Nick Sirianni Mum on Decision to Throw on 4th and 3 Instead of Trying Field Goal
The Eagles beat the JAG-WIRES 29-21 on Sunday, showing a lot of mental and intestinal fortitude in the process. They weathered two storms, one literal and one figurative, coming back from a 14-0 deficit to claim VICTORYYYYYYY <Ike Reese voice> and improve to 4-0.
Nick Sirianni has done mostly everything right this season, and one of the tougher decisions he had to make on Sunday came down to two choices. With 4th and 3 from the Jacksonville 21 yard line and two minutes remaining, do you kick the field goal to ice the game, or go for it and try to move the sticks? He decided to throw.
“We just had to do what we felt was best in that particular moment with the weather and everything,” Sirianni said after the game. “I don’t want to get into anything else there. Just felt like that was our best option in that particular case.”
That’s the most plausible explanation, the fact that the weather was absolute dog shit and they were kicking in challenging conditions. You also had Jake Elliott banged up after the previous field goal sequence resulted in a penalty that allowed the Eagles to move the chains and voluntarily take points off the board.
Later, the cameras showed Elliott doing some medicating:
What is Jake Elliott taking here?pic.twitter.com/bishrRRDKN
— Coach Duggs (@CoachDuggs) October 2, 2022
I guess the thing that makes me curious is Sirianni saying “I don’t want to get into anything else there.” He could have just said “Jake was banged up and the weather was iffy” and everyone would have accepted the answer at face value, so his phrasing was a little interesting.
Keep in mind, they used a timeout in the third quarter in order to have Elliott kick in his preferred direction, which was a good exercise in paying attention to detail. He hit that field goal before doofus Jacksonville player ran into his plant leg, while the missed extra point came from kicking towards the other goal posts, which is the direction he would have been kicking in the fourth.
Either way, a positive result from either decision would have done the same thing, and iced the game. Moving the sticks would have allowed the Eagles to run out the clock. Hitting the field goal would have put them up 12 points with 1:54 remaining in the game. Occam’s Razor seems like the tool to apply here, and the simplest explanation was that they had a gimpy kicker facing his less-preferred direction, so they decided to throw on 4th and 3 instead.