Eagles 34, Packers 29
NICK SIRIANNI: Brazil, thank you. What an unbelievable atmosphere for a football game. Again, miss The Link, miss our fans at The Link. Brazil, I mean, wow. That was incredible.
It was a fun, fun, fun atmosphere. Felt like a playoff atmosphere. Your fans, I mean, people of Brazil, that was something incredible.
We really appreciate it. We appreciate the hospitality, the fan support. It was a little louder than I wanted to when the Green Bay Packers were coming out, but people of Brazil, wow. That was first class.
Q. Nick, that win obviously to escape against a good team I'm sure happy about. Felt a little like some of the wins from last year because it wasn't really clean.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, it's not easy to win football games in the NFL, Jeff, especially when you travel ten hours. I know the Packers traveled ten hours, too. It was a good, good win against a good, good opponent.
Man, do I have so much respect for Coach LeFleur. He is a freaking really good coach, and that quarterback is a really good player. Jordan Love is really, really good player. And that defense, they're tough. Got good players at every level.
What I'm really proud about, Jeff, is it was sloppy, it was definitely sloppy, and both sides, there were things on both sides that looked sloppy.
But we were able as a football team to persevere through some dark moments, right? There was going to be some good stuff that happened in that game, some bad stuff that happened in that game, and our guys just kept coming back.
I told those guys after the game, the dog mentality, the mental toughness, meaning the same thing, having the same attitude, effort, and energy no matter what the circumstance is not only serves these guys well as football players, but it will serve them well in life, because life is hard.
These guys fought through some tough stuff. I know we got tough guys, tough minded guys. Week one rarely looks pretty. We've had some -- I'm thinking back, I guess Atlanta was a good week one win in; 21; '22 was hard at the Detroit; '23 was harder at New England; and this one was hard, too.
But we were able to persevere, and we're not going to be prisoners to -- basically what I'm going to say is we're going to enjoy this journey and not let anybody tell us that wasn't good enough. We won the football game. We have things to clean up. We know we put ourselves in the right position the way we prepared and are going to prepare our asses off again going into the next week.
I don't know who we play next.
Q. How do you think Jalen responded to the turnovers?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, we couldn't have played a worse first quarter than we did offensively. Defensively did a great job stepping up. Couldn't have played a worse first quarter and came back down the field and he hit Saquon with an unbelievable throw.
So he's going to want some plays back obviously, but I thought Jalen started, as far as the dog mentality of playing through and handling the adversity -- again, wasn't perfect by any means. We can help him out with some play calls here and there as well.
But I thought he responded good. That four-minute drive that we had, that drive started with, what, eight some minutes left in the game and we gave them the ball back with 27 seconds. Why? Because Jalen and DeVonta connected on some huge plays.
It's tough football. Four-minute football is tough football, and our guys really responded. To give them back -- and they were in position to throw a Hail Mary at the end of the game. Our guys really, really responded. That four-minute football when things haven't been going great, man, thought we did some really good things in some clutch moments.
Yeah, so I think there will be plays he wants back, but he had some really good moments as well.
Q. Congratulations on your win.
NICK SIRIANNI: Thank you so much.
Q. Saquon Barkley had a huge debut for the Eagles today. What was your approach about the run game with Saquon, especially now that he switched teams to a division rival?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we're so excited to have him. Great question. We're so excited to have him. And he made some huge, huge plays throughout this entire game.
You know, he made plays in the pass game, made plays in the run game. I don't know, what did he rush for? Okay, Bob will pull that up for us.
Made some huge plays in critical moments and scored a bunch of touchdowns. Man, yeah, to have him on our football team means a lot, right? Howie did a great job putting this team together, and he's a playmaker, he's a great leader, and great person.
People feed off his energy, and so you could feel all that. Not on the plays he was making, but the energy and the positive energy he had out there.
Q. Obviously one of the keys during the offseason was exchanging coordinators, and as you mentioned, first quarter probably couldn't have been worse, but the team responded really good the next three quarters. How pleased are you with the situation, and do you believe that slow start was anything related to anything in the offense or just...
NICK SIRIANNI: That's a good defense, right? That's a good defense. I am pleased with where we are and the coordinators. You know, the way you're pleased with somebody is not because of the product that was on the field today. It was because of the work that was put into it, all the things that went into it.
Kellen and Vic are great, great coordinators. Games don't always start the way you want them to. They get paid, too. Man, that's a good football team, but I really thought the slow start -- you know, slow start was offensively. Defense played their ass off to start that game.
To play as bad as we did offensively and to be down 6-0 to start the game is pretty awesome. And hats off to the defense. Don't get me wrong, we got things to clean up on both sides of the football. We could have got down two scores right away but the defense did a good job playing red zone defense.
