You don’t get to 10-1 without doing a lot of things right, but the Eagles are still figuring out how to button up their special teams.
Defending kick returns has become an issue for the Eagles, who gave up 172 yards across five returns to Keisean Nixon in Philly’s 40-33 win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.
Poor special teams play, obviously, results in great field position for the opposing offense. The Eagles have avoided catastrophe despite surrendering as much as they do on returns, but that’ll be harder to do when the postseason rolls around.
Nick Sirianni shouldered the blame for it in his weekly appearance on “Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Team.”
“We just have to be better,” Sirianni said. “That starts with us as coaches, putting them in position to make a play. I’m the head football coach of this team. If there’s an issue on special teams, that starts with me. If there’s an issue on defense, it starts with me. I’m not the offensive coordinator, I’m not the offensive coach, I’m the head coach. So it’s my job, first and foremost, nobody else’s job, to get the things right on special teams.
“We’ll be in there working like crazy today, obviously anytime you give up three big returns like we did yesterday, you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and you’ve got to have hard conversations with yourself and you’ve got to put all your ego aside, whatever it is, and just say the only thing that matters right here is getting better.
“We accept the responsibility that it wasn’t good enough, it wasn’t to our standard and how do we get better. The answers aren’t hiding from us, the answers are right there, smack dab on the tape for us to get better from it. We’ve just got to make sure we dig like crazy and scratch like crazy to find them.”
The Eagles might well get exposed again if they don't improve this week. On Sunday they'll face the Tennessee Titans, whose kick returner, Hassan Haskins, is fourth in the NFL in kick return yards (414).
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram