‘We’re going to respond:’ Eagles’ early season adversity presents an instructive pressure test vs. Saints

With his team reconvening after a stunning loss a few days earlier, Nick Sirianni opened a new week with a pointed reminder for the players to block out the noise.

The Eagles coach didn’t have many words to say in the locker room following the team’s 22-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night, deeming Jalen Hurts’ cutting speech to his teammates as sufficient instead. On Wednesday, Sirianni’s first meaningful address to his players included a story about a critical comment he’d noticed about himself and a key detail revealed about the otherwise anonymous commenter in a reply shortly thereafter.

“Coach said he was reading some of his comments,” Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said. “You know how you read a comment and then everybody else comments under that comment? [The original commenter] was responding to some people, he’s like ‘I’ve been an Eagles fan for seven years, now I’m 10 and they still ain’t …’ So it was a 10-year-old talking stuff on there.”

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Humor aside, Sirianni’s message was evident: Don’t lend credence to outside scrutiny. The Eagles are facing adversity just two weeks into the regular season and are now tasked with staying the course in a way they didn’t during the final stretch of last year. Sunday’s road game against a New Orleans Saints team that was dominant in its first two games will be the first true test to the Eagles’ resilience and a key inflection point considering the team is 2-7 in its last nine games dating back to last season.

Heading into the early trials, most Eagles players said the response during the week started with disregarding potential scrutiny as Sirianni requested.

“The whole point of his story was people can think whatever they want,” Jordan Mailata said. “Online, outside the facility, whatever that is. But it should never disturb how you come in to work or let it affect how you work. You work with the people in this building. You shouldn’t worry about anything anybody is saying.

“Especially with the way we lost on Monday night. Everyone is going to be hot. But the whole point is just to stick together. Don’t worry about anybody else.”

The way the Eagles lost to the Falcons — a decisive scoring drive conceded and a turnover from Hurts to close things out — has become a vexing recurrence for the team lately.

Similar scenarios played out against the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals last year with mixed results on how the team fared the following week. Coming off the road loss to Seattle, the Eagles beat the New York Giants at home; the Cardinals loss the next week led to a 27-10 loss to the Giants with the wheels firmly coming off for the Eagles by that point.

Isaiah Rodgers, serving a yearlong gambling suspension last season, watched each of these games from afar. The veteran cornerback said Eagles defensive backs coach Christian Parker had a similar message to Sirianni’s when the group returned to the NovaCare Complex earlier this week. The former Broncos assistant coach reminded his players about Denver’s five-game winning streak last season a few weeks after it gave up 70 points to the Miami Dolphins early in the year.

“It’s a whole different team,” Rodgers said. “So no one really knows what’s next. All that matters is what we think and what we know is going on in the building. That’s all that really matters. It doesn’t matter on the outside or what happened last year or how last year ended or started. I think it’s all about what we do and how we respond. We know what we have to do.”

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When assessing how the team will respond to Monday’s miscue, Sirianni pointed to the week of preparation as reason for encouragement.

“We’ve had a good week of practice,” he said Friday. “Obviously, we’re not done yet. Got a big one today to go out there and have a good practice today. We had good meetings this morning. We will have a good walk-through. So guys have been great. We’ve had a good week of work.”

Mailata acknowledged the natural curiosity most would have on how the team would fare coming off the loss, but said he’s not among those wondering.

“We’re not curious,” Mailata said. “We know what’s going to happen: We’re going to respond. Now is an opportunity to respond. We’ve faced hardship; how are we going to respond? I think we’ve done a great job these last two days, yesterday and today, addressing the problems we’ve had and going in and doing something about them.”

When asked what specifically he noticed, Mailata pointed to the coaching staff addressing the details of the run-pass option plays that led to the team being charged with three ineligible receiver downfield penalties against the Falcons.

“Just from a play-calling side and a communication side,” Mailata said. “Just understanding how we can address those flags down the field. Making sure the scheme marries up so we’re not putting an O-linemen in a position where we’re [expletive] them. That was great this week. Understanding the scheme and making sure we’re all on the same page.”

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Mailata also said the short week may be a blessing for the team that’s done plenty of talking about responding without an actual opportunity to do so.

“Now we get to go out there and fly around,” Mailata said. “I love short turnarounds.”

The Eagles play in Week 3 against the New Orleans Saints. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from the Caesars Superdome.