Nick Sirianni on interaction with Philadelphia Eagles fans after Browns win: "Just excited to get the win"
Nick Sirianni brushed off questions about his interaction with Philadelphia Eagles fans following the 20-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns after the TV broadcast appeared to show him jawing back-and-forth with Birds fans.
"Just excited, just excited to get the win," Sirianni said.
"It's hard to win in this league, so we're excited to get the win," he added. "Our fans created a couple of false starts that really helped us win this football game. Just excited to get the win and appreciate the Linc's support."
As the clock winded down in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, the broadcast appeared to catch the red-hot Sirianni yelling in the direction of Eagles fans in the seats at Lincoln Financial Field.
Sirianni has been known to let his emotions get the best of him throughout his time as head coach of the Eagles. Last season at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium following a win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Sirianni heckled opposing fans in the crowd.
"It's damn hard to win in this league and they got some really good football players over there and I know coach [Kevin] Stefanski is a helluva football coach," Sirianni said. "It's hard to win but what we'll do is we'll stay hungry and we'll stay humble. We'll look at the things that we messed up and we got to fix it."
During the bye week, Sirianni said he got some feedback from players on the team that they wanted his energy back on the sidelines, including quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Hurts is the polar opposite of Sirianni. The Eagles franchise quarterback is usually cool, calm and collected on the sideline no matter how the game is going.
Hurts hasn't always given Sirianni the strongest endorsement throughout their four years together, but he said he encouraged Sirianni to be himself over the bye week.
"It's just a reassurance of we trust who you are, we trust where you are as a coach and we know we can build with you," Hurts said. "It's about doing it together, it's about doing it together. And I think for him or any leader it's about a vision and trusting in that vision. He's done a really good job of having conversations and trying things out. And some things take time. But it's a group effort from everybody... and everyone has to respect their role, accept their role and give their best, so I'm excited for him and his growth and I think it will continue to help our football team."
The FOX broadcast didn't only catch Sirianni jawing with Eagles fans. He was also seen talking trash to Browns players, including cornerback Greg Newsome.
Sirianni said he has a lot of respect for Newsome and the trash talk was all out of fun.
"If I want the guys to celebrate and be themselves after big plays, I should probably do the same myself," Sirianni said. "Now there's time for that and times not for that. I have to have wisdom and discernment of when to do that and not do that."
As far as what happened on the football field, Hurts and Philadelphia's offense started off slow once again.
The Eagles are the only team in the NFL to not score in the first quarter so far this season. The Eagles got booed early in the game and even chanted "fire Nick" but Sirianni said the boos don't help the team while they're on the field.
"We thrive off the crowd when they cheer for us, that's all I'll say," Sirianni said. "When our crowd cheers for us, we thrive off them. We hear them when they boo, we don't necessarily like it, I don't think that's productive for anybody, but when they cheer for us and when we got them rolling, we love it."
Even though they started slow, Hurts completed 16 of his 25 passes for 264 with touchdowns to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in their return from injuries. For the first time all season, Hurts also didn't commit a turnover and didn't throw the ball into harm's way.
But, the slow starts will likely catch up to the Birds. Sirianni vowed that they'll figure it out offensively.
"We're going to do everything we can to fix it," Sirianni said.
