There’s no shortage of blame being thrown around in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning. The Eagles are left to lick their wounds and wonder what the hell happened after going to Tampa Bay, facing the worst team in the playoffs, and proceeding to get dog walked by Baker Mayfield.
The Eagles never looked competitive in their 32-9 loss the Buccaneers, despite finishing the season 11-7. We witnessed a preseason Super Bowl favorite crumble before our eyes, and find a way to look worse than the Panthers did a week earlier. Carolina lost 9-0 to Tampa Bay in a Week 18 game that was actually competitive for much of the afternoon.
A confluence of factors precipitated this downfall. The loss of both their offensive, and defensive coordinator to head coaching jobs following the Super Bowl, the hangover from the big game itself, and dealing with a weight of expectations all played a role in why Philadelphia didn’t meet its potential this season.
Nick Sirianni is also owed a heaping helping of blame for the stupidest, most mind-numbing in-season coaching decision we’ve ever seen in taking defensive coordinator Sean Desai off playcalling duties, and replacing him with senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia.
Why did the Eagles make this change?
The Eagles were in a small free fall after their loss to the Cowboys in Week 14. The team was still sitting at a strong 10-3 record, but concerns crept in following back-to-back losses, giving up a combined 75 points in two games.
Frankly, Desai’s defense wasn’t great. The Eagles were giving up five more points than they did a year earlier under Jonathan Gannon, and the team had plummeted from being second in the NFL in yards allowed, to 26th. The offense took a step back too, but not nearly to the same degree — and when both factors combined it appeared that Philadelphia wasn’t built to hang with the best teams in the NFL.
A report emerged that Desai didn’t “carry himself with confidence,” with prompted Sirianni to make the change. In short: He wanted to stop the bleeding.
But here’s the problem …
Making a mid-season coaching change like this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Steelers and Bills both made adjustments on offense and got better because of it. However, there are two key differences in how those teams conducted their switches, and what the Eagles did.
- The Eagles change came much later in the season
- Philadelphia didn’t have a support staff in place to take over
This was an organization recovering from losing two coordinators. They needed a year to grow, even if there were pains along the way. If Sirianni had confidence in Desai to name him defensive coordinator, then he needed to trust him to complete the job.
Instead of letting this progression happen, Sirianni freaked out. He made a knee-jerk decision to turn playcalling duties over the Matt Patricia, and things became much, much worse.
While Desai’s unit wasn’t great, under Patricia the players looked absolutely lost. The team went from giving up 30+ points to the best teams in the NFL, to now giving up 25+ points to the likes of the Giants and Cardinals.
In the four regular season games under Patricia’s stewardship it was clear that he had no idea what he was doing.
- Gave up 26.75 points-per-game (2 points more than Desai)
- Gave up 363.25 yards-per-game (33 yards per than Desai)
The Eagles failed the test empirically as well, with players looking lost on defense and pass rushers showing less effort. It was clear to see that Patricia wasn’t the answer on defense either, but at this point Sirianni had crossed the Rubicon.
To switch back to Desai would have shown weakness at a time the Eagles needed to steady the ship and Sirianni knew this. The change was a mistake, but he had to roll with it into Tampa Bay, praying Patricia’s defense could hold up against Baker Mayfield.
We know what happened next. The defense utterly crumbled, giving up 426 yards and letting Mayfield do whatever he wanted through the air. There was no resistence, and when paired with hopeless defensive struggles the Eagles never had a chance.
What does this mean for Sirianni?
Let’s be real: No matter how angry Eagles fans are right now, there’s no way in hell that Sirianni will lose his job. Not one year removed from a Super Bowl berth. However, there are some very real concerns moving forward.
Sirianni’s decision making under pressure was abysmal. He was short-sighted in his management of the team. There are fair worries that particularly Shane Steichen was the genius behind Philly’s success, and now his talents are in Indianapolis. Lest we forget that the Falcons stuck with Dan Quinn and let Kyle Shanahan go to San Francisco as a result.
There’s a real need for soul searching before the 2024 regular season begins. Beyond deciding what to do at their coordinator spots, Sirianni needs to own that his switch on defense made a bad situation worse, and that this was a key factor in the playoff loss.
If that doesn’t happen, and if Sirianni doesn’t lean his lesson — then this whole situation could become a long-term problem for the Eagles.