Eagles’ Nick Sirianni on an upset A.J. Brown: ‘We’re all frustrated’

For a second straight game following the Eagles’ 35-31 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, wide receiver A.J. Brown declined to speak at length to reporters in the locker room, claiming in a brief statement on Sunday that “there’s nothing to say.”

Brown, the Eagles’ leading receiver, was visibly frustrated following the Eagles’ second-to-last drive against the Cardinals in which they settled for a 43-yard field goal to take a short-lived 31-28 lead. The Cardinals subsequently stormed 70 yards down the field on seven plays in a span of roughly two minutes on the ensuing drive, as running back James Conner scored the game-winning touchdown on a 2-yard run.

On Monday afternoon, coach Nick Sirianni expressed sympathy for Brown without explicitly divulging the exact source of the receiver’s apparent frustration.

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“I don’t want to speak for him,” Sirianni said. “But obviously, when you have a dynamic playmaker like A.J., he’s gonna want to change the game at all times. And he’s capable of doing that at all times.

“But, obviously, we’re all frustrated. We’re all frustrated right now, especially coming off that loss [Sunday]. You want to be able to have fun, you want to be able to do all these things that football brings, but sometimes it’s hard to have fun and hard to find enjoyment when you’re in a rut like we are. But he’s always going to want to change the game because he knows he’s capable.”

In the last three plays of that second-to-last drive, the Eagles did not give Brown a chance to change the game. The Eagles recovered an onside kick at the Cardinals’ 44-yard line with five minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the game. On second and 9, Hurts connected with Brown for an 18-yard gain on a dig route to the Cardinals’ 20, but that was the last time he touched the ball for the rest of the drive.

Left tackle Jordan Mailata was flagged for holding on the next play, a 1-yard D’Andre Swift run, pushing the Eagles back 10 yards to the 30 for a first-down repeat. The Eagles then ran a designed quarterback run for Jalen Hurts for a gain of 4 yards on first and 20, a quarterback option run for a loss of 3 yards on second and 16, and then a screen pass to running back Kenneth Gainwell for 4 yards on third and 19.

On that third-down play, Brown appeared to have been open on a similar screen at the top of the formation that Gainwell ran at the bottom. Regardless, the Eagles settled for a field goal.

After the game, Sirianni said he didn’t think the play calls in that situation were “conservative.” But on Monday, Sirianni admitted that he “could have been more aggressive there.”

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“I’m always going to look at myself first,” Sirianni said. “That’s one thing. We haven’t been great on four-minute offense and that’s me, right. That starts with me. And again, with how aggressive we play it.”

Brown finished the game with four receptions for 53 yards. He has not scored a touchdown in five straight games, a glaring streak for the two-time Pro Bowl receiver. Of the 26 offensive plays that the Eagles ran in the second half, Brown accounted for just one of them on the 18-yard reception.

Earlier this season, Brown recorded at least 125 receiving yards per contest in six consecutive games from Sept. 25-Oct. 29, setting an NFL record while breaking previous highs from Calvin Johnson (five games, 2012 with the Detroit Lions) and Pat Studstill (five games, 1966 with the Lions). In that span, Brown amassed 831 yards and five touchdowns on 49 receptions.

Brown has 37 receptions for 434 yards and one touchdown in his last six games. He leads the Eagles with 1,447 receiving yards on 105 receptions. Brown is tied with receiver DeVonta Smith in receiving touchdowns with seven apiece. Both players have eclipsed more than 1,000 receiving yards in back-to-back seasons with the Eagles.

After the loss to the Cardinals, Brown said, “I’m not about to talk. ... There’s nothing to say. ... It’s nothing towards y’all [the media], though, so I just wanted to clear that up.” He was noncommittal in his response when asked about whether he would speak to the media this week in advance of the Eagles’ season finale against the New York Giants.

The 11-5 Eagles have lost four of their last five games and are at the mercy of the Dallas Cowboys for control of the NFC East. If the Cowboys beat the Washington Commanders in their final game of the season, then Dallas secures the NFC East’s top seed going into the playoffs, regardless of the outcome of the Eagles’ contest with the Giants.

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Amid the turmoil, Sirianni praised Brown for his character and his talent, reiterating his understanding of the receiver’s frustration.

“I know this, and I said this to you guys on the record, off the record, everything, that there’s nobody that is as good of a teammate,” Sirianni said. “There is nobody that’s as good of a person as A.J., and shoot, he’s one of our very best players and one of our best players since I’ve been here in the past three years.

“I can’t say enough good things about him. We’re all frustrated, I think and again, like I said, I don’t want to speak for him on anything.”