Eagles 31, Dolphins 17
NICK SIRIANNI: Hit it.
Q. Have you seen a wide receiver play at this level that AJ Brown is doing?
NICK SIRIANNI: Man, AJ is a phenomenal player. He just has this unbelievable ability to come down with the football. Nobody catches the ball as pretty as AJ Brown. Nobody.
I can't tell you how many times at practice -- like I'm just in awe of good wide receivers and just the skill that they have. Like nobody goes and snags the football like him. Nobody I've seen, and it's so much cooler in person to see that when it's on your team.
So he's on a tear right now. The other guys are playing good, too. Why is he on a tear? Well, because DeVonta Smith is on one side and Dallas Goedert is in the middle and D'Andre Swift is in the backfield and now Julio Jones is over there.
So appreciative of Howie. Man, I thought I would never say this, but I think this week at practice AJ was having an unbelievable practice and I weren't up to Mr. Lurie and I go -- there is no way I ever thought that would've came out of my mouth -- thanks for the $100 million to pay AJ Brown. I really appreciate that. Like a guy from Jamestown, New York, I never thought I would say, hey, thanks for the $100 million to pay AJ Brown.
Q. How do you keep the No. 1 offense to 17 points?
NICK SIRIANNI: Got good defense. Great job to the defensive staff first and foremost to put them in positions to make plays, but at the end of the day it's about the players making the plays.
And so what I thought was really -- we made them one dimensional because that team -- man, I can't tell you how much respect I have for Mike and his staff and those players. Talk about the guy that's the prettiest catching the ball in AJ Brown, I never saw anybody as fast as Tyreek Hill in person. I mean, damn, he's fast as hell.
But great job by our DBs. We knew he was going to get some plays and this and that, but starts with our defensive line and being able to apply pressure, which I thought we did, and the DBs did a good job making him hold the ball is tick when we were able to get home.
But it started with making them one dimensional. I think you saw some good things there with Haasan, with the way he kind of stopped the toss crack play and set the edge, because they have been highly successful on that play.
Mike did a good job of getting it going, because he ended up hitting a couple -- they ended up hitting a couple bu disguising it and not tossing it and handing it behind.
I can't tell you how much respect I got for that staff. Great job by our defensive staff and great job by our players.
Q. What does that saw about Sean Desai though that he's been able to do this with a many injuries in that secondary?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you see why we hired him, right? We knew the type of guy we were getting. I just think he's done a phenomenal job. What I think he's done such a good job of is what I admire of any coach: Adapting to the personnel that you have.
I think he's done that, and we'll continue to look to climb. Sean has done a great job of putting the guys in positions to make plays and our defensive staff, they all contribute to that.
So hats off to all of them, and obviously hats to have to Howie, because it's all about the players, and we're really doing a great job up front.
Again, Haason Reddick doesn't have to sack the quarterback to affect the game. Josh Sweat, same thing, being able to -- again, I'll have to watch the tape, but just live it looked like those two guys had an unbelievable game.
Q. On the fourth and one play from your own 26, looked like you needed a little time to think about whether you wanted to go for it.
NICK SIRIANNI: I didn't know what the down and distance was exactly. I think initially I thought it was a little bit further back than it was, and then I got a good look of where the spot was.
I didn't love that I had to call a timeout there. I had to get a second look at where the spot was. I thought initially it was two, but it was more like a yard. I thought to myself, well, I would being crazy if I don't go for it on fourth and one with the type of guys we have.
Again, goes back to the dudes that we got and making the play.
Q. What kind of psychological edge do you think it gives you guys that you can run that play...
NICK SIRIANNI: It's first and nine every down. You know, every first down it's first and nine.
Knowing that if you get to fourth and one, shoot, a lot of faith in that play.
Just, you know, yeah, so it was awesome. Again, Jason Kelce starts it off. Jalen Hurts was right there. Because you've seen it across the league that people can't do it like we can do it. They can't do it like we can do it.
