mannion is a 34-year-old first-time coordinator that's only coached for two years, that is having to coach an offense compromised of backups and guys that had never played together. Like, I don't get the whole, like, people aren't ripping into Shawn Mannion, they're ripping into Nick, which I don't really get that because Petullo caught the heat last year. You would think just, you know, that Mannion would. But I understand that like Nick is the head coach, deserves credit for sure. It's just interesting how all off season it was Shawn's offense and now it's Nick's thing. But regardless, like, you know, the Eagles got to decide, like, are they going to allow Shawn Mannion time to develop or are they just going to fire him at the end of this year? And if they do, they will have fired Petullo, they will have fired Brian Johnson, they will have fired Shawn Mannion, and they will yet again have a whole new coaching staff. Cause I'm assuming if they fire Shawn, it means the whole, the whole, the whole staff's gone. So look, the offense hasn't been good enough. I think Shawn Mannion obviously has not been good enough. I don't know what Shawn Mannion has done that makes people stand out as like that was a special play by Shawn Mannion. But I don't know why people thought Shawn Mannion would be special right away. Like it is, it is going to take time. That's how it works. Like people have time to Nick, Jalen Hurts was much better in 22 than he was in 21. But the fact he got to play in 21 and they kept him to 2022 is why he was better. So, you know, I don't really get the, I don't know why people are so surprised. The offense isn't very good. Now as to why the offense isn't very good, Jordan Milato was asked that and he had an interesting answer. He said, you know, want to and focus. And then he was kind of asked again about it and he said, well, it's an individual thing. Guys have to decide if they want to get better and if they want to focus. So kind of caught my attention. So I asked Jordan what he meant by that and here's what he had to say. Because they're all individual mistakes. That's why I think it's like the focus, the lack of focus. And then you gotta have want to to focus. So if you're lapsing in the in the moment of you know, if you're not focused in the moment, that's like you're not wanting to focus. That's why I say the want to to be focused, the want to to understand your assignment, the want to to not cause any false starts in your jump. Try to jump the cadence because you gotta pull. It's a silly little errors that we can't control. And again, it's something that we have to correct and we have to want to correct. If it means staying back out to practice and getting these reps, that's what it means. Are you confident that it's wrong? So having been around Jordan his whole career, having done the Jordan Milata show with him last year, having talked to Jordan quite a bit, I kinda don't think he means this as critically as it sounds because it really sounds like a questioning effort thing. It's like, do guys even want to get better? Do guys want to stay after practice? I think he's more just trying to say what it's gonna take to get better and if our guy's gonna want to do that and it's on them. So I don't think it's about what he's seeing during the week, I think it's about what he wants to see moving forward, but it is an interesting quote, right? Especially when this thing could fall apart for sure and our guy's gonna keep fighting, right? Like, is Devontae gonna show up every day super motivated to make this team better? Is Saquon gonna come up super motivated from this hamstring injury to want to be better? It's gonna really have to be the best guys on the team deciding whether the season is over or not. And I think so in that way, there's truth to what Jordan's saying, but it definitely caught my attention the way he phrased it. And on that note, one consistent quote from the locker room throughout the game, throughout the, after the game, was something like this. So here's what Cooper DeGene had to say after the loss to the Panthers. What do you go back to, to kind of keep this thing from going in the direction it's going? I think staying together, I think is the most important thing. Continue to work on our details. I feel like our details slipped in that second half a little bit. Give up that long touchdown in the red zone. And then, yeah, just missed a couple plays that we should be able to make. So I think just cleaning that up, really, we just gotta continue to work to get better each and every week. So in my experience, and I've only ever covered the Eagles, and I've covered them, they've been good most of the time, I've covered them, 2017, they won the Super Bowl, they made the playoffs in 2013, 2018, they won a playoff game. Obviously, since Nick took over, 21 playoffs, 22 Super Bowl, 23 playoffs, 24, they win the Super Bowl, 25, they're in the playoffs. So I've not covered many Eagles teams that could collapse like this. It was the COVID year in 2020, but it was a little bit of a different year. But I'll tell you this, the teams I've been around that don't succeed at the end of the year, the teams that collapsed like they did in 23, the teams that completely fall apart like they did in 2020, the end of Andy at 2012, the things you hear are, guys gotta decide if they wanna stick together, guys gotta decide if they wanna put in the work, guys gotta decide. That's when you know it's over, in my opinion. It was funny, I saw a clip earlier in the week on Jason Kelsey's pod, The New Heights Show, where he basically was asked, I think he asked Mike Tomlin, what Mike Tomlin thinks a player is only meetings. And Tomlin was honest in saying, yeah, you're kinda cooked when it's a player is only meeting. And that's kinda how I feel about this quote. When you're talking about guys gotta stick together, that means this thing is sinking and it might already have sunk. Now, again, they got three straight games to try to fix this. They got the Cowboys, Washington and New York back to back to back. Tell you what, that