Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was one of the NFL’s most aggressive coaches on fourth downs all year, but he has taken some criticism for taking his offense off the field on two key fourth downs in Super Bowl LVII. Today he addressed the last of those decisions.
On fourth-and-3 from the Eagles’ 32-yard line, trailing 28-27, with 10:33 left in the fourth quarter, Sirianni decided to punt. The result of that decision was a disaster, with Kadarius Toney returning the punt 65 yards and the Chiefs scoring a touchdown two plays later, but Sirianni stands by his decision.
“I think you get 32 out of 32 NFL coaches punting there. There are no regrets,” Sirianni said.
Whether it’s true that all 32 coaches would have punted if faced with that precise situation is impossible to say, but it seems likely that at least a few would have gone for it. The analytics were clear that the Eagles should have gone for it, and enough NFL coaches now study analytics that some probably would have recognized that going for it there was the right call.
Sirianni is one of those coaches, which is why the Eagles converted 22 fourth downs during the regular season, the second-most in the NFL. Unfortunately, he lost his nerve in the Super Bowl.
