How Nick Sirianni Rebuilt The Eagles Culture This Season

Very few people outside of the Eagles building had confidence in Nick Sirianni coming into this season. But apparently everyone in the building was behind him. What makes his players so loyal to him? Tim McManus wrote a fantastic piece about that, and you can read the full thing here. But he also joined The Best Show Ever this week, and you can see what he had to say below.

Even last year, with everything that went on, players came out defending him. Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox both sang his praises on the way out. In hindsight, we should have put more stock in that.

His players love him, and Tim McManus's article and comments here make it clear why. He takes the time to care about his players. Think Ted Lasso. He might seem like a fool from the outside, and maybe he is not an expert in tactics, but in terms of being a leader of men, he is fantastic. His players will follow him into the fire. That is more important than calling plays.

"One of the takeaways from last year was that the culture wasn't up to standard. For them, it was really good in 2022. Last year it fell off. Just a tense building. Even after wins players and coaches alike will tell you that it didn't have that same connectivity that they had felt a year ago.

So that part of the mission from the organization as a whole and Sirianni in particular. To make sure that that was at a better level. So they've invested a whole lot of time into that. It's something that's kind of hard to measure when you're talking about statistics and things that happen on the field.

But they put a ton of energy into that. He focused more time on an area that he thought was lacking and that was the connectivity. Obviously he's done a pretty good job with it."

We joked in the off-season about what Sirianni's job even was now that he was a "CEO Head Coach." Well, now we know. His job is to manage the culture of the team, and he is evidently very good at it. Taking away the offensive game-planning portion made him even better at it because now he could devote all of his energy to it.

There is much more in Tim McManus's article. Make sure you read it. The main takeaway though is that Nick Sirianni deserves a lot more credit than we give him. Bill Colarulo was right all along.

The Eagles beat the Packers by 12 points to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs. You would think the city would be celebrating today, or at least happy about the win. But while that is the case for some, there is also a lot of negativity floating around. Some people are more upset about how it looked than they are happy about the final result.

Related: Eagles Win 22-10 Despite Some Early Struggles From Offense

To be fair, it was not the prettiest of games. The offense was less than ideal in the 1st half. Only 10 points going into halftime, with four 3 and outs. After starting 6-6, Hurts missed the next 7 passes in the 1st half. If you were to say the offense needs to play better going forward, that would be fair.

But there is far too much negativity. They won a playoff game by double digits. The team they beat went 11-6. The Eagles survived to fight for another week. They never even trailed, or let the game get closer than 6 points. Those are all reasons to celebrate the win.

Why be miserable before you need to be? If they do repeat this performance, and it eventually costs them, be upset then. I will be upset with you. But it didn't hurt them this time. They live to see another day. Be happy about that.

So instead of dwelling on the bad, let's celebrate the good. Because there was a lot of good. They are in fact a very good team, hence why they went 14-3 and are the 2-seed in the NFC. People might not act like it, but this is a great team who have a great chance to win it all.

Josh Jacobs had a 31 yard run that might have measured on the Richter Scale with how many tackles he ran through. It eventually led to the Packers lone TD of the game. Jacobs finished with 81 yards on 18 carries, for a quality 4.5 yards per carry.

But outside of that 1 run, Jacobs did not do much else on the ground. They held him to just 2.9 yards per carry on his other 17 carries. Jacobs is a very good back. He was going to eventually break one. But the fact they kept him boxed up for most of the game, even after Nakobe Dean went down, is a major win for the Eagles defense.

Jalen Hurts started out 6 for 6, but then went 0 for his next 8. He was a bit of a mess, but he also got no help with Moore continuing to call for long developing routes even while Hurts was under siege from the Packers blitz. But after that 0 for 8 stretch, things did get much better for Hurts. He went 7 for his final 8 passes (87.5%) for 91 yards and a TD.

I am not going to sit here and say Hurts had a good game. He did not.  Hurts needs to be better. All of that said, he eventually found his rhythm and helped keep his team in front. That TD drive was mostly passing. Dallas Goedert's crazy run after the catch was the highlight, but Hurts settled down enough to deliver the ball the rest of the way, keep the clock moving, and close out the win.

The Eagles defense has been great, but for most of the year they were not forcing many turnovers. They had just 16 takeaways in the first 14 games. That has changed in a big way over the last 3 games of the season, and in this 1st playoff game.

They forced 4 turnovers vs the Packers. 3 interceptions, on top of the fumble on the opening kickoff. It brings them up to 14 total takeaways over the last 4 games, and that is including the Giants game where the starters didn't play. In the last 3 games for the starters they have 13 takeaways. Add in the Offense taking care of the ball, and the Eagles are +12 in turnovers in those games. 

The Eagles are not just playing great all around defense, and keeping teams off the board, they are now taking the ball away at a very high clip. That is a combo that can win a Super Bowl, even if the offense doesn't live up to its potential.

Quinyon  Mitchell was targeted 6 times. Only 2 of those targets resulted in a catch, and those 2 catches went for only 10 yards. He also got his first pick. He is a rookie playing in his 1st playoff game, and he didn't blink.

The Packers WR group was beaten up, and got even more beaten up throughout the game. But don't let that discount what Mitchell did. The guy is a superstar, who has managed to shut down several top WRs in the league. By the way Darius Slay gave up just 9 yards, and 1 catch. Cooper DeJean struggled a bit, but still not that much. Isaiah Rogers played well when he filled in for Slay too. The Eagles cornerback group might be young, with the exception of Slay who is old for a corner, but they are probably the best CB group left standing still.

This is not a stat from this game, but rather one from a previous Eagles playoff game. Back in 2018, the Eagles played the Falcons in their first game of the playoffs. They scored just 15 points. There was similar panic that Nick Foles and the Eagles offense were not going to be able to put up the big numbers they would need to keep winning.

They scored 79 points in the next 2 games. Turns out you can have 1 bad game, and then bounce back from it. And this game was no where near as tense or as bad for the offense as that one was. It is just a reminder that you can bounce back from 1 off game. And in this off game they scored 22, and could have scored more had Saquon not taken a knee and scored that final TD.

The Eagles only got to Jordan Love twice (both by Nolan Smith), but they were getting pressure all game long. 18 total pressures. Most of that came from Nolan Smith (5), Jalen Carter (5), and Milton Williams (4). But they were consistently putting heat on Jordan Love, and forcing him  to scramble or make bad decisions.

It is hard to say enough about how much Nolan Smith has come on this season. From barley playing last year, to being their best Edge Rusher. Add him on top of Jalen Carter and Milton Williams, and the Eagles have a formidable pass rushing trio. We did not hear from Josh Sweat in this game, but he has had a great season too.

After the Packers scored their one and only TD, you were hoping the Eagles would respond with a TD of their own. They eventually settled for a FG to make it a 9 point game though. Some fans were disappointed by that. But what they did accomplish on that drive might have been more valuable than the extra 4 points would have been.

They ran 7:23 off the clock on that drive. Took up nearly half the quarter. It is something the Eagles do better than anyone late in games. They just grind the clock down. The Packers were put in a spot where they needed 2 scores in 7 and a half minutes, against a defense that had only given up 10 points in the first 53 minutes of the game. It was such a clutch drive.

Yes you would like it to end in a TD. But do not underestimate their ability to wind down the clock. It has won games for them, and it may continue to win games as they advance further into the playoffs.