Washington game probably not gonna be in primetime anymore. And also I'm starting the movement, get the Eagles off Christmas Eve. Give us our holiday back. We already lose Thanksgiving. No reason we have to lose Christmas Eve too. So, hashtag get Philadelphia their Christmas back in full effect. But it's not good. It's not good. So, yeah, when guys are talking about trying to stick together, things really start to fall apart. But look, we march on and we got a game to cover and a game to talk about Monday night. I'm sure Jeffrey Lurie is super excited for his Hall of Fame induction with that. So, on the other side, you know, a lot of people are mad about me giving the defense an F. So I was on the post-game show with Rob Ellis and John Ritchie, and we talked about a lot of interesting things, I think, but mainly a defense of the defense, or I should say, they tried to defend the defense and I did not. So, on the other side, we will play that. But as I always do when I play audio at the other side, thank you guys for listening. As I said, I love you all for listening to a post-game pod after disastrous loss like that. You're a real one and it'll be the real ones together that get us through the rest of this season. So, I love you. Until next time, he's Eliot, I'm James. But first, a word from our sponsors. BDQ Restaurant Point of Sales System's post-game show. Rob Ellis, John Richie. On an afternoon where the Eagles lose 24, 25 to 14 to the Panthers, 2 and 4 on the season. The fourth straight loss under Nick Sirianni that has never happened under his tenure. It goes back to Doug Peterson, in fact, in 2020, the last time when they've lost this many games in a row. All right. As we do each and every post-game, we go to our beat reporter extraordinaire, Eliot Shorr-Parks is on the line right now. Eliot, I seem to do this every week. I gotta start with the report card, man. The defense gets an F and the offense gets a C. I'm assuming you're grading on a curve with an offense that's this banged up. How does the defense get an F in your estimation? Yeah, so I guess I would just say, when does the defense get to be held accountable? When does the defense that has the highest paid defensive tackle in the league in Jalen Carter, a Hall of Fame defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio, one of the highest paid defensive tackles in the league in Jordan Davis, a trio of corners that's supposed to be the best in the NFL, Zach Bond, who's one of all pro high paid linebacker. When do they have to win this team a game? I agree the offense wasn't good enough, for sure. The offense had Jake Majors at center, they had Tanner McKee at quarterback, they had quite literally one running back that was on the practice squad all last year and this year. So when I look at this defense, what did they do today that was special? They had a third and eight, they had a third and eight with the offense backed up and they gave up what ended up being a 95 yard touchdown drive. Jake Majors makes a mistake where he snaps the ball low. What does the defense do to help the offense there? They give up a wide open touchdown. So yeah, of course the offense wasn't good enough. There's reasons the offense wasn't good enough. I don't know what the excuse is for the defense, constantly underperforming week over week. I'll give them a couple today, Eliot. I'll give them a couple today. Well, first of all, all year, when you scored a grand total of three in the first quarter and six in the third quarter, you're not exactly giving your, put your defense in a good spot. When it's three in out after three in out after three in out. And to answer your question on the possession where Devontae scores, they do get a three in out. And then the offense bleeps it away with a bad snap. And yes, then the defense gave it up. But you have the bad snap, the block punt. I mean, you're not exactly putting these guys in a position to succeed either. Like I agree with your general point that sometimes you got to get a pick six and win it yourself and put it on your back. But that feels a little harsh to me with an F for them, considering they're out there for 13 more plays than the other team. Week after week, they get crushed on time of possession. Although it wasn't as bad this week, they're still losing it. Like I think you're putting them in a tough spot. Well, but you know what a good way to make sure they're not on the field all the time is? Get off the field on third and eighth. Right? Like don't have someone wide open over the middle. So I get that they're being put in tough spots by this offense. Like guess what? The offense, that bad snap was from Jake Majors, who was on the practice squad all year. Drew Kendall is active today simply because of an emergency situation. He has to ride a bike all game because he's still so injured. Devontae Smith is on a pitch count because of his hamstring. What's the defense's excuse? Like they don't have one, right? So the Panthers have a really good offense. And what did the Panthers do today? They had almost 400 yards and they could have had 30 points if they didn't want to kneel the ball at the end. So I know it's asking a lot of the defense to have to win games where you have to win in the teens, but they get paid a lot of money. There's first round picks on that. I would imagine Vic Fangio is one of the highest paid defensive coordinators in the league. When he came back, everyone was very excited about that. What have they done? Like what have they done in this four game losing streak? They got torched by Case Keenum, third string quarterback. They gave up two touchdowns at the end of the Rams game to lose that game. Last week, I think they were fine, right? But they did give up a touchdown at the end to lose that one. Like I just, I'm waiting for this defense to be- In all of these games, they've been left out on the field, but, and it ends up adding up. Like by the fourth quarter, when you've been, you know, out there to that degree, when you're a defensive player, playing defense is way more exhausting than playing offense. I'm