Nick Sirianni explains Eagles' gameplan when it comes to facing a familiar face like the Washington Commanders
The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders are about to square off for the third time this season — the only difference being that a Super Bowl berth is on the line. Philly has a slight advantage in hosting Washington on their home turf at Lincoln Financial Field, however, since they have already played each other twice […]
The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders are about to square off for the third time this season — the only difference being that a Super Bowl berth is on the line.
Philly has a slight advantage in hosting Washington on their home turf at Lincoln Financial Field, however, since they have already played each other twice this year, the Commanders have a very good idea of the Eagles' strengths and weaknesses — and vice versa.
Head coach Nick Sirianni broke down what it's like preparing to take on a team with plenty of familiarity.
"You account for everything and you go through different plans," Sirianni explained. "Everything with your mindset is the same and everything with your routine — but you can change little things here and there on your routine. And your process is the same. But in a game where you're playing someone for the third time, of course, you look at the things you've done against them, what they've done against you, what's successful — all those different things.
"That's definitely a part of our process any time we play a team year to year or multiple times in a year."
Sirianni admitted it helps the Eagles have seen quarterback Jayden Daniels twice in person this past year, though both games turned out very different.
"Any time you play somebody multiple times, you're going to know things about them. But going back, they're going to have new wrinkles for us. Like I said, we're going to have new wrinkles for them," Sirianni said. "And it will be a game that, 'Hey, they're doing this off of that,' and we're going to have to adjust to things. You see the things he hurt us on last game and you try to correct them. And I know they're doing the same."
The Eagles were successful against Washington and shutting down Daniels when they played them in Week 11 during the regular season and won 26-18. They, however, failed to sweep them in Week 16, losing 36-33.
While Sirianni wouldn't get detailed on what the Eagles plan to change up against Washington this time, he did mention that he was confident the Eagles have cleaned up their mistakes since they last played them.
"We made our corrections after that game to get from it," Sirianni said. "We made our notes after that game. I'm not going to sit up here and tell you all of the things we plan to do or what we expect or anything like that. I know they'll have new things for us. We'll have new things for them and it's going to be a good matchup."
The Eagles-Commanders NFC championship game kicks off on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports.