Nick Sirianni didn’t try to talk his way out of this one.
After the Eagles’ 17-16 lead in London evaporated in the final seconds against the Jaguars, the head coach went straight at the mistake that helped sink Philadelphia. With eight seconds left, the Eagles chose not to have Jake Elliott boot the kickoff through the end zone for a touchback. Instead, the ball came back into play, Ameer Abdullah ripped off a 53-yard return, and Cam Little had the opening he needed to finish the game with a winning kick.
Sirianni said he owned the call completely.
"Our guys fought their butts off. ... I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game.
And that's what I said to our guys," Sirianni said. "I [didn't] make the decision that I should make at the end of that game, and I cost us that one.
And I put that fully on me."
"At the end of the day, I didn't make the right decision. ... There's no other way around it."
Elliott later confirmed the plan was to keep the ball in play.
"We decided to keep it in there and try to make a tackle," Elliott said.
That choice backfired immediately. Abdullah’s return flipped the field in a flash and put Little well within range, turning what looked like a late Eagles win into a loss before the clock could run out.
The postgame reaction was swift, with plenty of NFL voices hammering the decision to avoid the touchback. The criticism centered on the same point: Philadelphia had the lead, the Jaguars had no timeouts, and a kickoff out of the end zone would have forced Jacksonville to start much farther back.
Sirianni didn’t hide from any of it.
"I can't even comprehend what I just watched, the fact that Nick Sirianni put the Eagles in a position to lose this football game ... it was nothing short of coaching malpractice."
Sirianni said the mistake will linger, but he also made clear he’s moving on from it.
"It's gonna hurt for a while," Sirianni said. "But I'm gonna put my chest out, stick my head up, and get better from it. I'm gonna own it, and move forward."
The loss drops the Eagles under .500, and they’ll head into next week’s matchup against the Panthers at 2-3.
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