'Lighten Up, Nick!' Tortured Eagles Need Less 'Animated' Coach Sirianni

'Lighten Up, Nick!' Tortured Philadelphia Eagles Need Less 'Animated' Coach Sirianni

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles were hanging on, up 33-25 and 26 seconds away from snapping a three-game losing streak on Christmas Day against the overmatched New York Giants.

And even a touchdown couldn’t guarantee overtime for New York, which also would have needed a two-point conversion just to line it again in an extra frame against an Eagles team that dominated in just about every aspect except sloppy mistakes.

The only reason the Giants were on life support could be tied to Olamide Zaccheaus’ friendly-fire forced fumble on Boston Scott during the opening kickoff in the second half that set up a short field for New York and Dallas Goedert losing his footing at an inopportune time which morphed into an Adoree Jackson pick-six in the third quarter.

Crazier things happen every week in the NFL but the situation was not exactly dire for Philadelphia when Nick Sirianni unleashed what has become an all-too-common emotional response to Haason Reddick straying outside his lane a bit.

Sirianni was caught by the FOX cameras barking at Reddick “to get back in” the huddle to face a fourth-and-8 situation.

*Sirianni calls TO*

-Haason jogs to the sideline to talk to LB coach

-Sirianni interjects, yells and gestures for Reddick to go back onto the field during TO

-LB coach and Sirianni exchange words heading back to the sideline

-Smitty steps in pic.twitter.com/1W3dUTGwhc

— Mostly Eagles Tweets  (@MostlyEagles) December 26, 2023

The star edge rusher went to the sideline to talk with his position coach Jeremiah Washburn when Sirianni seemed to scold Washburn as well before DeVonta Smith tried to play peacemaker - only to be caught in the crossfire. In the background was A.J. Brown, taking it all in.

Meanwhile, head of security Dom DiSandro, SIrianni’s typical handler, remains upstairs after being banned for the rest of the regular season due to the dust-up he had with Dre Greenlaw in a loss to San Francisco.

“I get animated a lot,” Sirianni said after the triumph was secured. “There are things that when mistakes are happening or trying to get the communication going, just a little bit of that. That happens throughout a game.

“It’s going to be between players and players, coaches and players, coaches and coaches. But when you have the relationships that we have and the connections that we have, we’re able to move on quickly.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

Smith and Sirianni seemed to make up quickly but Reddick didn’t speak in the locker room and Brown atypically refused to talk with reporters, telling SI.com’s Eagles Today that “I was taught if I had nothing good to say, to not say anything.”

The Eagles just don’t seem to be having any fun under the weight of enormous expectations.

“It’s like a double-edged sword of what’s more important, winning or the standard? It’s a very manipulative thing to the mind sometimes,” quarterback Jalen Hurts conceded.

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In high-stress situations, a calm and rational presence is generally going to be more helpful than Sirianni’s type-A reaction to commonalities in a league built on parity.

The coach’s take is that his players understand what’s going on.

“The guys know all we’re trying to do and coaches know all we’re trying to do is get everybody to play their best and sometimes that’s with a smack on the butt and sometimes that’s with a yell,” he said.

The available evidence says some are at least tired of that same old song.

To his credit, Sirianni stepped up and took accountability at his day-after presser on Tuesday.

"I need to be better in those scenarios when there is some high-pressure areas," the coach relented. "They’ve got to see me calm and not tense there. There is a time and place to be tense and there’s a time and place not to be."

That's a positive first step for Sirianni, who noted mistakes happen in every NFL game and the goal is to not repeat them.

Sirianni is already a repeat offender in this area, though. The difference this time is the coach has now verbalized the need to get better and perhaps this is the trigger to that step forward.

"I know that's something that I always have to work on as a head coach, and so that's something I'm constantly working on," said Sirianni.