Jonathan Gannon ‘guts’ the Eagles and outcoaches the free-falling Nick Sirianni

One coach knew when to gamble with an onside kick. The other coach had no clue it was coming.

One coach had all his timeouts before he needed them. The other coach had carelessly burned his first two.

One coach’s team had nothing left to play for but pride. The other coach’s team had everything still on the line.

One coach was blamed for losing Super Bowl LVII. The other coach has received far less criticism than his coordinators this season.

Until possibly now.

Jonathan Gannon outsmarted, outmaneuvered, and maybe even outed Nick Sirianni as ill-equipped to take the Eagles back to the Super Bowl. Upon his return to Philadelphia, Gannon’s Arizona Cardinals knocked off Sirianni’s team, 35-31, on Sunday before a shocked and hostile crowd at Lincoln Financial Field.

» READ MORE: Eagles grades: Coaching, defense fail them in a loss to the Cardinals

Gannon may have been on the receiving end of fans’ ire at the start, but after relinquishing a 21-6 halftime lead, and getting outcoached in the final quarter as quarterback Kyler Murray rallied the Cards, it was Sirianni who became public enemy No. 1.

It’s now imperative for the coach to make sure that sentiment doesn’t seep into the locker room after the Eagles let a chance at the No. 1 seed in the NFC slip away and possibly the East divisional crown, as well.

Four losses in the last five games, including the last one to a 3-12 squad that traveled across the country as a double-digit underdog, has placed the onus squarely on the back of the Eagles’ third-year coach.

“Everyone’s got to stick together,” Sirianni said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people trying to point the finger at different things and everybody’s got to stick together, right? We win as a team. We lose as a team. And together is the most important thing that we can be right now.

“We are in the playoffs. A lot of teams want to be in the playoffs.”

But the Eagles’ path could be much harder if they are the wild card. Mathematically, the No. 5 seed is most probable, which would likely entail a road trip vs. an NFC South team. They would be likely favorites over either the New Orleans Saints or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but it’s difficult to have much confidence in the Eagles.

And, specifically, Sirianni. He panicked and changed his defensive coordinator — or so he has said — to no avail. He promoted and gave offensive play calling to Brian Johnson. He empowered quarterback Jalen Hurts. And he has overseen a team that has been mistake-prone for most of the season.

» READ MORE: How the Eagles’ third-down defense was taken away from Sean Desai before his demotion

But it was his game management and game planning that hurt the Eagles most on Sunday. Sirianni burned two timeouts on offense in the fourth quarter before necessary. The first came with 10 minutes, 2 seconds left after Hurts slid for a loss. And the second came with 2:46 left after another inexplicable Hurts surrender in the backfield.

“If we don’t have timeouts at the end of the game, then something obviously went wrong most likely as a communication thing,” Sirianni said, “and I’ll take that.”

One of the primary reasons Sirianni gave up play-calling two years ago was so he could focus on game management. But Johnson’s calls have at times taken longer to be communicated to Hurts — especially on third downs.

There was mass confusion on the series before the second timeout. Receiver Julio Jones ran off while tight end Jack Stoll frantically sprinted onto the field. Blame Johnson and Hurts, but Sirianni is responsible for the operation, just as he was last week when he wasted time before the half and his quarterback mindlessly stayed inbounds with seconds left.

Gannon, meanwhile, used his first timeout to stop the clock at 2:37 before Jake Elliott’s 43-yard field goal put the Eagles up, 31-28. And he didn’t even need to use his last two as Murray drove the Cardinals 70 yards on seven plays vs. Matt Patricia’s toothless defense to retake the lead.

But the sequence that exemplified Gannon was playing chess and Sirianni checkers came before Elliott’s field goal. With the score knotted, 28-28, with 5:26 left, the former Eagles defensive coordinator attempted an onside kick.

» READ MORE: Eagles falter vs. Cardinals after questionable play-calling in crunch time. Why go conservative?

The Eagles’ Eli Ricks made a heads-up play to pounce on the ball, but Gannon wasn’t exactly distraught.

“That worked,” Gannon said. “That’s what we talked about. The reason for that is you don’t want to get bled out. That team’s too good. I just want the defense to get a stop right there and make them kick a field goal, which is what they did.

“But with five minutes left what they’ve shown is they’re not going to give you the ball back. And I wanted to make sure at all costs Kyler had the ball in his hand at the end of the game.”

Sirianni, meanwhile, said he had “no idea” that an onside kick was coming. But the shorter field would keep the Eagles from ending the game with a four-minute drive, and even if they scored a touchdown, the Cardinals offense had shown that it couldn’t be stopped.

“You’re still being aggressive because they still have all the timeouts,” Sirianni said of his thinking after the onside kick. “So, you’re able to pass. You’re able to get out of bounds. You’re able to get the first down.”

But the Eagles weren’t all that aggressive. A Hurts pass to A.J. Brown for 18 yards moved them into field-goal range. But Hurts ran after a Jordan Mailata holding penalty, he ran again and took a loss, and on third-and-20, he threw an ineffective screen pass and settled for three points.

“I don’t think that’s conservative there,” Sirianni said, “if they are blitzing a bunch of gaps there.”

Sirianni’s offense, for the most part, wasn’t the problem on Sunday. The Eagles ran only 47 plays and had the ball for only half the time, while the Cardinals ran 72 plays with nearly 40 minutes of possession.

But the coach, ultimately, bears responsibility for the game plan and the Eagles seemingly had no scheme for stopping running backs James Conner and Michael Carter along with Murray. The Cardinals rushed for 221 yards — the most the Eagles have allowed since 2016.

“I think he probably thought about the Washington game last year where Washington was able to control the clock,” Sirianni said of Gannon, “and keep our offense off the field.”

Did Sirianni think about the possibility? It’s fair to question his preparation — this week and for the entire season. Is it feasible that a team that mostly has walk-throughs on Wednesday rather than practices isn’t going to be ready vs. game speed?

The Eagles have been a mistake-prone squad for most of the season, but turnovers and penalties weren’t really the issue on Sunday. Hurts’ Hail Mary ended with an interception in the end zone, but if he had timeouts when the Eagles got the ball back with 32 seconds remaining, there might have been hope.

Gannon, ultimately, had his revenge. He spoke glowingly about his two years here, about owner Jeffrey Lurie, general manager Howie Roseman, and his former boss, Sirianni. But it had to be his personal Super Bowl considering the local abuse he’s gotten since the February loss in Arizona.

“It’s just another game,” Gannon said. “I’m happy for the players, to be honest. Obviously, the year’s been a tough year. We didn’t do enough to earn the right to play in January.”

Murray knew better.

“I know he wanted to win it really badly,” he said. “I would want to win it, so I know the guys felt that energy from him, that we wanted to come out here and do it for him.”

As for Sirianni, he’ll find out over the next two games whether his players are still with him. Mailata said they were.

“We got our teeth punched in today,” he said. “We went out there and did we think they would be a pushover? No. This is the NFL. This is any given Sunday. And that’s what makes this one of the greatest sports in the world.

“No, Nick has not lost the locker room.”