The Eagles’ 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears was already ugly, but one fourth-quarter decision from head coach Nick Sirianni turned a tough night into a full-blown controversy.
With 3:10 left and the Eagles trailing 24-9, Jalen Hurts found A.J. Brown for Brown’s second touchdown of the game, cutting the deficit to nine points. Standard procedure says kick the extra point, make it a one-score game (24-16), and live to fight another possession.
Nick Sirianni had other plans.
He sent the two-point conversion team onto the field. Hurts rolled out, heaved a prayer to the back of the end zone… incomplete. Ballgame essentially over. Bears 24, Eagles 15.
After the game, Sirianni stood at the podium and defended the call with the calm confidence of a man who’s done the homework.
“I’ve done a lot of studies on that in my notes down nine,” Sirianni explained. “I’m always going to go for two in that scenario. That’s in my notes from my studies in the past. You want to know exactly what you need right there… If you go down seven, it’s a one-score game. If you go down eight, I know it’s a one-score game as well. At some point you’re going to need it, and I always want to know early what I need going forward.”
Translation: Sirianni wanted the clarity. Get the two now and you know you just need one touchdown + extra point to tie. Miss it and… well, you still know exactly what you need (touchdown + two-point conversion), and you can plan the rest of the game accordingly. He even pointed out the Eagles still had all three timeouts and could have attempted an onside kick if they’d converted.
On paper, the analytics crowd nodded. In living rooms across Philadelphia, jaws hit the floor.
Why? Because with only 3:10 left, missing the two-point try effectively ended any realistic chance of two possessions. Had Sirianni kicked the PAT to make it 24-16, the Eagles could have forced a three-and-out, gotten the ball back with around 1:30 and all three timeouts, and still had a puncher’s chance. Instead, the moment the ball sailed incomplete, the white flag went up.
And then there’s the Jake Elliott factor.
The Eagles’ normally reliable kicker had already clanked an extra point earlier in the game—his first miss of the season. Was Sirianni quietly spooked by a suddenly shaky kicker? Did he not trust Elliott to make the routine kick that would have kept hope alive? Sirianni never said it, but the timing was impossible to ignore.
Eagles Twitter erupted. Some fans praised the aggression and the “trust the process” analytics approach. Most just saw another Sirianni gamble that blew up in his face at the worst possible moment.
Love it or hate it, one thing is undeniable: when you’re down nine with three minutes left and you come away with zero points on a touchdown drive, the head coach is going to take heat.
Sirianni says he’ll always go back and re-evaluate. After this one, Eagles Nation sure hopes he does.