Nick Sirianni’s humility and Tush Push commitment; Drew Mukuba’s burden; Micah Parsons’ impact: NFL Week 2
The Eagles coach showed his growth as a strategist on Sunday. Mukuba took some ribbing from his Birds teammates after a 310-pounder ran him down.
The similarities were eerie, the situation almost the same. Except this time, Nick Sirianni made the smart choice.
Last season, in Game 3 at New Orleans, the Eagles had the ball on the Saints’ 15-yard line with less than 20 seconds to play in the first half. It was fourth-and-1. They trailed, 3-0. Instead of kicking an easy field goal, Sirianni called timeout so he could chase more points. He called a running play. It failed.
Sunday evening, in Game 2 at Kansas City, the Eagles had the ball at the Chiefs’ 35-yard line with a little more than 30 seconds to play in the first half. It was fourth-and-1. They trailed, 10-7. This time, Sirianni let the clock run down to two seconds and called timeout to set up a field goal. Even after a false-start penalty, the kick was good.
At his postgame news conference, he then explained his growth as a strategist.
“At that point I’m thinking, you know, I’m probably not getting a touchdown on this drive. Let me make sure we do everything we can do to not give the ball back to [Patrick] Mahomes,” Sirianni said. “Very similar to the one in New Orleans last year, a little bit less time on the clock, but we were a little bit closer in that fourth-and-1 that we didn’t get, and we didn’t come out with any points there.”
Approached later on the nearly deserted Arrowhead Stadium field, Sirianni explained his growth as a coach.
He acknowledged that admitting his — well, not his error in New Orleans; more like his riskier choice — he was admitting publicly that he’d put his team in a disadvantageous position a year ago, and that he’d learned from it.
This is the behavior of a person in a leadership position becoming more comfortable with the sort of accountability he expects of the people he leads. This is a very different person from the one who, two seasons ago, taunted Chiefs fans in the visitors’ tunnel of this same stadium.
Quick thinking
Sirianni also deftly managed an end-of-game situation that could have given Mahomes one last chance.
The Eagles led, 20-17, and faced second-and-1 at the Chiefs’ 32 with 2 minutes, 13 seconds to play. The Chiefs, out of timeouts, intentionally jumped offside to give the Eagles a first down, which meant the Eagles would have first-and-10 … but they wouldn’t be able to milk the clock down to 0:00 and ensure a win.
» READ MORE: ‘The Kingdom’ falls: Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes lose again to Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts and Eagles
However, if the Eagles picked up the first down on their own, they could control the clock. They had three chances to do so, and they had the Tush Push to do it with. So Sirianni ran onto the field and emphatically declined the penalty. He had to do so repeatedly, since the officials figured he’d just accept it.
“Yeah, they said I’d accepted it at first!” Sirianni said with a laugh. “I don’t blame the Chiefs. I would have done the same thing. But I wasn’t going to fall for that!”
Two Tush Pushes later, the Eagles had the first down and the game was effectively over.
“17 miles an hour, obviously”
In Super Bowl LIX, then-rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean intercepted Patrick Mahomes and returned it for a touchdown.
Sunday in Kansas City, rookie safety Drew Mukuba intercepted Mahomes and it seemed certain that he would also return it for a score, all the way from the Eagles’ end zone … until 6-foot-5, 310-pound rookie left tackle Josh Simmons ran him down and clobbered him.
Mukuba, a second-round pick, ran a 4.45-second 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine. Simmons ran a 5.15-second 40 on his pro day at Ohio State, which is remarkable since he missed the end of the season with a knee injury, so he might be even faster. NFL NextGen stats clocked Simmons at 18.35 mph.
“Wonder how fast I was going,” Mukuba said when told this in the locker room postgame.
“Like, 17 miles an hour. Obviously,” teased safety Reed Blankenship.
“Yeah, man, you’ve got to score on that!” DeJean chimed in. He ran a 4.43 at his pro day in 2024, but, like Simmons, he also was coming off an injury.
Mukuba rolled his eyes, smiled, and said:
“These guys are killing me on this.”
Micah Parsons Effect
Just before the season started, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones traded Micah Parsons for draft picks and a veteran defensive tackle. The Packers have since shut down the Lions’ powerful offense in Week 1 — an offense that led the NFL in scoring last season and scored 52 points on the Bears on Sunday — and allowed 18 points to the Commanders.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys have allowed 61 points in two games and signed 32-year-old sack specialist Jadeveon Clowney after an overtime win Sunday against the Giants in which Russell Wilson threw for 450 yards and three TDs.
Big Dak Attack
Wilson wasn’t the only thirtysomething QB who had a big day in Big D. Dak Prescott threw for 361 yards and two TDs, and, after Wilson threw a deep interception with two minutes left in overtime, Prescott hit George Pickens for 27 yards, then ran for 14 more yards to set up the game-winning field goal as time expired.
Mr. 64
Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey won that game with a 46-yard field goal, but he sent it into overtime with a 64-yarder. That’s tied with two others for the third-longest kick in NFL history, but Aubrey doesn’t mind, since his 65-yarder in Week 3 last year against the Ravens is No. 2. Former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker kicked a 66-yarder in 2021.
Stay tuned
After Liam Coen pushed Baker Mayfield to new heights in Tampa as the offensive coordinator, the team across the peninsula hired him to do the same for Trevor Lawrence. But the Jaguars might be sitting on a powder keg: When Lawrence missed an open receiver in their 31-27 loss to the Bengals, Coen screamed at Lawrence on the field as the coach pounded his chest. Lawrence waved off Coen’s outburst and returned to the huddle.
Coen has never been a head coach at any level. Both parties downplayed the interaction, but in the kinder, gentler, softer NFL of today, coaches seldom embarrass franchise quarterbacks like this. This bears watching.
Extra points
When the Lions scored just 13 points in their opener at Green Bay, many wondered if their top-ranked scoring offense was going to survive the departure of football’s latest genius, coordinator Ben Johnson, who took the head coaching job in Chicago. Then the Lions scored 52 points Sunday against — who else? — Johnson and the Bears. To the delight of fans angry that Johnson went to a division rival, the Lions scored a late, fourth-down touchdown. … A week after throwing four TD passes with no interceptions against his latest former team, the Jets, new Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers, in his home debut, threw two picks and one TD pass in a 31-17 loss to the Seahawks. “It’s good for us,” said Rodgers. Of course he did. … Jags rookie receiver/corner Travis Hunter, the most compelling player since two-way Hall of Famer Deion Sanders (who coached him at Colorado), got 44 snaps on offense and just six on defense in his NFL debut last week. He got 42 on offense and 38 on defense against the Bengals this week. He caught three passes for 22 yards this week and six for 33 yards last week.