just telling you from personal experience, it is so much harder when you don't know where the play's going. Like you have to read and react and be there a hundred miles an hour every single snap. By the time you get to the fourth quarter and your offense has fizzled all day long and you haven't run the football as the Eagles offense, I mean, that's a real issue, Eliot. We leave our defense out there on the field in large part because we do not run the ball effectively. But today it felt like we didn't even try. We handed it off to Damian Pierce 12 times and that was it, aside from one carry from Tanner McKee. Eliot, why don't we just hand it off? Yeah, well, I would argue that 12 more touches than you want Damian Pierce to have. Like, I think he ran hard today, but I can't get behind a game plan that features Damian Pierce. So, like, I get that you have to run the ball, you want a balanced offense. Like, I know philosophically that's what you want in football, but you have to be realistic with what the situation was today. Like, they had a running back that, you know, credit to him, like, he's in the NFL, but he is not somebody you want touching the ball a ton. So, it's not ideal to have to throw it that much, I agree. But at least in the passing game, you have Devontae, you have Dallas Goddard, you have Mackay Lemon, who's a first-round pick. Like, you just have more options there, right? So, yeah, I think that was just a situation they're put in because of what's going on with all the injuries, but to the point about the defense being out on the field a ton. So, if we're just going to say they're only a good defense if they're not out there a lot, like, we can agree on that, but then I don't want to hear that they have special players or that they're a special defense because they're just a defense that relies on a good offense to be good. All right, Eliot, I want to circle back to the start of games and the start of haves offensively. And again, I understand everything we're discussing. I understand the crazy injuries, right? But not all of this was when they were this depleted. They have three points all year in the first, six points all year in the third. How? I mean, is that not a direct reflection of preparation and coaching? Yeah, so I think the way you phrased that there, I agree with it, right? Like today, and I think for portions of the season, you can blame the injuries, right? And you know, it's funny, like we talk about it and we go, well, they're injured, but, but it might just be they're super injured. But holistically, this has been a problem for over a year. Now, like last year, it was a major problem. You know, the offense not being good enough, the free and outs, that type of thing. And it's been a problem this year as well. So I think there's a couple reasons for that. Today, I think you would point to the personnel, right? The personnel out there. They found out on Thursday Tanner was going to start. He really only had, I think, two practices to prepare for this. So I think that's part of it. Again, you know, Jake Majors at center, all that. But I think another thing, and I'm not saying he deserves to like have play calling stripped from or he deserves to be fired because sooner or later, you have to give somebody a chance to develop in this role. But maybe the expectations that Sean Mannion was going to come in here and like light the league on fire with this offensive scheme that they're copying from other teams just wasn't realistic. Like Sean Mannion is a 34 year old offensive coordinator that's never done the job, that has only been a coach in the NFL for two years, and he's now being tasked with having to, you know, having to put an offense out there that is pieced together with practice squad players and like late round pick rookies. So, I think holistically, Nick Sirianni deserves blame for the problems over a year and a half. He's the head coach. They've become a bit of a sloppy team. That's on Nick. But in terms of why the offense is struggling in the short term, like today in the past few games, yeah, I think that the idea Sean Mannion was going to be a great coordinator in his first year was probably misguided. So let me ask you this, Elliott, just to follow up. If things keep going south here, and you know, who knows what happens, you know, in terms of Nick, and I'm certainly not calling for this. I'm just saying, does Nick view this and say, hey, man, I'm going out, you know, under my own volition here, I'm going to take things into my control even more. And does he take this thing back over? I know Eagles fans, it's the last thing they want to hear. But do you think that there's a reality in that at all? Well, I think we're going to find out how much Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman, like believe in these guys, right? Like when they hired Sean Mannion, it was we need immediate results and you have to be great right away. Then yeah, I think you could see him lose play calling, right? And maybe that's something they look into. But if it's a situation where they hired a 34 year old first time person at the job, like I think you have to give them room to grow. Now if Nick Sirianni's job is on the line and look, we saw in 2020, you know, things change fast, right? Like Doug Peterson, I don't think anyone at the beginning of the year thought he was on the hot seat and he ended up losing his job. But if they believe in Nick, then I don't think Nick has to make a power play to save his job. I think you can continue to develop Sean Mannion. You can continue to develop the players on offense that will be here in 2027. But yeah, if this becomes like every man for themself to see who can save their job, yeah, I don't think there's anything you could rule out. Eliot, who's banged up and how banged up did they get today? Yeah. How much time do you have, right? We're going to do this for the next night. I mean, they're extremely injured. You look today, Jordan Davis left the game. I don't know the latest on him. Carson Steele had a shoulder injury. He was ruled out, and normally, we