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Just before halftime, as his team tried to humiliate their divisional-round opponents by inducing the players to jump offside on a two-point conversion attempt while already leading 27-0, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni turned to an umpire and uttered a line that will be on every pirate parking lot shirt in Philadelphia from now until the rest of time.
“I know what the hell I’m doing.”
Although he was specifically referring to the legality of where he was (Sirianni was being punished by the alternate referees for his location outside the training area while watching the attack), it could have been about anything and we would have believed him. Football. Culinary arts. The business. Fabrics and textiles. It will be, like a viral statement, about everything from now on. On a night when the Eagles emerged from an end-of-season slumber that made us forget the scope and breadth of their dominance this regular season, Sirianni reminded us. There was no disagreement among the tens of thousands of gleefully drunk Eagles fans at Lincoln Financial Field singing along with Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer.”
Sanders and the Eagles dominated the Giants on the ground to take control of the game and keep it going.
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
This game was both a panic-free advance and a signal for their remaining opponents to approach with caution. Throughout the game, Sirianni was in rare form. He nodded rhythmically at a digital camera roving on the sidelines like a demonstrative backing singer. He nearly severed his offensive coordinator’s shoulder after a spirited chest strike after the touchdown. In the third quarter, he tried again to snatch the Giants offside, earning 21 points, using a fake punt (the kind of confident jab you can only make if you’re prepared to use a target the size of an oil tanker for the rest of your time in the game). NFC East).
Down to the smallest detail, the game was as ingenious 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 right arm. chokeslamming, Giants defensive tackle, Justin Ellis in the second quarter, a few plays short of a Boston Scott touchdown put them ahead by three points. Kelce forced the 334-pound Ellis to collapse his stance and plant his feet, making Ellis a leaning tower of disadvantageous proportions. Kelce lifted him the way one of us would try to throw a shot put for the first time, or toss a bag of wet leaves into the back of a pickup truck.
Ellis was spelling out star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, the Giants’ best player, who was breathing on the sideline. At that moment, the entire offense shifted to stabs down the middle of the field, exposing Lawrence’s loss in front of the Giants. When Lawrence was in, the running game was designed to pair Kelce with either the right or left guard, who would work together to block Lawrence, trap him by inviting him upfield, and run elsewhere or block him in unison, allowing him to stalk him and take him out of the game. The Eagles also once used a running back to charge forward and hit Lawrence in the shoulder. The Giants tried to push two players on Kelce. They tried to line Lawrence up almost diagonally like a missile. Nothing could stop the crushing, down after down.
When Lawrence came in, except for the notable exception of a 40-yard play to DeVonta Smith on the opening drive, the Eagles’ passing game was quick, not allowing the Giants any time to break the pocket and generate enough of a run to get to Machuca. When Hurts did run – his planned six runs in the first half were among the most he ran over the course of two quarters in a game – they were mostly on misruns that ensured that Lawrence was pinned on the opposite side of the game, preventing any uniform breakdown of the game. game. protection that would cause the Hurts to be attacked and hit.
And again, when Lawrence was out, the remaining front seven were simply flattened out to make way for a run run game. The Eagles back Miles Sanders, Boston Scott and Kenneth Gainwell combined to carry him 35 times for 234 yards, a 6.7 yards per carry average.
While this is just one example, it is emblematic of what Eagle Way has been this season. They can bring you down in a way that is extremely off-putting for you and wonderfully convenient for them.
Playing with an injured shoulder, Hurts bowled the ball 24 times but did not need to bowl. He also ran the ball without putting himself in danger (many times, at least). Only a small handful of times have we seen a takedown and lane concept deep enough to put him in real danger from a hard shot by one of Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s notorious free runners. An overworked and injured offensive line was given a lot of responsibility, but it was a shared lift, placing some of the responsibility on the Eagles’ physically superior players who could contribute with a well-timed block (see: AJ Brown crushing Adoree’ Jackson like a pile of tree branches). dead trees on Smith’s touchdown in the first quarter).
Coaches often craft game plans this way, in some kind of dream scenario that makes their team simultaneously dominant, confident, and most importantly, invigorated for another do-or-die game next week, but how many of them can they do? happen that way?
Few of them can really say with the same degree of confidence that Sirianni said on Saturday that they know what they’re doing.
