EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Nick Sirianni stood at the podium and proclaimed his football team wasn't a bunch of quitters. Even after losing five of their last six games, the Philadelphia Eagles have shown little indication publicly that they have given up trying to salvage a season that's spiraling toward the brink of extinction.
The locker room vibe is a completely different story. Just like MetLife Stadium has been for the franchise that played there in a lost season, the Eagles quarters in Week 18 were similar to a mausoleum. It's been that way for several weeks now -- even after the lone win against the New York Giants in Week 16 -- a locker room of coaches and players searching for answers, trying to figure out how things got to this point.
The message has been the same from Sirianni. But while just six weeks ago he could seemingly motivate his team through anything, now his comments just roll eyeballs.
"I know this group are fighters, I know this group will get up," Sirianni said after the Eagles lost an embarrassing fashion to the Giants. "I know that we've all been through things in our life that we've all had to deal with shit, and we know how to get up.
"The same message that I talked to the guys about last year going into the NFC Championship game about not only are we physically tough, we're mentally tough and think about all the stuff that you've been through in your life and why you're in this seat right now, is the same message I would say right now."
Sirianni admitted to using the same message to rally the troops, but this isn't the 2022 Eagles. That Eagles team was a top five offense and points and yards per game and a top five defense in yards allowed per game (top eight in points allowed per game). Jalen Hurts was playing at an MVP level. Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon were the coordinators.
This year's Eagles team finished seventh in points per game and eighth in yards per game, not has high as last year. The defense finished 30th and points allowed per game and 26th in yards allowed per game, a significant fall of the cliff from last year's heights. Hurts turns the ball over at least once per game. Brian Johnson and Sean Desai (now Matt Patricia) are the coordinators and play callers.
Sirianni's message isn't going to resonate with a team that probably knew it wasn't as good as its 10-1 start indicated. This Eagles team isn't as bad as the team that finished 1-5 in its last six games, either, but the situation was made worse when the team panicked and essentially fired its defensive play caller 14 games into his first season on the job.
But the Eagles are going to go to battle regardless. The message is the same.
"That's the reason all these guys are in that locker room because they know how to freaking fight," Sirianni said. "The coaches know how to freaking fight. The players know how to freaking fight. The staff know how to freaking fight.
"So, we'll just get up and we'll fight again."
Is the consistent (stale?) message resonating? At the end of Sirianni's fiery speech, he had a "we'll see what happens next week" line, one that could reveal doubt about whether his players are actually listening to him.
"As long as we got life, we got opportunity," Brandon Graham said sitting at his locker after the loss. "I know we can get back to what we was, and it's gonna start this week...You're gonna see. I know this team. Everybody gonna create their own narrative on the outside, but I don't see nothing but people just working every week.
"I feel like you know, we'll see next week."
We'll see how the Eagles end up. They're 0-0, as they say, heading into the postseason. Losing five of six is in the rearview mirror, but the same problems persist. The same message isn't going to carry over, but the Eagles can change the narrative.
"I don't think there's any doubts in the locker room," Dallas Goedert said. "There may be doubts outside the building, but those guys aren't in the building. I think we got a lot of confidence in the locker room and the belief outside isn't gonna waver on the inside.
"I think everybody has just been waiting for the playoffs. I think everybody is gonna be ready to go and we're gonna show the world what we're capable of."
We'll see.