wouldn't be talking about Carson Steele, but he was their backup running back today. So going into next week, if Saquon's able to play, which I kind of bet he won't, then that Carson Steele injury could super matter. Nolan Smith got a concussion. At one point, they were down to James Newby and Arnold MKT at edge. Grenard in and out of the game yet again. Six games into his Eagles career, and he's made one impactful play. So, yeah, I mean, the good news is they don't play till Monday night. I am curious to see how the Jeffrey Lurie halftime Hall of Fame ceremony goes, given the circumstances. But they do have some extra time here to hopefully heal up. What was the deal with Grenard? Like, I felt like I didn't see him at all until the second half, and then I didn't see him again for the rest of the game. So there was a play... Is that the ankle again? So there was a play where I believe he was either dropping back into coverage, or I can remember seeing him run, and he kind of like started to hop as if something was bothering him. He's been dealing with an ankle injury. You hope it's not a hamstring. That's certainly something this team has been dealing with. So yeah, I mean, once again, Nick was asked after the game, if Grenard was on a pitch count, he didn't really answer it. But Grenard, I think at this point is not 100%. I think they're trying to put him out there, and he wants to play for obvious reasons, but he's not really been an impactful player so far. Eliot, last one from me, and we appreciate your time. You were just in the locker room. What's the vibe? Yeah, so I've been in a lot of locker rooms where you can tell the season's not going well. And I think one of the main things you hear is, it's time to find out if we're gonna stick together. It's time to find out who's committed to fixing the problems. And normally when those things start to happen, the writing's on the wall of where this is going. So I would say it was a lot of that. You know, Jordan Milata said one thing he believes a problem on offense is focus and want to. And I asked him what he meant by that, and he was basically saying guys are making mistakes on offense, and they have to decide if they want to fix those problems. Do they want to stay after practice and put in extra reps to try to fix that stuff? So I think the mood was generally like, are we gonna stick together through this? And normally, that's not a good indication. But this is the crazy thing. I mean, they have three straight divisional games. If by some miracle, they can go three and oh, they're right back, not only are they right back in this thing, they have control of the division. So the opportunity is there. It's really just a matter of whether or not they want to try to seize it. All right, Ellie, we appreciate it, brother. Focus, the idea of focus and want to, the focus is one thing, but want to, the fact that a player said want to, that worries me so much. Because that does, Burt, that ties in to 24 guys on that injury report, 24 guys saying they're too hurt to play football. Do you want to play football? Do you want to win? Do you want to help this team get back on the track it needs to be on? Yeah, John, I think it's easy when you're five and one, right? If you're not feeling great, to just suck it up and get back out there. Now you just question, where are things? How much do you really, how much do you want to stay after practice like my lot of reference, and make sure that you're dotting the I's and crossing the T's? Certainly, that's not happening right now, man. You see the defensive breakdowns, and I'll go to Eliot's point, there's defensive breakdowns, there's bad snaps on offense, there's special teams miscues again after that disaster last week. So it's across the board. The penalties, the penalties, double digit penalties. Double digit penalties again. Three weeks in a row, we've had double digit penalties called on us. That's inexcusable. And I think part of the problem, I would just say is like, I think this team has had trouble getting in any sort of rhythm. And I think, you know, John, you could probably speak to this better as a former player. But like when you are constantly changing who's out there, when you are constantly having to have different guys next to you, when you're changing what you're doing on offense because you designed one offense for this set of players and now you have a different set of players. Like, you know, it sounds like excuse making, but I just think it's realistic. Like when you are subbing guys in and out all the time and guys that were not really expected to play, I think it's very hard to be like a super crisp team on offense. But again, that's why I think the defense should hold more blame than they're getting. Yep. Eliot, listen, man. It's also super hard when you don't run the ball. Running the football is what these offensive linemen, even the negligibly like second string, third string offensive linemen, they want to run the ball and move forward, block guys and push them back instead of catching them all game long. I don't know why this coaching staff, well, headed by a former wide receiver, I guess, this coaching staff needs to get their head around the fact that running the football serves their purposes in so many ways, more than just the simply, hey, let's go get a first down with a tush push on third and short. It can be the staple that brings us back to having a chance to win this division. Run the damn ball. Well, maybe we'll see a sign outside the Jefferson Health Training Complex, because normally that's a staple of Eagles football. There you go. Maybe we've reached that point. Yeah. All right, Eliot, Go Birds podcast with James Seltzer, of course, Go Birds on Saturdays and your appearances during the week, man. We appreciate it. Thanks, Eliot. Yeah, sounds good. All right, you got it. We'll get a quickie in. We'll come back at your reaction. PDQ Restaurant Point of Sale Systems postgame show on the Eagles Radio Network, presented by PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865 on 94Wip. Go Birds!