Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni offered a mea culpa following his late-game interaction with the home fans during Sunday’s win over Cleveland.
On Sunday, Sirianni explained away the response to the boos, saying he was “just excited to get the win.” Following blowback, the coach changed his tune on Monday.
“I would say this about that: What I was really doing was trying to bring energy, enthusiasm yesterday. And I’m sorry and disappointed about how my energy was directed at the end of the game,” he said, via the team’s official transcript. “My energy should be all in on coaching, motivating, and celebrating with our guys. And so, I’ve got to have better wisdom and discernment of when to use that energy, and that wasn’t the time.”
Even in a win, Siriani caught the ire of Philly fans, who’ve grown frustrated at watching an offense that struggles to get in gear early in games. Philly has yet to score a single point in the first quarter, the first time they’ve failed to do so through five games since 1934.
“If there was something magic, we would be doing it,” Sirianni said when asked about the slow starts. “We’ve got to put the guys in positions to succeed. We’ve got to be ready, and the guys have to go out and execute. It’s always going to be that. And we just have to keep trying new formulas. It’s not necessarily the same formula against every team. It depends on the defense that you’re playing and the opponent you’re playing.”
The fiery Sirianni giving the business to home fans did his team no favors. He appears to know that at this point.
“We have the best fans in the world,” he said. “There is no place like this. They show up and show out no matter where we are: Brazil, Arizona, it doesn’t matter, New Orleans. In that game, too, it was loud. I thought it was really loud, energetic. And those two false starts that the Browns got that forced a field goal instead of — who knows, they’re 4th-and-8 at the 8-yard line, and then they get a penalty and don’t go for it on 4th-and-13, who knows how that would’ve gone?
“So, our fans brought the energy, brought the passion, brought the juice.”
And sometimes they bring the boo juice. Into his fourth year of a roller-coaster tenure, you’d think the 43-year-old would know that by now.
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