Football fans tend to be a provincial lot so when something universal like Week 1 sloppy football in the NFL is discussed in a micro sense the local way of doing business is to blame.
The Philadelphia Eagles are comfortably in the bottom third of the league when it comes to practice time and preseason reps for key contributors, and that’s with an uptick afforded to new coordinators Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni does not believe the sloppy football he stipulated to in the Week 1 win over Green Bay in Sao Paulo, Brazil was related to a lack of preseason playing time
"Week 1 of the season, I think you can probably look around the league and see sloppy football all the way around,” the Eagles coach said.
Philadelphia opened on Friday night in a standalone game, the NFL’s first in South America.
Watching Sunday’s action essentially confirmed Sirianni’s thesis. No matter the level of preseason playing time, the league is always plagued by sloppy play early in seasons.
“I don't think it matters who played their starters in the preseason, who didn't play their starters in the preseason. I saw sloppy football out of both sides yesterday,” Sirianni said.
The coach didn’t want to point fingers but noted “I got to sit and watch football yesterday and there was a lot of the sloppy football. Just like we had sloppy football.”
The Eagles managed to escape at 1-0 with their version of "sloppy football" against a very good opponent in the Packers.
“I'm pleased with how we've started here. I'm pleased with how we've gone about our process,” said Sirianni. “We've started fast. Now, the only way to go 2-0 is if you go 1-0. That's our next focus.”
After the win over the Packers, Sirianni was expecting the preseason narrative to be a talking point and went to his resume for a game of Scoreboard.
The Eagles coach’s version?
“Four and 0."
That's Sirianni’s record in season-openers since becoming a head coach.
In the case of the Eagles’ starters needing more preseason reps for success that’s a Perry Mason moment for the defense.
“The availability of our players is highly important,” Sirianni said. “AJ Brown is a special player, so you want him there for the long haul. Lane Johnson is a special player. Jalen Hurts is a special player. We have a lot of special players. All these guys. Brandon Graham is a special player. So, you want them to be as fresh as they possibly can be going into the season because we know it’s a long season.”
