Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni admitted Wednesday that the team had an unusual goal on what amounted to a desperation pass in the waning moments of Monday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
With 13 seconds left and the Eagles needing a field goal to send the game to overtime, quarterback Jalen Hurts threw one up toward AJ Brown, even though Brown was double-covered. Seahawks defensive back Julian Love made an outstanding toe-tap interception to seal the game.
Julian Love with a tip-top toe tap. pic.twitter.com/3xKGDDTRlv
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 19, 2023
On Wednesday, Sirianni admitted that the point of the play was not necessarily to get a completion. He told reporters that the Eagles were hoping to draw a flag for defensive pass interference, which would have set them up in field goal range.
Nick Sirianni said the Eagles were trying to play for a defensive pass interference on Jalen Hurts' deep shot to A.J. Brown at the end of the Seahawks game. Sirianni said he's comfortable with the play call despite the INT.
"We felt like in that situation we had an opportunity…
— Josh Tolentino (@JCTSports) December 20, 2023
“We felt like in that situation we had an opportunity to,” Sirianni said.
Sirianni has a point, as passes like that can certainly lead to defensive interference. However, referees can also be somewhat hesitant to flag plays like that given the consequences. Any interference would have had to be pretty blatant to draw a flag, and even in that instance, we have seen some blatant instances of interference go uncalled late in games recently.
Ultimately, the Eagles need to avoid being in a position where they need officials to bail them out in order to force overtime. Sirianni’s strategy is not necessarily bad, but if that is all they had left, they probably had very little hope.
