Eagles 21, Jets 24
Q. Nick, you were pretty fired up after the late hit to Jalen. Take us through what you were saying to Robert there.
NICK SIRIANNI: Well, I wasn't mad at Coach Saleh. I was mad at situation. I was more mad obviously at the player than Coach Saleh. Coach Saleh is a great guy. I've got so much respect for him.
It was just emotions of the game. I was just sticking up for Jalen. I'll never apologize for sticking up for my players. I should have handled it a little bit better than what I did, but obviously didn't want that hit to happen on the sideline.
I know it happens. I know it's football. But I was more mad at the situation, not mad at Coach Saleh. He and I talked after the game and I wished him nothing but luck. He did the same. He's a friend, so, and I got a lot of respect for him.
Q. Nick, what did you think of Jalen's decision to break the pocket on that play?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, it was a good decision.
Q. Yeah?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah.
Q. You felt like it was warranted?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah. I got to watch the tape, but he's had a good feel of staying in and hanging in there and making the throws when he needs to make them. He did that tonight.
I thought Jalen did good job of -- you know, actually he was six for sure six, perfect quarterback rating, and you're questioning one of his decisions to escape the pocket. I think that's kind of funny.
But, no, I just thought that he did a good job of staying in the pocket when he needed to stay in the pocket, making plays that way, escaping when he needed to escape, and then also, I thought he did a great job running the offense under complete control and getting us to the right checks.
I'm just teasing you.
Q. I imagine there was a sense of relief when you saw him pop right up.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I was just yelling so I guess I didn't see him pop up.
Q. What was the reaction from the players on the sideline after the hit?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, I imagine they were upset just like we were. I know our players. We got each other's backs. This is a tight knit group.
Q. Does that affect your decision on whether like play Jalen in the last two pre-season games?
NICK SIRIANNI: No, no, not at all. We'll do what we think is best for the team and those guys, and each case will be discussed individually.
We won't ever be scared to do something. You're going to get hit. He got hit late out of bounds. Well, what's stopping somebody hitting him in the pocket? It's football and that won't play into our decision.
Q. I know probably instinctually protect all your players, but is there anything about Jalen that specifically brings that out of you?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sure, yeah. I mean, he's our quarterback, right? And so as an offensive coach and the head coach, you get close with your quarterback. I spend more time with him than any other player in meetings, talking to him after meetings, everything.
So, yeah, I mean, he's like -- he's the one guy that my son and I have a handshake, and the same handshake is done with Jalen, and my son and Jalen are doing it now as well.
Him and I are close, and I look forward to continuing to working with him.
Q. What did you see from the rookies, particularly Jordan, Cam, and Nakobe?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sometimes in the interior you got to wait to see, watch the tape, wait to see what it is. I thought it felt like we were on the same page in the protections. We were on the same page with the run points.
Again, got to watch the tape. But that's on Cam. We had a false start that I'll have to iron out, but those are the little things that kill you when they're tight games.
So it cost us some points. So I got to see who's fault that was, but he did a nice job.
I thought Jordan did a good job eating up blocks, and I thought Nakobe got to the football, made a nice play when a guy threw an iso play, shed the blocker and made the play.
So, yeah, again, I got to watch the tape, but first thought I thought they did a good job.
Q. (Regarding Jordan and Nakobe playing together before.)
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think they've got that automatic connection. But, yeah, you can definitely see that and feel that. Same with like I know Jalen and AJ have never played together on a team, but they're close. They aren't shy about telling each other what they're thinking. They have that instant bond as well.
Q. What did you think of the passing, when he made it on the run? Can you do that, make those passes on the run?
NICK SIRIANNI: The first play of the game?
Q. Yeah.
NICK SIRIANNI: I think that's one of his strengths, is to be able to escape the pocket and make big time plays. We got a lot better at that as the season went on last year.
I think about Washington at Washington. He scrambled and hits Greg Ward for a big play on a third down.
Think about him in that same Washington game scrambling, hitting Goedert for a big game. Had a big one to Goedert in the Tampa Bay. He sees the field nicely when escapes from the pocket, and he creates explosive plays.
When you're the No. 1 team in explosive plays like we were last year, they're all going to come in different forms. A lot came in the run game, but some in the passing game that happened were when he extended the plays.
So that's a big time skill that has.
Q. Nick, what's your take on that drive that gave you the lead late, the 18-play drive? What did you see there?
NICK SIRIANNI: It's hard to have 18-play drives, and so you want to hit explosive plays and be able to move the ball down the field. It's hard to be perfect for 18 plays. Not that you're perfect, but it's hard to put all those plays together.
But it was a nice job. Have to watch the tape, but it was a nice job of them stringing that many plays together after a really rough third quarter. I mean, really rough third quarter of three and out, three and out, three and out -- maybe was it four three and outs in a row?
And so to be able to go down and do that as an offense, I thought that was pretty good, especially after the third quarter they had and some of the up and downs they had in that third quarter.
Q. It was only one series for the starters, but you threw the ball every play.
NICK SIRIANNI: Are you telling me to run the damn ball? (Smiling.)
Q. No. Is that kind of what the offense has evolved into?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I wouldn't give any information out to that. Hey, we'll do what we need to do. We are working on some things and we wanted to be able to coach off some things, and that's what we did today.
If we need to run the ball 20 times to start a game, we'll do that. If we need to pass the ball 20 times to start a game, we'll do that. We will do whatever we need to do to win the game, but it was nice to see them go out there and execute when they were passing.
Q. Second year players on the defense, especially the front seven out there pretty early, how do you think they played?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I thought we did a nice job. The defense was running around. You really felt them running around and getting to the football in strip attempts and everything like that. I just thought the energy was high.
That's how you want your defense to play, to fly around a game. We will have to watch the tape and see how everybody did individually, but it's nice when you get the young guys in and get them some meaningful reps, and we were able to do that tonight.
Q. On the first drive, I know you're not game planning this time of year, but was that a conscious effort to get a bunch of people involved, or is that just Jalen going where the coverage takes him?
NICK SIRIANNI: It was really Jalen going where the coverage took him. We have an idea where the ball might go based off the coverages teams play, but that's the beauty of the offense. You want to put the guys in position to make plays, but that doesn't necessarily mean the defense is going to play what you thought every time.
We like getting everybody involved. There is no doubt. Just makes you harder to defend. But, yeah, it was nice to see him spread it around early tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports