Eagles

Nick Sirianni Explains 4th and Goal Decision

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 5th, 2026 · 10:17 AM EDT

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Alright, I guess we have to talk about the Eagles loss.

Here’s Nick Sirianni on the failed 4th down late in the game:

Q. The fourth-and-two decision from the goal line. Can you take me into why you made that decision and then the —

Nick Sirianni: In that situation right there, try to make it a three score game. It was a two score game, up 10. We would’ve gone up 13, but I wanted to make it a three score game right there. Fourth-and-two from the two, you leave them in a true backed up scenario. I’m very well aware of how the fourth down decisions go as the head coach. You go for it and you get it, great. You go for it and you don’t get it, that’s on the head coach. We didn’t get it, so that’s on me. A lot of things that we’ve got to look at and see what went down on that particular play, obviously same deal. It wasn’t good enough as coaches and wasn’t good enough at playing there.

To jog your memory, the Birds were up 20-10 at this point. They were driving to the tune of 11 plays and 62 yards over 6:45. They found themselves in 1st and goal from 9, ran Will Shipley twice, and then botched the third down play before throwing incomplete on fourth.

The film guys went back and looked at the sequence and found out that Cam Jurgens knocked the ball out of Jalen Hurts’ hand, which is why the third down play turned into an improv bootleg:

Found it.

Went through all the camera angles. The reason why the Eagles run failed on 3rd and goal from the 2 (which likely would have scored) is because Cam Jurgens slightly false started, but it wasn't called.

He was on top of Hurts too quickly as he pulled, and his hand hit… pic.twitter.com/FnecKiGg2G

— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) October 4, 2026

On fourth down, Hurts was looking for Dontayvion Wicks short right before coming back to his left and throwing a rushed pass for Darius Cooper. Incomplete.

Sirianni mentions in his quote that “you leave them in a true backed up scenario.” LA got the ball back with 7:26 on the clock and proceeded to go 98 yards for a touchdown in just 3:27, which was really deflating. Did anyone see that coming? It seemed like the defense, which played so well through three and a half quarters, was deflated by the turnover on downs and came out soft and gassed to finish the game. The two drives that the Rams won the game on went for a total of 177 yards on 20 plays and only took a little more than five minutes.