Sirianni’s soft defense will never win over fans
PHILADELPHIA » He has worn half a Phillies uniform, paid wardrobe tribute to the 76ers and made himself look silly with a Beat Dallas tee-shirt.
He ran the “Philly Special” in his first home game and just spent a week praising Andy Reid.
He has appreciated the Chuck Bednarik photo in his office.
He goes down the shore.
Since arriving as a littleknown, 39-year-old without many sturdy Philadelphia connections, Nick Sirianni has done everything but take SEPTA to the Linc. Maybe next game.
None of it matters, not in Philadelphia, not with a fan base conditioned to expect one thing, not with a tradition deeper than Kelly green uniforms or an over-played fight song.
None of that will help the first-year coach connect to his city and his fan base until his team plays defense.
That’s what Bednarik did when he knocked out Frank Gifford.
That’s what Dick Vermeil understood when he trusted his defense to Marion Campbell, the Swamp Fox, and went to the Super Bowl with Bill Bergey knocking opponents all over the unforgiving Vet turf.
That’s what Buddy Ryan understood immediately, unloading his “46” defense on the NFL and allegedly offering bounties were an opposing player to wind up on a stretcher.
Andy Reid, who coached the Kansas City Chiefs to a 42-30 victory Sunday at the Linc, was barely through his introductory press conference as the Eagles coach before hiring Jim Johnson, one of the best ever, to coordinate his defense.
It’s the organization of the Body Bag Game, of Bud Carson, of Gang Green, the Minister of Defense, the House of Pain and Brian Dawkins. Yet not including a kneeldown routine with seconds left, the Chiefs had seven possessions Sunday and scored touchdowns on six. They didn’t punt. They
didn’t need to settle for a field goal. They were 5-for-5 in the red zone. And on their last competitive offensive play, Tyreek Hill was at least 15 yards away from any defender and easily caught a 44-yard scoring pass from Patrick Mahomes.
Bring back Bill Bradley. Heck, bring back Jim Schwartz.
“They’ve got a lot of good players,” Sirianni decided. “Mahomes is a really good player. He’s an NFL MVP for a reason. Coach Reid is a really good playcaller. Coach (Eric) Bieniemy (the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator) does a great job getting his guys ready. Then you see guys like (Travis) Kelce and Hill, and that was a really tough challenge today.”
What was he expecting, a flag-football game on the beach? And why was he playing it that way, keeping his safeties deep, hoping just not to be beaten long? And even if the Chiefs are high among the NFL’s better teams in recent years, did that explain the 41-spot the Cowboys smeared the Eagles with on Monday Night Football?
If the Eagles were winning games, 46-45, the fans would hoot and holler. But instead of evacuating the joint with half a quarter still to play, as they did Sunday, they could tolerate losses from a young coach trying to develop a program just as long as there were once-a-possession jarring hit.
“It’s a challenge,” safety Anthony Harris said. “The good teams have good players and good coaching. We know they have talent at every position and are very explosive. They’ve got a good coaching staff as well.”
The Chiefs are excellent, and Mahomes is the quarterback standard for his generation. The Cowboys are the cream of the NFC East and were playing at home. The Eagles did limit the 49ers to 17 points and the Falcons to half-a-dozen. It’s early. Carolina is next, perhaps without Christian McCaffrey. The Giants are in the division, so there’s two built-in chances to win.
But Sirianni barely ordered a blitz, if he ordered one at all, in the exhibition season, pretending it didn’t matter. It mattered when he began dropping a regular-season bend-and-break defense upon a fan base that literally expects knockouts.
“The guys’ mindset hasn’t wavered one bit, as far as mindset, physicality, effort, detail, coming into work each day to get ready for the game plan,” Harris said. “And as long as we have that, I think we will have a chance go get this turned around.”
The Eagles lost Pro Bowl pass-rusher Brandon Graham for the season after Week 2, and he’s the kind of leader with a link to the relatively recent Super Bowl championship team that would have demanded better. But for two weeks, the Eagles’ defense has been regularly tormented by second-and-short because of its inability to topple running backs in traffic.
“We just have to find what we need to do,” said Darius Slay. “I don’t know, man. We just have to go back to the table and figure this out.”
It’s not complicated. It’s right there in an Eagles history far deeper than Nick Sirianni seems to understand.