Eagles' Mission Against Browns: 'Stay Hungry, Stay Humble, And Be Detailed'

The Eagles season could tilt either say Sunday against Cleveland.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni looks on as Eagles practice tackling techniques. / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA - "Humble" was a strange part of Nick Sirianni's messaging this week considering the Eagles entered their bye off a pretty humbling loss in the form of a 33-16 beatdown at Tampa Bay that didn't even feel that close.

Yet, the path with the extra time was to "stay hungry and stay humble."

The former seems obvious but the former should have been baked in after a 2-2 start that highlighted just how tenuous the Eagles' grasp on being a contender really is -- the firewall of A.J. Brown with a dash of DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson added in against the Bucs.

Philadelphia's offense has looked ordinary without Brown and well below average without the All-Pro wideout, his running mate Smith, and Johnson, a potential Hall of Fame right tackle.

The good news is that the Eagles are getting that trio back this Sunday and the better news is that they are facing the 1-4 Cleveland Browns, who are bad and banged-up.

“Any self-reflection that you go through, it’s got to start with being humble to say, ‘What are the issues?’ Right?” Sirianni said Wednesday. “For everybody. Being humble of, ‘Hey, these are the issues.’ And then putting thought into how you do different things. But I think the whole general thing of how do you get better can start with are you hungry to get better? Does it drive you? Are you obsessed with it? Are you waking up in the middle of the night thinking about how you can get better? How you do things different? Are you at home and your mind’s wandering to figure those things out?”

When you peel back the onion of Sirianni's thoughts you can quickly trace it back to the expectations for the team which are exceedingly high and the idea you can't roll out a reputation to win football games.

According to Sirianni, the Eagles' slow starts have been about the "details" be it the penalties or the kind of poor fundamentals, techniques and execution that has put the team behind the sticks.

On the other side of the ball, curring in half an in-house accounting of 15 missed tackles in Tampa may have turned an awful defensive performance into an appealable one.

"Stay hungry, stay humble, and be detailed," star left tackle Jordan Mailata said resonating his head coach. "So that was the mission. Stay Hungry. Stay humble, be detailed. The detail was the emphasis because we haven't been executing. We're not being detailed enough, whether it be coaching, whether it be players executing or just players not understanding this game. They're not putting enough time in the scheme to understand their role. And we go out there and feel and see the look. It's detail."

If the Eagles pack a sense of urgency on the way to Lincoln Financial Field Sunday, a wounded Brows team with an embattled QB playing poorly in the form of Deshaun Watson should be one of the easier tests Philadelphia gets this season.

Conversely, if Philadelphia believes its reputation is enough to win games, its own struggles will continue.

JOHN MCMULLEN'S WEEK 6 PREDICTION: Eagles 26, Browns 17