Brian Johnson finally got the chance to explain two of the more questionable calls from the Eagles’ too-close-for-comfort overtime win over the Commanders on Sunday.
The Eagles’ offensive coordinator on Tuesday addressed the late touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and the 3rd-and-11 run earlier in the quarter in the Eagles’ 34-31 OT win.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni always stresses situational football and these were two questionable moments. While Sirianni is the head coach, Johnson is the offensive play-caller and in his first year in that role. And Sirianni already answered for both of these calls.
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On Tuesday, it was Johnson’s turn:
The late touchdown
The Eagles had the ball with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter in a 24-24 game when Jalen Hurts hit A.J. Brown on a double-move for a 28-yard touchdown. With the extra point, the Eagles were up 31-24, but it also gave the Commanders the ball back with a chance to potentially win the game in regulation. (And a taunting call on Brown after the touchdown gave them good field position.)
Sure, the Eagles defense deserves the blame for letting the Commanders drive down the field to score a touchdown and Ron Rivera deserves some pats on the back from Eagles fans for weirdly electing to kick the PAT to send the game into overtime.
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But all of that could have probably been avoided.
It probably would have made more sense for the Eagles to try to run down the clock and kick a field goal to win the game as time expired. Sirianni said he wasn’t going to apologize for scoring too quickly and said he wanted to stay aggressive.
Here’s what Johnson said about the play:
“Those guys made a great play. Ultimately, right there, you’re trying to get the first down and get into that. But it was a situation where those two guys made a fantastic play and were able to connect for a shot and get in the end zone.”
But was that the call Hurts went to the line with?
“It was a pass play to try to get the first down,” Johnson answered.
As you can see from the clip above, Brown caught that ball in the end zone so there was a bit of a disconnect. If the play was designed to get a first down and he catches it in the end zone, something doesn’t line up. Before the snap, it looked like Hurts was making a check. It seems very possible Hurts saw an opportunity to be aggressive with Brown so they adjusted the route and took it.
The Kenny Gainwell run
On the very first play of the fourth quarter, the Eagles were faced a 3rd-and-11 from the Washington 16-yard line … and they handed the ball off to Kenny Gainwell.
Gainwell fumbled the football and Lane Johnson fell on it to preserve the field goal opportunity — Jake Elliott drilled a 36-yarder — but why run it in that situation in the first place?
Sirianni went on the 94WIP Morning Show Tuesday and actually took blame for the call.
"I'll be quite honest with you," Sirianni said, "I don't do this very often to Brian because he's the offensive coordinator and he's calling plays. Obviously, we go through the plan all week together and think about the plays we're going to call in certain situations. But when the game's going, I let him roll. In that situation he wanted to pass it and I said, 'You know what, we're going to run it in this particular case.' So that was my call. I thought we were going to get a light box. We've run a play, I wouldn't say a play exactly like that but we've ran plays similar to that against light boxes and they've succeeded. This one in this particular case didn't."
Sirianni also intimated that if they got enough yards on third down, he might have considered going for it on fourth down.
What did Johnson say about the call?
“Just in terms of managing the game, there's always those situations on those 3rd-and-long field goal range type deals where there's a couple schools of thought of strategy and how you want to play that scenario,” Johnson said. “And it works out a couple different ways.
“There's been times where we've done that and it's hit and you've scored, or you've gotten yourself in a position to go for it on fourth down. Unfortunately, it didn't work that time and you have to be accountable for that.”
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