Every ugly thing the Eagles did in their loss to the Bears on Monday night mattered, but one decision from Nick Sirianni stood out above the rest.
Late in the third quarter, with the Eagles down 20-7 and facing 4th-and-1 at the Bears’ 49, Sirianni chose to punt instead of keeping the drive alive. At the time, Jalen Hurts appeared to be trying to draw Chicago offside as the play clock wound down, and the choice left plenty of people around the game stunned.
The reaction was immediate. Ryan Paganetti called it “an unbelievably large mistake” and added, “One of the biggest win probability mistakes I can ever remember from Sirianni.” He later noted that, “On a relative basis they would win 21% more often by choosing to go for it.”
The frustration only grew on the Eagles’ next possession, when Sirianni decided to go for it on 4th-and-5 from the plus 46 instead. That sequence made the earlier punt look even stranger. As Brandon Lee Gowton put it, “Oh so Nick Sirianni goes for it on 4th-and-5 from the plus 46-yard line but not 4th-and-1 from the minus 49-yard line.
It's just such a random and haphazard decision-making process.”
Hurts did not help matters on that earlier fourth-down play. His throw was poor, and it sure looked like he never saw TJ Edwards standing there before sending the ball right at him. The interception was one of the oddest-looking plays of the night.
Still, the bigger issue was the decision before the snap. Sirianni said afterward that he should have gone for it.
“You know, as I look back at that, I probably - I should’ve went for it there. Didn’t like that decision.”
Not good.
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