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Nick Sirianni Leaving Jalen Hurts in that Game was Amateur Hour
Published:
Nick Sirianni has done mostly everything right and very little wrong since coming to Philadelphia to replace Doug Pederson a few years ago.
Add to the latter category his decision to keep Jalen Hurts in the San Francisco game on Sunday night.
He was asked about it afterward:
Q. You haven’t often been in a position where you’re down this big late in the fourth quarter. What’s the benefit of keeping the starters in?(Jimmy Kempski)
NICK SIRIANNI: We were still down two possessions. There was some time. We had our timeouts still. Just trying to continue the game.
Q. I think you were down 23.(Jimmy Kempski)
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’re going to fight to the end.
Just so we’re straight here, the score was 35 to 19 when Marcus Mariota took a couple of snaps while Hurts was in concussion protocol. They converted on 4th and 1, then Hurts re-entered the game with 8:48 in the fourth quarter and proceeded to take the Eagles into the end zone. After failing with a two-point conversion and onside kick, San Francisco scored two plays later on another pitiful defensive series, which made the score 42-19 with 5:19 remaining.
At that point, the game was over. You knew it, I knew it, and everyone not named Sirianni knew it. But out came Hurts anyway, they started moving down the field, got into San Fran’s half of the field, and then D’Andre Swift was almost killed on a totally clean hit:
oh my goodness pic.twitter.com/sVR9kk2w1M
— alex (@highlightheaven) December 4, 2023
From there, Hurts took a sack and hurled an incomplete deep ball into the end zone. They were down 23 and needed three scores with 5:19 on the clock, so no, the game was not still in reach. Sirianni, however, decided to throw QB1 back out there, after the concussion check, and let him run around like a chicken with his head cut off, chucking it all over the field. His knee hasn’t been right all year long and you’ve got Dallas next week.
At that point, conceding defeat and taking your L is much more noble than fighting “to the end.” There was no upside in fighting “to the end.”
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com