Eagles 24, Vikings 7
Q. Nick, what stood out to you today about Jalen's performance?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, it was a big time performance by him, obviously in the run game and the pass game.
Great run. Both of his touchdown runs were outstanding runs. The one, I know it was only four yards out, but reminded me of that New Orleans one he made last year.
Big time performance on a big time stage.
Q. What about as a passer?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, same. How much yards did he have. 333 with 83%? You know the stats. Yeah.
Q. (Regarding field goal and Dallas Goedert.) That answers a lot of questions, stays in the pocket, gets hit by a big guy, puts it inside three guys, in a part of the field he isn't known for throwing to. What can you say about I guess that play and what he did?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, that was a huge play. We had a timeout and with 15 seconds left, that was the one that obviously got us in the field goal range to get those three points at the end of the half.
He was in complete control the whole drive. You know, I thought that play was outstanding, right? When a play you have guy makes play with a little bit of presence in his face and makes that type of throw, I mean, that's a huge play.
Read the coverage perfectly. We ran that play earlier in the drive, and Devonta -- it was slightly different, but the ball went to Devonta; then you get a different coverage and it goes to Dallas.
That's just being in complete control and taking what the defense gives you, and it was a big time play by him that got us points.
Q. With all the work he's put in in the last year, would you say that game at this point is kind of slowing down for him compared to last year?
NICK SIRIANNI: He's put in so much work. Of course it has, it's slowing down. But it should, right, at this point. He's a year ahead -- he is a further into his process, and we're talking about getting better every day and he lives that. He's one of out of captains, one of our leaders, and he lives the theory of getting better every day.
That's why you're seeing major improvements, it's because of the type of person and the type of player he is.
Q. How much did it benefit the offensive playcalling that that change wasn't made mid-season, you guys come in and not have to change things. I know it wasn't a huge shift last year, but it was still a shift.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I don't think it was all that -- quite that different. Just let me be in more control as far as the situations of game. Like you saw us kind of go down the field and were able to utilize our time in the two-minute drill.
Q. (Regarding triple block and Arryn Siposs.)
NICK SIRIANNI: That's a huge play.
Q. I mean, that's a momentum changing.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah. We obviously talk to our offense a lot about -- we talk to them an awful lot about if there is a turnover, we got to go and make that tackle, just like our offense did.
You know, we have a ton of team meetings about situational football. That's a situation within the game that you got to be able to react and go.
It somehow got into Arryn's head, too, right, to be like I got to get this guy down and let the defense play defense here.
So that's just all the situational work we've done. Obviously that's great speed by Arryn to track him down and great effort by Arryn to track him down, and our defense got a turnover with Avonte right after.
That's just guys giving of themselves to their teammates, too, like to track him down like that. Heck of a tackle.
Q. (Regarding jets.)
NICK SIRIANNI: I'm not sure I knew that. Yeah, we don't -- his jets are not on display very often, and I'm not sure I knew that. It was impressive. Rugby guy, so I'm sure there is some tape somewhere. We'll find. We'll find the tape.
Q. ..Slay doing on Justin Jefferson, what was the key for that? What was your plan?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you can't just go in with one play. If first of all, the defensive staff did an unbelievable job with the plan and the guys did an unbelievable job executing it.
You don't just go in with one -- put all your eggs in one basket, right? There was different disguises, different coverages, but make no mistake about it, it was to -- a lot of it was to stop No. 18. He's a heck of a football player.
But when Slay had to cover him one-on-one, obviously did an unbelievable job. When you bring all the guys on Slay's second interception, really on the one before that, too, right, that could have been interception, you can't help and there is no help when you bring all these guys.
You're in cover and Slay got sticky in the coverage and made an interception. So that's what we see Slay do all over and over again. One of the reasons I always think that our receivers are taking steps in the right direction and getting better is because the work they have to do to go against Slay and James in practice, and Avonte and Zech McPhearson and all those guys.
That's why he's one of our captains, the way he played, the way he studies, the way he leads.
Q. How important was it for the defense to bounce back after the way last week ended?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, obviously it wasn't up to our standard last week. All the defensive players would be the first ones to tell that you. Our job as coaches to put them in the best position we possibly can.
So that was an important bounce-back game for us defensively. Again, it was a full team defensive game. We talk about Slay, the job he did on Jefferson, but the coaches putting the guys in the right position and the assault of the pocket that our front -- our guys and our front seven really got with some of the pressures, and then when it was four-man rush.
Q. On the opening script, what was the focus point?
NICK SIRIANNI: On the opening script what was the focus point? Yeah, what we did there obviously you saw. We went no-huddle. We wanted to go get a fast start. That right there, you know, there was some things that happened in that drive. It wasn't exclusively to go no-huddle, but the way the drive was going we adjusted.
We said just, all right, let's keep going with this. Shane did a great job calling it and our guys did a great job executing it, and we felt like we had them on their heels in that scenario.
Felt like they were tired. We were tired, too. No doubt, right? 12-play drive I think it was to start the game. We were tired, too. But our guys did a really nice job of being able to finish that drive off.
There were penalties and we got to address the penalties. There were too many of those. We were able to dig ourselves out of that hole. Jalen made a great play to AJ and so it was executing on third down and then going a little bit of tempo.
Q. You mentioned last week that complete control with Jalen. He's still a young quarterback. You've been around a lot of veteran quarterbacks. Does that surprise you at all, how much control he has?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think it doesn't surprise me in the sense of that's how practices looked, right? He's went to the right place with the football versus different looks. A great indicator of how we're going to play in games is how we practice. And not just this week, right, not just last week, but throughout tournament and OTAs.
So I wouldn't say I'm surprised. I've seen the growth. We talk about this so much with Jalen. Why is he going to continue to reach his ceiling? Because he's tough, he has high football character, and he loves football.
He's going to reach his ceiling. It's fun watching him grow.
Q. Late in the second quarter, you made a couple throws and Devonta was in the middle of the field. (Indiscernible) how big is that?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, yeah, it was huge. Again, it was just, again, taking what the defense gave them and finding -- obviously that play has more than just Devonta. It goes to the next one and maybe Devonta was the first read, maybe the second read, but he was getting to where he needed to go.
Again, he just took what was there for him, right? Some of the coverage they were playing there was clouding on the outside. So when you play cover two on the outside, it takes away some of the outside throws at times.
So he has to react and take what the defense gives him, and he did a good job of that tonight.
Q. Of all the things Jalen did, what impressed you most?
NICK SIRIANNI: Shoot, I mean, 83% passing. With that many attempts, what was he, 26 of 33? Yeah, that's pretty darn impressive. Yeah.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports