Q. Was it nitpicking over the ineligible men downfield from the officials or something, you've had 11 of them now in two years?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we've had a lot but we have also created a lot of explosive plays off them as well. I thought they made the right calls this week. So you know and we went through a process with this last year as well and we had to coach it differently, and so that coaching point is still in our -- in our thought process and still in our -- in our mode and for whatever reason, it got -- it got downfield a little bit and so there was one on a screen as well and that was 100 percent my fault. I changed the timing of it just a little bit to try to do something to the defense and make it a bigger play, and the timing didn't work and that's a hundred percent on me.
So you know, we are going to keep working them and we'll keep emphasizing the importance of what we emphasize on play because it's a good play for us.
So it always starts with coaching and that's where I thought the problem was, and was it nitpicky, I actually thought they made really good calls, the officials made good calls there in those situations.
Q. In the RPOs, how does the lineman know whether the quarterback is throwing the ball?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think this might go probably more information than I want to give out, maybe off the record a little bit later. But he's not going to necessarily know but there's still a coaching point to it that helps us out.
Q. What have you seen out of Carson on tape? And do you have to touch on his history here with the players at all during the course of the week one way or another?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think what you touch on is that you don't ever leave a stone unturned. I think somebody asked me about the Hard Knocks, did you watch the Hard Knocks. Yeah, we were looking for information, right and when we played them, all right, did you listen to Kevin O'Connell's press conference? Yeah, I was looking for information. Are you going to ask the people in the building that are familiar with Carson about him? Yeah, I'm looking for information.
And so that would be the same process. I think he's doing a nice job over there, what I've seen. I've seen, obviously thrown for a bunch of yards and we know that he can get hot. And be really on. We know he's powerful with the ball in his hands and he can make a play at my time.
And so we are going through our process to get ready for him and we know he can make a lot of plays.
Q. When you talk about leaving no stone unturned, have you talked to frank about it, how he was last year?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again I talk to Frank all the time but yeah, I've talked -- I haven't necessarily talked to Frank about Carson. Obviously talked to some other guys there I'm close with about it. Small talk and everything like that. But of course, anything we can get with information on him.
Like I said, you know, do you need to reach out as much to the Colts in this scenario? The building is so familiar with Carson, as well that we have a lot of information at hand inside the building.
Q. What have you seen from the relationship between slain and Jalen and how it's grown since last year and how that's enabled Shane to get Jalen into rhythm and play at a high level?
NICK SIRIANNI: We all spend too much time together and Shane spends a lot of Jalen to understand what he likes. Shane and I are in every quarterback meeting like I said and obviously talking through everything. So what are we going to do against this look, what are we going to do against that look.
Obviously on a football level, they are very close and then you know, they have worked on their connection as well of being close outside the building or with not just football because that to us is not a coordinator, quarterback thing or a head coach quarterback thing or that's an organizational philosophy, can that compete, accountability, football IQ and fundamentals and connect rate at the top of it. I think Shane does a good job with Jalen of connecting with him, not just in football and I think Shane has continued to do a very good job of connecting with all the offensive players.
And I look over and he's always saying something to Fletch. Shane is a really good coach, not just X's and O's but also connecting with the guys.
Q. What stands out about the way Jalen takes to coaching, how he processes it and how he adapts and gets better?
NICK SIRIANNI: It's almost as if he's grown up with a dad who was a coach. He's been getting coached his whole life. And again, I just can't say enough about Jalen, the person, that like we talk about all his abilities as a player but the thing that makes you reach your ceiling as a player is when you have that other -- you have the other things, right, the toughness, the love of football, the football IQ. That's what helps you reach your ceiling.
Now everybody is blessed with a different ceiling to reach as we know, right. Everybody's ceiling is different based off of what God gave them.
But those guys that reach that ceiling are what Jalen -- what Jalen has inside, and that's what's so special and that's why you're continuing to see him develop in my opinion.
Q. When did you realize that he could take hard coaching on the sidelines and even being yelled at in front of everybody?
NICK SIRIANNI: He definitely said something to me early on. "You can coach me hard." And I think I said, "I plan on it." But I don't know if I actually had like an ah-ha moment with it. You know, it's just like I know my coaching style and sometimes it's something I need to get after him, and every time I've ever done that, he's handled it really well. The time that I think about probably the most is that Washington game at home last year, I think I got after him pretty good. He had a calm look on his face and calm deem over and did what he needed to do and we ended up having a good game that game.
That's who he is, and I don't know if there was a, this is the moment, but he definitely can handle hard coaching and he handles coaching in general really well.
Q. Haskell has a couple catches in both games. Seems like he's yelling well with the receivers. How do you think he's handled transition?
NICK SIRIANNI: He's done a good job. He's doing what we anticipated him doing, playing really well on special teams and being their enforcer and when you have an enforcer like that with some of the run stuff and some of the screen stuff, you're able to reward that guy because the looks that you're doing Murray smells and you're able to get them a touch that can turn them into an explosive play.
He's doing what we anticipated him doing. There wasn't a lot of projection like, okay, we knew who Zach was and we knew what exactly we were getting when he stepped in the building and I think he's fit in really well with all the guys. Every time I come in here for a team meeting, he's shooting jumps. He's a pretty good jump shooter and he shoots jumpshots and him and Chauncey are shooting jumpshots every time I walk in here. He's gelling well with the team and making plays which is great --
Q. What example --
NICK SIRIANNI: We just talked about competing and last week was a little bit about connecting and this week is a lot about competing. And just going -- so it was competing and it was about any time we start on Wednesday, I'm going to talk about the weekly process or the importance of practice or this or that and we talked about the weekly process and not skipping steps or anything like that.
