We were going through the various Nick Sirianni coaching decisions from Week 2 and Week 3 and came up with the following to describe his performance this year:

  1. A fish tailing car. He swerves to the right, but spins the wheel so hard to the left that he overcorrects and ends up in the ditch anyway.
  2. The Gordian Knot, a mythical tangle that was impossible to untie. Whoever did it would be the ruler of Asia, or, in this case, maybe South Philadelphia.
  3. The Philly Pretzel Factory CEO. Sirianni has made so many unsuccessful calls that he’s twisted himself into the world’s largest pretzel.
  4. A gambler on a bad streak. You lose five in a row and stop trusting yourself, so in order to snap out of the funk, you make a bet you’d never make and lose that one too. Now it’s 6 losses in a row and you’re hitting the withdraw button.
  5. The dog is walking the human, i.e., he’s being led, not actually leading

You see it, don’t you? You know when a guy is inside his own head. Multiple signs of having the obvious right in front of your face, but doing something different.

The 60-yard field goal attempt from Sunday night was probably the best example of this. First, you look at the two opportunities to kick, in which he did not send Jake Elliott out there. The Eagles were at the New Orleans 15 and the 34, so those kicks would have been from about 32 and 51, respectively. Both quite easily within Elliott’s range, made smoother in execution, perhaps, by virtue of playing on turf inside of a dome.

Instead, the first time, he decided to run a counter off the tush push, which was stuffed. And even if it was successful, the upside was what? Getting off one more end zone shot with 14 seconds on the clock and one timeout remaining? A field goal there would have tied the game at three, sending the teams into halftime all square after a pitiful first half, and maybe generating the slightest bit of momentum in the process.

The second scenario took place on the ensuing drive, which opened the 3rd quarter. It was 4th and 3, same score, and Hurts was sacked on a passing attempt. Again, three points there would have tied the game.


Then, after skipping two opportunities to have Elliott kick from shorter range, he finally sent out the special teams unit for bomb attempt with 6:47 remaining in the fourth quarter, leading 7-6. Elliott missed, giving NOLA the ball back with prime field position.

So you see there’s a situation developing where Sirianni is zigging when everyone else would zag. And when it’s time to finally zag, he zigs instead, because he’s in his own head.

I think Shane Haff nailed it when he wrote this on Twitter:

“You can’t convince me that Nick Sirianni goes for it on 4th and 1 at the end of the half (where the upshot was 1 chance to throw to the endzone before kicking a FG) if he didn’t catch so much flack for kicking a FG against the Falcons.

Therein lies the problem. Sirianni is supposed to be bringing an edge in game management but he is incredibly inconsistent and it feels like he is letting the tail wag the dog.” 

I agree. I really do think what we saw on Sunday was a continuation of the Monday night questioning. Should they have run on 3rd and 3? Go for it on 4th instead of kicking the field goal to go up by six? It seems like his confidence is a little bit shaken right now, and as a result he’s just sort of throwing these decisions out there desperately and has lost himself.

The other thing is this –

When you consider that Nick isn’t calling the plays (though he’s still overruling Kellen Moore at times), and not heavily involved with the defense, the “CEO coach” role means his gameday job is managing the clock, guiding all three units situationally, and being the chief decision maker. It feels to me like he’s trying to insert himself into the game, to compensate for his lesser role, by making these gutsy decisions that might not be the correct decisions. I can’t prove it; it’s just a hunch. It’s like you’re limited in what you’re doing this year, so you overdo it with the stuff you ARE responsible for. It’s kind of like the person on your corporate Zoom call who always feels the need to say something, just to be involved. And when you’re coming off a collapse like last season, maybe the extra pressure of fans and media calling for your head has negatively impacted you to the point where you’re pressing, trying to prove something, and ultimately getting it wrong.

Finally, when you think about all of the analytical stuff that’s in the game now, all of these models and data sheets and various scenarios that you’ve planned for, it feels like information overload at times. It feels like we’ve overcomplicated things to the point where we’re scrambling coach brains. Based on a conservative guess, 95% of fans thought the correct decision was to kick the early field goal against Atlanta and kick the early field goal against New Orleans. If Sirianni wasn’t studying four bazillion different “kick or go” scenarios dating back several years, would gut instinct have simply told him to take the points? Or, worse, is he eschewing the data for his gut, and his gut is totally wrong? If that’s the case, get the man a probiotic yogurt, because we need an intestinal reset.