On Sunday the Eagles pretty much played like shit against a team they were expected to beat by more than a touchdown. Fans seemed pissed the whole game. Like, more than usual, and for more obvious reasons than usual.
Much of that ire went toward Nick Sirianni. He heard it during Sunday’s 20-16 win over the lowly Browns, a game in which the Eagles never trailed and never really seemed to get going. Philadelphia fans are rarely happy, but they had a right to complain in this one. The Eagles got wide receivers A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith back from injury.
Lane Johnson returned to anchor the offensive line. The team was coming off a bye and playing at home one of the worst teams in the league. And while they got the job done, booing was a pretty reasonable response to the experience of watching them do it.
The only touchdown the Eagles allowed was on a blocked field goal returned for a score, but they did not play well. They looked pretty much like the same team they did before the bye, except with all of their offensive stars back. Fans expected more.
This was easy to tell, because they booed a lot. Reporters in the press box said fans near them tried to start a “Fire Sirianni” chant, though it didn’t catch on. But there were other fans, closer to Nick Sirianni, who made sure Sirianni heard their complaints about him.
Sirianni did not take this well. Who would? Some fans chirped at him seemingly the whole game. Knowing the Eagles fanbase, there is absolutely no way anyone said anything nice. After the Eagles put the win on ice with a bomb to A.J. Brown on the game’s final possession, Sirianni decided to let them have it.
As a result, the local fan, media, and sports talk radio chatter this week has been pretty much exclusively not about the team’s dispiriting and dispiritingly close win over the Browns. It has mostly if not entirely been about Sirianni yelling at fans who heckled him throughout the game. If Sirianni was trying to get any heat off the rest of his team, it worked! But that does not seem to have been the intention.
In the offseason, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said he wanted Sirianni to tone things down a bit:
On the sideline, you don’t want to infuriate the referees. I worry about… I want the referees to give us a fair shake. I don’t want him to overreact. But I love his passion. So, I think he recognizes that it can be a little bit counterproductive if he overdoes his own passion. But you don’t want to stop where that passion is coming from. So, it’s—you’ve got to find a sweet spot. I think he wants to find a sweet spot of what that looks like. I love his passion.
Jeffrey Lurie press conference, March 2024
Lurie was primarily talking about how Sirianni’s emotions might hurt him with the referees, so maybe he’s OK with him insulting paying customers instead. But when your boss says that they “love [your] passion” twice in rapid succession, it is reasonable to assume that they have started to find your passion at least a little bit grating.
After the game Sirianni entered his press conference with his children, a thing he’d done in the past, as if that might blunt criticism. (Beat writers said that didn’t change the questions they’d ask.) Sirianni said players told him during the bye week that they wanted more emotion from him on the sideline; several could be seen laughing before his exchange with fans.
Mostly Sirianni tried to play it off. “It’s hard to get a win in this league, so we’re excited to get the win,” he said. “Our fans created a couple of false starts that really helped us win this game. But I was just excited to get the win and appreciate the Linc’s support.” Players said they had his back.
Sirianni entered the game with a shaved head—a new look for the coach that made it seem like he’d lost a hair vs. hair match during the bye. Fans haven’t shut up about his haircut or his exchange with fans since pretty much the final gun.
I listened to sports talk radio for a bit this morning and people were, naturally, calling for a firing. People blamed Lurie, too, for not reining Sirianni in. A story by longtime Eagles beat guy Reuben Frank called it “wacko” behavior. People asked if he went too far. ESPN called him a “straight clown.” All for a little yelling from the coach after the game!
The Daily News reported Eagles brass made Sirianni apologize yesterday, and he came through with a great one: “I’m sorry and disappointed on how my energy was directed at the end of the game.” He vowed to have “better wisdom.” This is how I’d apologize to people who heckled me throughout the game, too.
Anyway, it is now less than a week before everyone learns what Eagles fans are peeved about after a game against the Giants.
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