I think when you focus on -- so the compete, the not skipping steps and the attention to detail, I think when you focus on, you know, the process of the week and all those things, like you don't get affected by the outside noise, right. And because obviously people are telling us how good we are now, right. And people, you know, whether it was last year at this time or people are telling us how bad we were, right.
When you truly are in the moment of where you are and focusing on what you have to do for that day, people can tell you whatever they want. Your job today is to do this and not to skip any steps.
And okay, if we are as competitive as we say we are in this room and as we preach in this room, then I don't care if you're 2-0, 0-2, if you won 24-7 or if you lost 7 to 24, you're going to come out and want to take the guy your playing's heart away the next game. I don't care if you're playing a one-to-one basketball game -- what did I get my balls busted about last year -- rock, paper, scissors, I don't care what it is, you are going to go and try to win that competition.
So when you can stick true to your core values and what's important for a week, all the outside noise and all the waves of the season, right, we play once a week, so I understand. Like you guys had a lot of stories to write about before we play again and so we understand what it is, but you've got to stay true to what you're doing in that particular day, and the core values that we have.
So that's what we kind of talked about.
Q. How can you tell they are getting that message?
NICK SIRIANNI: The same way I get when you guys do it, the head nod. I don't know. The way they come out and work. But I don't worry about that that much here because we've got great team captains and great team leaders. Our captains are special, right and they have been to the top of the mountain, most of our captains have been to the top of the mountain and know what it takes to get to the top of the mountain and plant that Eagle flag at the top of the mountain.
You know, I've got a pretty unique -- as opposed to other head coaches in the NFL, I feel like I have a very unique situation with -- with four guys on the offensive line, or offense and defensive line that have been in the battle and the trenches and got to the top.
And so they know and they can -- they help preach every message and they are just great leaders.
Q. When you -- when you got this job there was still a little bit of uncertainty. Carson was still part of the organization. What was your sort of thought process there? Obviously you're excited to get the job but did you start thinking about Carson? Did you start thinking about Jalen?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. Obviously I was thinking about all the guys on the team and what and what the team was going to look like, what we were going to build and how we were going to build with Howie and so obviously he was on the roster when I first got there. So reached out to a lot of different guys but it's the same process the every position. Trying to get to know the guys first, the connection, and trying to get to know what the guys can do when I was watching the tape. But then everything is going to come back to, all right, I have to get my hands on the guys and figure out what they can do in person.
Howard, you asked me like six times in my opening press conference, "Is Carson Wentz going to be the starting quarterback?" I didn't forget that.
Q. I saw after Monday's night win Jalen addressing the locker room, he was amped up about the win but said there's still something on the table; that the team has not reached what they are capable of doing. What do you see that's left on the table that the team needs to do?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. You see every year that a team starts 5-0 or 5-1, and they fall off, right. You see every year that a team starts slow and they build.
And so we're so early in this, like there's so much time to build and there's so much -- like we are truly in the business of getting better every day, me included, coaches included. We are trying to elevate our play each day and we know in this league that there's so many teams that start fast and then they fizzle off.
So our daily focus is truly -- I know I sound like a broken record, I'm saying it over and over again. Our process is trying to get better each day and you're never going to come away from a game and say, well, that was good enough. That's just not how we live, how we operate.
And so you know, like I said, just with the illegal men downfield, there's mistakes I've made there and I want to get better at. I'm always going through the process of looking at myself in the mirror first so I'm living that philosophy. Then I'm going to challenge the coaches offensively, defensively and special teams in that same philosophy and then it will go down to the players.
There's so many things. We started fast, great. And the defense stayed fast the whole time and the offense, right, we didn't score any points in the second half, right. And that's partly me. I think I did -- I took my foot off the gas and forced Shane to take his foot off the gas and I know did that and that's not good enough on my part. There's a lot of room for improvement. The penalties we need to clean up. The communication was better from Detroit. You're just hoping to see that improvement each and every day, the things you're working on and emphasizing.
Q. You mentioned Jalen's ceiling earlier, how did Monday night's performance did, it change your perception of his ceiling?
NICK SIRIANNI: I don't think I know what his ceiling is yet. I just continue to see him get better.
And so, yeah, I knew he had that in him and again I'm not surprised by anything that Jalen does on the football field because I've seen him doing this all off-season, you know, all training camp, practices, the meeting room, right. I see his growth over just consistently all the time. Maybe to the outside world, it's like, would he, right and I don't think that surprises any of us in the building because we see them every day, we live with them and see the growth every day, not only off and on the football field but on the practice field and in the meeting room.
Q. How do you think Gannon responded last week and what specifically about his game plan impressed you?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I don't I think if you're listening to the outside noise, the waves of the season, the waves of the season, that you will be affected by it and you have to be where you are and that's where I saw Gannon. That's how we are going to clean this up and this is how we are going to put our guys in the best position that we think's possible to help us win the game and that's what he did. He didn't allow anything to affect him on that. That's a great quality to have. Not everybody has it and not everybody is built to coach. I get it, not everybody is built to coach in the city or play in the city but that's why we are trying to create this mindset and the common denominator of players that are really good have this mindset of, I am in the moment of where I am right now, and I'm not worried about anything else.
That's dog mentality, right. It's dog mentality to say, I am here right now, I don't care. I don't care what I did in the past. I don't care if it was this good or that bad. I'm right here right now and working on how I'm getting better today because if I continue to that trend I'll get better and that's Gannon, too. Obviously what I like about the game plan, he didn't let their best player beat us. He did it multiple ways, not all my eggs in one basket with Slay. Sometimes it was Slay and sometimes Slay and a different coverage guy and sometimes it was a pressure and Slay was the only guy on it. That's good coaching to me.
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