by Just before halftime, as his team attempted to humiliate their divisional round opponent by causing players to go offside on a two-point conversion attempt while already leading 27-0, Eagles- Coach Nick Sirianni addressed a referee and uttered a phrase that will be on every fake parking lot t-shirt in Philadelphia from now until the rest of the time.
“I know what the hell I’m doing.”
While he was specific about the legality of his point (Sirianni was chastised by acting deputies for his location outside the coaching box while watching the offense), it could have been anything and we would have believed him. Soccer. Culinary arts. Company. fabrics and textiles. It will, as a viral explanation, be approximate everything out of here. On a night when the Eagles were waking up from a hibernation that might have made us forget the extent and breadth of their dominance this regular season, Sirianni reminded us. There was no disagreement among the tens of thousands of happily drunk Eagles fans at Lincoln Financial Field who sang along to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer.”
Sanders and the Eagles owned the local Giants to take control of the game and keep it.
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
This game was as much a panic-free advance as it was a signal for the remaining opponents to approach cautiously. Throughout the game, Sirianni was in rare form. Like a demonstrative background singer, he rhythmically bobbled his head at a roving digital camera on the sidelines. He almost severed his offensive coordinator’s shoulder after a vigorous attempt after touching down on the chest. In the third quarter, he tried again to sideline the Giants by 21 points using a fake punt (the kind of confident needles you can only make when they’re willing to carry a bull’s eye the size of an oil tanker for the remainder of their time at NFC East).
Down to the smallest detail, the game was as artful a takedown of a familiar opponent as we’ve seen all year. By now you’ve probably seen the slow-motion clip of Eagles center Jason Kelce on the right Chokeslamming Giants defensive tackle Justin Ellis in the second quarter, they took a three-point lead a few games before a Boston Scott touchdown. Kelce forced the 334-pound Ellis to collapse his stance and wedge his feet together, making Ellis a leaning tower of unfavorable proportions. Kelce picked him up like one of us would try to throw a shot put for the first time or toss a wet bag of leaves into the back of a pickup truck.
Ellis spelled out star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, the Giants’ top player to catch a breath on the sidelines. At that moment, their entire offense changed to sharp runs in midfield, revealing the loss of Lawrence up front for the Giants. With Lawrence in, the running play was designed around pairing Kelce with either the right or left guard, who worked together to either block Lawrence down, catch him by inviting him up and run somewhere else, or zone him together to block, which allowed him to track and wash him out of the game. The Eagles also once used a running back to ram Lawrence in the shoulder. The Giants attempted to shove two players onto Kelce. They tried to line up Lawrence almost diagonally like a rocket. Nothing could stop the crush, down for down.
When Lawrence was in, aside from the notable exception of a 40-yard play against DeVonta Smith on the opening drive, the Eagles’ passing game was quick and didn’t allow the Giants to collapse the pocket and generate enough rush to get there that hurts . When Hurts ran – his six designed runs in the first half were among the most he made in the two quarters of a game – it was mostly misdirection runs that kept Lawrence pinned against the game, creating an even Preventing collapse of the game Protection that would result in Hurts being swarmed and hit.
And again, with Lawrence out, the remaining front seven were simply flattened out to make room for a clock-crunching running game. Eagles assists Miles Sanders, Boston Scott and Kenneth Gainwell, who rushed for 234 yards a total of 35 times, averaging 6.7 yards per carry.
Although this is just an example, it is a symbol of what the Eagle Walk was like this season. They can tear you down in a way that is both utterly daunting for you and wonderfully comfortable for them.
Playing with an injured shoulder, Hurts threw the ball 24 times but didn’t have to throw it away. He also let the ball run without putting himself in danger (at least very often). Only a few times did we see a drop back and route concept deep enough to put him in real danger of a hard shot from one of Giants defense coordinator Wink Martindale’s infamous freerunners. An overstressed and injured offensive line was given plenty of responsibility, but it was a shared lift that put some of the burden on the Eagles’ more physically superior players, who could contribute with a well-timed block (see: AJ Brown bulldozes Adoree’ Jackson like a Pile of dead branches on Smith’s touchdown in the first quarter).
Coaches often create game plans this way, in a kind of dream scenario that makes their team all at once dominant, confident and most importantly refreshed for another game of everything and everything next week, but how many of them can do it like that?
Few of them can truly say they know what they are doing with the same level of confidence that Sirianni did on Saturday.
