“Inexcusable” - Rich on Nick Sirianni’s Mindboggling Decision That Cost the Eagles a W vs Jags

Rich has done this a long time, and he can't remember a football weekend like this one. The London game alone would have been enough.

He started with college football to set the scene: Alabama hosed at the end against Georgia, Kalen DeBoer going nuts on the refs and then on his own player for a game-ending 15-yard penalty, LSU and Kentucky, and UCLA sitting at 5-0 after beating Oregon. Then came the professional football weekend, starting with the 2:30 a.m. alarm for the London game on NFL Network.

What followed was absurd from the opening kickoff. A return touchdown was wiped out by penalties. Two players fought and were ejected before a real snap. One of them was Jeremiah Trotter Jr., whose dad once got ejected for fighting before a kickoff. "So, there you have it, son," Rich said. "You almost beat your dad."

Then came the actual football. The Jaguars faced second-and-40, which became third-and-37. They punted, and their long snapper got hurt on the play. The Eagles took over with third-string running back Will Shipley behind four offensive linemen who weren't part of their Super Bowl line 20 months earlier, including a left guard under six feet tall. Shipley went for it on fourth down and was stopped by Davon Hamilton, who Rich noted was now the Jaguars' backup long snapper despite not having long snapped since high school. All of that happened in the first two possessions.

The wild stuff kept coming. Parker Washington scored on a 51-yard touchdown. "That guy's unbelievable," Rich said. Darius Cooper caught a 62-yard touchdown with DeVonta Smith out, and Jalen Hurts, up 14-7, gave a Jordan shrug, like this is just how it goes in London, where the Eagles were supposed to get smoked.

Because of Hamilton's shaky short snaps, which kept nearly sailing over the punter who was holding, Liam Coen pretty much stopped kicking field goals. That produced a parade of turnovers on downs. Trevor Lawrence, off his spot because Jalen Carter was "out of his head," threw an interception three plays after one of them. Philadelphia got down to its fourth-string running back, Dameon Pierce. Then Parker Washington made a one-handed grab that put Jacksonville ahead and made everyone in the studio jump out of their seats.

And somehow, with all those deficiencies, the Eagles marched down the field. Jake Elliott hit a 48-yard field goal with eight seconds left. Rich called it one of the most remarkable Philadelphia performances he could remember.

Then Nick Sirianni made the call. Instead of kicking it deep, Rich said, "to Liverpool or hit someone in Ireland on the back of their head," the Eagles kicked it to Ameer Abdullah. He returned it 53 yards, the second-longest return in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime since the Rams' Gaston Green did it against the Saints in 1990. Jacksonville had to try the kick, long snapper or not, and Cam Little booted a 57-yarder, then celebrated like Jude Bellingham.

It was the first game in the Super Bowl era with two go-ahead field goals in the final 10 seconds of a fourth quarter. Jacksonville started 4-1 for a second straight season. Philadelphia fell under .500 for the first time since Week 13 of 2021, Sirianni's first season, 1,771 days before he had to step to the podium and say "my bad."

"I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game. And that's what I said to our guys," Sirianni said. "What hurts there is that the guys fought so hard, and then I don't make the decision that I should make at the end of the game, and I cost us that game, and I put that fully on me."

Rich invoked Bill Parcells: you can go from the penthouse one week to the outhouse the next. "And the Philadelphia Eagles went from the penthouse to the outhouse in 8 seconds," he said. The broadcast team of Dave Pasch, Jason Kelce and Kurt Warner had spent the seconds before the kickoff rightly praising how remarkable the win was.

The context made it sting more. Lane Johnson retired at the start of the week. Cam Jurgens was traded a day later. Saquon Barkley was out. Tank Bigsby had core surgery. Shipley came into the game never having had 10 carries in an NFL game. The rushing attack went 18 for 22 yards, the Eagles' fewest in a game in 11 years, and Hurts was under pressure all day. They were still in position to fly home 3-2, with the Cowboys already having lost.

"And now we're talking about a decision Sirianni made that is inexcusable," Rich said. Jacksonville was out of timeouts. Kick it deep, give them the ball at the 35, and the Jaguars need one play plus a spike to get Little on the field. "It is virtually impossible," Rich said. "But there was enough time for Ameer Abdullah to rip off half the field."