Getty Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
Derrick Gunn of JAKIB Sports had one of the more intriguing reports to come out of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ Week 14 drubbing courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys.
According to Gunn, he spoke with multiple Eagles players after the team’s 33-13 loss on Sunday Night Football, and they weren’t happy about the play design put together by head coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson.
“Going back-and-forth with a couple players in the locker room, I’m like: ‘What the heck is going on?’ First response I got was: ‘We are very predictable,'” Gunn said on December 11.
Asked to explain further, the player told Gunn: “Look at our pass routes compared to the Cowboys’ pass routes. Our pass routes take too long to develop. Dallas gets their **** out quick.”
Lack of Creativity on Offense for Eagles Could Be Huge Issue Moving Forward
The Philadelphia #Eagles are desperate for a change as players tell @RealDGunn the team has become too “predictable”.
“Look at our pass routes compared to the Cowboys pass routes, our pass routes take too long to develop. Dallas gets their bleep out real quick.”
The Cowboys offense, led by quarterback Dak Prescott, looked far superior to the offense QB Jalen Hurts and the Eagles trotted out Week 14. Prescott had 271 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Cowboys’ offense to 394 total yards. Hurts threw for 197 yards (no TDs, one fumble), while Philly’s offense amassed 324 total yards.
The Cowboys ran 74 total plays to the Eagles’ 52, and Dallas also had the edge in time of possession, 36:30 to Philadelphia’s 23:24.
“Look at the game. Look how quick Dak Prescott gets the ball out of his hands compared to the way Jalen got the ball out of his hands,” Gunn noted, before saying the Eagles have been playing “uninterested, uninspired football over the last two weeks.”
Week 13, Philadelphia was also thoroughly outplayed by another NFC heavyweight, the San Francisco 49ers, losing 42-19 at Lincoln Financial Field.
In their first matchup against the Cowboys on November 5, the Eagles came away with a 28-23 victory, but Prescott and company still put up big numbers, netting 406 total yards of offense, while Philly netted just 183 yards passing and 292 total yards. The Eagles will see either the 49ers or Dallas — or both — down the line in the playoffs, so Johnson and Sirianni had better figure things out quickly.
Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni Responds to Derrick Gunn’s Report About ‘Predictability’
Nick Sirianni asked about the Derrick Gunn report of #Eagles anonymously complaining the offense is predictable: “We obviously don’t think so as coaches, we’re going to continue to work on [the offense.] We’ll work like crazy on it.. We’re going to look at everything in our…
When speaking with the media on December 12, Nick Sirianni was asked about Gunn’s report. The Eagles head coach says he and his staff don’t find their offense predictable.
“We obviously don’t think so as coaches, we’re going to continue to work on [the offense.] We’ll work like crazy on it,” Sirianni said, per Eagles Nation. “We’re going to look at everything in our self-scout to make sure we are not predictable.”
Sirianni also took accountability for his team’s recent lack of success on the offensive side of the ball.
“We gotta coach ’em better. We gotta put ’em in better spots. … It starts with me and then it goes to everybody else.” Sirianni said, via the team’s official website. “We feel like we’ve just gotta do a better job of coaching and playing of starting faster and playing with a lead. Obviously, that’s always been important to us. That’s kind of how we’re built and how we need to play.”