Julian Love backs up controversial comments against Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles were the talk of the NFL during the 2022 season and during the first 11 weeks of the 2023 season, but now, they are trying to dig themselves out of a three-game losing streak.Their latest loss to the Seattle Seahawks was a heartbreaker. The defense gave up multiple 3rd and 10+ plays […]
The Philadelphia Eagles were the talk of the NFL during the 2022 season and during the first 11 weeks of the 2023 season, but now, they are trying to dig themselves out of a three-game losing streak.
Their latest loss to the Seattle Seahawks was a heartbreaker. The defense gave up multiple 3rd and 10+ plays on the game-winning drive after taking play calling duties away from Sean Desai and handing them to Matt Patricia. The offense put up just 17 points and continues to look out-of-synch.
But, the loss had an extra sting to it when harkening back to Seahawks safety Julian Love's comments about Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni all the way back in February.
"He's a guy who really is doing a good job because he's not getting in the way of his team," Love said on NFL Network's Good Morning Football. "He has an experienced roster from top to bottom — offense, defense… They have a talented roster and [Sirianni] is just doing the best thing he can do. I think it's a players' league, and he's just taking a step back and letting his team play…"
"… He's in for a free ride right now. You guys can coach this team."
Sirianni's meddling results in fourth quarter collapse
It's awfully ironic that Love's previous comments centered around Sirianni's "hands-off approach", just for the head coach to change defensive play calling duties ahead of Monday night's contest.
And, part of the final outcome was a fourth quarter collapse that saw Drew Lock lead the Seahawks offense 92-yards for the game-winning touchdown. Which just so happened to be a 29-yard bomb to Jaxson Smith-Njigba over James Bradberry, who was in man coverage.
Yes, the defense was a problem coming into this game. I mean, the unit allowed 109 points over the course of three straight games before Week 15. That's a huge problem.
But Monday's contest is now the third-straight game in which the Eagles offense has scored 19 points or less. This comes after averaging 28 points per game during the first 11 games of the season and scoring 19 points or less in a game just once over that span.
It's clear the offense is having problems, too. So why put the focus squarely on the defense? Sirianni made the decision to hand over play calling duties to Shane Steichen in 2021 and we all know how that worked out.
Love was a star on Monday night, recording the first multi-interception game of his career. Another big layer is added when realizing it came against the head coach he publicly criticized before signing with the 'Hawks.
Off the bat, it looks like Siranni put his hand in the wrong pot ahead of the Eagles' trip to the West Coast. He tried to step in and fix something and it didn't work. There's still time to see how everything shakes out, but it's gotta start in Week 16. Or else more people are going to have plenty of things to say about Siranni.