So I'm making my pluck right there. Like don't ban this play. Like if everyone could do it, everybody would. Where is the camera? If everybody could do it, everybody would do it.
Q. ...looked like he got banged up. AJ alluded to it.
NICK SIRIANNI: Rob, I know you're not here every day with the local media. I'm probably not giving you that information. We'll see. Got to talk to the trainers, talk to Jalen. We'll get him in tomorrow. John is going to ask me tomorrow. Elliott will ask me tomorrow, how is Jalen? I'm going to say, I got to see him a little bit more. I'll let you know Wednesday.
Wednesday is going to come. It's going to be before practice. They're going to ask me again and I'm going to say, I got to see how it's looking out there and I will get you some more information on Friday. Friday we'll see if he's on the injury report or not.
When Friday comes they're going to ask, what do you think? What's going to happen here? I'll say, we'll get you the injury report later in the day. I just string them along. (Laughter.)
You didn't like that, Bob?
BOB: I'm fine with it.
Q. But since this is the franchise quarterback, people are concerned. Anything else you can give in terms of did he put a brace on at halftime?
NICK SIRIANNI: He played the rest of the game and played at a very high level. Have to ask Jalen. I thought he played really outstanding. Man, he is a competitor. There is nobody else I would rather be our quarterback. He played his butt off tonight. He's tough.
You know, ya'll saw that he was going through a little something. So he is tough. He is tough, tough. This game all comes down to physicality and toughness. Always does. No matter what. Because it's hard. And that's physical and mental toughness, and Jalen Hurts has both.
Q. After last week's game, is this the kind of response you expected from your guys knowing their makeup, knowing their drive, how they work?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, you go back to work each week. It's dog mentality. No matter what happens, you go back to work each week. You just want to keep improving so you're playing you've best ball at the end of the year.
So I expect them to respond to this game like they did last game, because that's type of guys we have.
Q. Had a bit of a turnover drought. Slay made that big play. Kind of peeled off and looked like a wheel route. I don't know how good of a look you saw, but is that a football IQ play, athleticism?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I mean, Slay has it all, right,. Football IQ, athletic ability. I can't tell you how good of a leader Darius Slay is. He'll be mad I said Darius Slay, but I can't tell how big of a leader he is. I'm so glad he's on this football team, that he's a captain, because he works at it. He works to bring the young guys up.
Shoot, I'll say it, he brought -- Zech McPhearson's down, right? When you go through injuries you're going to be down. It's tough. He brought him to the baseball game the other day to spend time with him. Like that's something you guys want to know and I feel comfortable saying that, because I want people to know how good of a player he is. Everyone knows how good of a player he is.
He's tough. I just want everyone to know how good of a leader he is. When you have good leaders on your football team, you'll be able to handle the ups and downs of a season. Man, we got great leaders on this football team.
Q. In the locker room the players kept talking about physicality. How did that factor into the messaging this week?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, our whole talk this week was about details and physicality. We did some things last week detail-wise that we want back. You know, when we talk about details, it's like, hey, we got all the talent we need in this room. When the details are on the talent can shine. Sometimes when the details are off it doesn't matter how much talent you got.
So it was about details, and it was about physicality, about being able to come out and lean -- like I always feel like when we play our best is when we're leaning on -- obviously Jalen playing great -- but leaning on the offensive and defensive lines.
So I felt that completely like the time that we had to throw, the way we stopped the run, you lean on those guys. So that was the message this week. But, shoot, those guys went out and did it and they played their butts off.
I'll answer one more. I'm always good guy here. Bob is the bad guy and I'm the good guy. It was Bob's birthday the other day.
Q. Happy birthday. Looked like Jalen was a little late coming out after the half. Marcus was warming up. Could it have been possible...
NICK SIRIANNI: You know what, Marcus might have just been throwing. I didn't tell Marcus to warm um. I knew Jalen was coming back in the game. He gets IVs sometimes at halftime, so sometimes when you don't get the ball to start the second half you can finish the IV.
It was pretty hot out there. I might need an IV next time. I think that's all that was about.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports