Sirianni: Dust-up? What dust-up?
The Eagles recorded a too-close-for-comfort 34-28 win over the Minnesota Vikings in front of a national audience last Thursday.
They were still the national narrative the following two days as wide receiver A.J. Brown looked anything but happy jawing on the sideline of that game with quarterback Jalen Hurts. Head coach Nick Sirianni stepped in to intervene.
After the game Sirianni’s explanation of, “I didn’t see what was going on with that,” followed by “You don’t need to know what was going on right there,” as well as Hurts’ comments of, “We won, I don’t want to make it bigger than what it is,” stoked national conversations about the relationship between receiver and quarterback.
The bottom line is the Eagles are still figuring out how to keep pass catchers Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert involved and happy against defenses that are daring new play-caller Brian Johnson to run the football.
The Eagles had 48 rushes for 259 yards and three touchdowns versus the Vikings, including 28 carries for 175 rushing yards and one score for D’Andre Swift, who had just one carry in Week 1.
It was billed as the game of the year and it didn’t disappoint.
Parkland and Nazareth delivered everything that was expected in their battle of the unbeatens Friday night in Orefield and the Trojans were able to deliver just a little more with a late touchdown pass from Luke Spang to Trey Tremba.
But Parkland can fall victim to a letdown because another undefeated team is next on the schedule — Allentown Central Catholic.
The Trojans, Vikings and surprising Bethlehem Catholic are the only remaining unbeaten teams in the EPC as autumn officially arrives this weekend.
The Golden Hawks welcome Easton to Bethlehem Area School District Stadium on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Whitehall will look to extend its two-game winning streak when it entertains Freedom which is an uncharacteristic 1-3 entering the midway mark of the regular season.
Emmaus, another team not used to being 1-3, gets the Week 5 schedule started when it hosts winless Dieruff at East Penn School District Stadium Thursday night.
Here’s a look at the latest EPC power rankings from No. 18 to
No.1:
At Pocono Mountain West 7 p.m. Friday
The Canaries had 213 yards on offense and got a 58-yard touchdown pass from Austin Snyder to Ja Allen. But Joel Rupp’s team was hurt by two turnovers and 15 penalties. 1-3, 1-1 EPC North.
17th
Lost to Pocono Mountain East 24-0
Host Pleasant Valley, 7 p.m. Friday
The Timberwolves ran into a determined effort by Pocono Mountain East that wanted to avenge last year’s 20-14 loss to the Bears. PV coach Blaec Saeger coached at North for 14 seasons and spent 11 as the offensive coordinator.
Hurts completed 18 of 23 passes for 193 yards with four sacks. There were no complaints from Smith, who caught four balls for 131 yards and one TD. Goedert got six receptions for 22 yards after being targeted just once in the season-opening win over the New England Patriots. Brown had just four grabs for 29 yards, although he had a touchdown reception nullified by a holding penalty.
“It’s going to look like that when you have so many good players on your roster like that,” Sirianni said virtually Monday. “Again, it’s tough because you always want to get them involved, but like 23 pass attempts to 48 rushing attempts? . . . Naturally somebody’s numbers are going to be a little bit low. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it goes. But I do believe that all these guys in this building genuinely love each other and genuinely are happy for each other’s success. Do they want to contribute because they know they’re capable? Of course. Do sometimes frustrations run high because they’re not able to? Of course. Those are all part of it.”
Sirianni couldn’t stop himself from revealing how he felt about the sideline blowup.
“I would say on a frustration scale — I wasn’t able to know fully about it until after the game — but on the frustration scale of what I have seen between receivers and quarterbacks, or whatever, we’re talking about a two out of 10. But, I get it. We have to have things to definitely talk about. In my opinion that’s what that was. That’s a two out of a 10.”
Sirianni is confident he and his coaching staff will find a way to play to the strengths of their receivers, just like the runners. The template for defending Hurts is out there courtesy of Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Take away a top target or two and make Hurts beat you from the pocket.
“We’re not in a panic mode or anything like that,” Sirianni said. “Have the pass numbers been down? Yeah. Does the defense play into that? Of course, it does. Fortunately for us and not everybody has this luxury, we’re able to win on the ground and we are able to win in the air. So, you are able to balance off what the defense does. I thought Brian and the offensive staff did a phenomenal job of saying, ‘Hey, OK, they’re packing this in the middle of the field right here and keeping all these guys high and having this three-down front. All right, cool. You guys are doing that. We’ll do what we have to do to win the game.’”
Philadelphia sports fans deserve better than being told to quietly run along. But they can do better themselves in certain situations.
For instance, they should have gotten off the Phillies’ backs for a message on the Phanavision screen last week congratulating the Atlanta Braves for their NL East championship.
While not all fans complained about that harmless display of sportsmanship, enough did on various platforms to reinforce their overstated image as unreasonable slobs.
The Braves won the division. Well done. The way it is setting up, the Phillies will likely have a chance to run them out of the playoffs. If that happens in Atlanta, they would appreciate a similar electronic golf clap.
Of course, there is one other way for the Phillies to avoid all of it: Don’t go a dozen years — and counting — without finishing in first place.
Danny Green is back with the Sixers. That’s the same Danny Green who couldn’t play the first time he was here, is 36 years old and once summoned the cheek to scold Philadelphia fans for the way they treat players.
Who says Daryl Morey hasn’t had an Executive of the Year-level offseason?