Nick Sirianni proud of how Eagles handled adversity
The Eagles’ win over the Las Vegas Raiders was the epitome of what a team wants to display as the critical month of December gets underway – all three phases excelled in complementary fashion in a dominant home victory.
Head Coach Nick Sirianni praised how his team put a difficult stretch in the rear-view mirror and took a critical step forward on Sunday.
“You control your own confidence, you control your own joy when there’s a lot of noise out there, you control all that,” Sirianni said. “What I saw from the entire team for the last couple weeks, regardless of the circumstances, [is that] we’ve been committed to playing Eagles football and doing the things we need to do to play Eagles football. That’s tough, detailed, together, and that happens during the week.
“If we rode the wave of the outside noise, then you’re not able to do that. I just thought we did a great job the last couple of weeks of zoning in on what we needed to do and going to work every single day and not letting outside circumstances dictate anything about how we feel.”
Offensively, the Eagles outgained the Raiders by 312 yards, the largest margin by an Eagles team since the 2008 season opener against the Rams.
“Every game calls for something a little bit different,” Sirianni said of the offensive game plan. “Obviously, we’re successful when we’re in front of the sticks and able to convert on third down. When you get drives going and you convert on third down and are explosive, take care of the football, good things happen. That’s why you can get the amount of runs that you get and all those different things.”
Defensively, Las Vegas gained only 75 yards, the fewest by any NFL team this season.
“We’ve had so much confidence in our defense this entire year. We’ve done a great job there. Like I said, Vic’s done a good job of putting the guys in position. Our coaches have done a good job of coaching up the fundamentals and the plan, and then our guys have done a great job executing. You always feel confident when they go out there. They play with a lot of energy, play with a lot of excitement, play together for each other,” Sirianni said.
“That’s the key in a team game, the ultimate team game like football. You can see how much excitement the guys had when [Eagles DE Brandon Graham] had a sack, right? The excitement when he broke the team down today, they’re genuinely happy for each other that they’re making plays because when [Eagles LB] Nakobe [Dean] makes a play, it’s good for [Eagles DE Brandon Graham] and vice versa. That goes for everybody.”
With their ninth win, Sirianni extends his streak of winning seasons to open his head coaching career to five, while it marks the 21st such season in Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie’s tenure as owner of the team.