Love these coordinators. Really pleased with where they are. I think they're both homerun hits. Excited to continue to move on. We'll have some tough conversations about what went right and what went wrong, but pleased with these guys and we'll get better from this game.
Q. Nick, obviously Quinyon went against a very good wide receiver group.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I thought Q was -- the moment is never too big for Q. I've seen that from Q from the very beginning. Obviously have a special relationship. Q's college football coach was my college roommate, so he told me everything there is to know and told Howie everything there is to know about Q.
We were so comfortable taking this guy because he's not fazed phased, and playing corner, man, did Brazil get a great game tonight or what? I know we converted some people to be big time football fans tonight. Man, I'm just thinking about that game again. What a great football game again. My wife is like, it wasn't a great game. Are you kidding me, I was up all night.
Man, what a great game. Going back to Q, from the beginning, what we knew about him from the beginning coming out of Toledo and the way he handled training camp and OTAs, he's not fazed. He's going against AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, two of the best, top receivers in the NFL.
That's pretty awesome, right? The ironing sharpening iron, that is one of my favorite Bible versus. We have so much of that going on on this football team. Like guys having to go against Lane Johnson, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Darius Slay. He'll be mad I said Darius. Guys going against Slay.
Q is a product of that. I thought he handled it well. He had a pass interference at one point and they tried to throw deep on him early in the game and he made a big play. That's something I love about Q, is his competitiveness.
You really saw that -- again, we're told that, but you really saw that as well at the Senior Bowl going against really good football players and he was competing his butt off. Love that about Q. Good question.
Q. AJ Brown said that Sao Paulo doesn't quite know when it cheer because the environment was really loud all the way. I was watching from the stands and there was a lot of the Packers fans. You had the home field advantage. Did this feel like a home game?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know what? At times. There is always Eagles fans everywhere. That's what I love about Eagles fans, they travel so well. We definitely had to go silent cadence here. You don't have th that at true home games. That's okay. We practiced that all week, going silent cadence.
The atmosphere, I cannot -- man, I'm not a big soccer fan. I haven't watched a lot of soccer in my life. I shouldn't say that. But I can only imagine watching a soccer game here. It was so electric. It was loud. It was loud when the Packers were on defense and it was loud when the Eagles were on defense, because of the passion of the fans. I mean, what an unbelievable -- I can't say enough about what we just experienced.
If we want to be who we want to be and we take things one game at a time, it's going to take atmospheres like this and games like this to prep you for the big games coming up. This was a huge game. We had an unbelievable atmosphere.
You guys are going to want to talk to Saquon.
Q. First season as a coach you had young coordinators by your side and now you have Vic Fangio. How do you think this helped and could help in the future?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, two of those coordinators that were young are now head coaches in this unbelievable league, in a fraternity of 32 people. Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon. I love those guys dearly. Man, we did some special things and won some special games with them and I miss them, no doubt, but I'm so happy with the coordinators we have right now.
Vic just brings experience. Like I've said this a bunch: Vic has not only been a good -- Kellen has been a good coordinator for years in the NFL. Vic has been a good coordinator for decades. So that's insane. I'm so excited.
Obviously we got some things we got to clean up on both sides of the ball, but Vic is as-advertised and I'm so excited that he's our defensive coordinator.
Q. I can see in your eyes you're high energy and you already told us about the experience being in Brazil. If you can think about one moment about this trip, what would be it besides leaving the building with the W?
NICK SIRIANNI: Just the camaraderie of this football team. You know, we talked about before the game a lot of things bring you together as a football team. The grind that you have throughout the training camp and OTAs, the weight room, the time spent together, the competing against each other.
But there is nothing like competing with each other against a common opponent with a common goal. Yeah, again, the electricity of the stadium was awesome. But I really think just wins like this bring you closer together as a football team.
We always talk about this: It's not the best groups of individuals that win, it's the best teams that win. That's true of any team sport, and I happen to believe that football is the greatest team sport there is. Everybody has to be on the same page, and if they're not, bad plays can happen.
Wins like this, tough, grimy, gritty wins like this and being able to compete together as a football team, that's special and that's going to help us to continue to grow.
One other thing, Saquon caught that ball out the backfield for a touchdown. Saquon, I think might have been the first one down there celebrate with you. I was so excited for you. It was so awesome that he scored a touchdown. So I'll remember that as well.
Q. (No microphone.)
NICK SIRIANNI: You know what? It's the competitive advantage we have that I'll keep to myself. I'm sure you'll ask me next week and you guys will maybe put in your notes next year of should be a -- guys won the opener, I'm sure you guys will ask me that question again next year.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports