NFL Week 12: Nick Sirianni for Coach of the Year? New York’s on a roll, Cowboys follies, and more

Coach of the Year?

Yeah, it’s like a bone in the throat.

Six weeks ago, Nick Sirianni was the most despised sports figure in Philadelphia. He’d taunted the home fans after they’d booed him during a four-point win over a hapless Cleveland Browns squad. The team was 3-2, but his fitness as the Eagles’ head coach was never more in question. Here’s why.

After the Eagles reached Super Bowl LVII and started 2023 with a 10-1 record, he’d overseen a calamitous 1-5 finish and a blowout playoff loss in Tampa as the locker room divided, quarterback Jalen Hurts regressed, and players underperformed across the board. Early 2024 losses in Atlanta and Tampa set the scene for Sirianni’s postgame taunt, followed by a bizarre news conference to which he brought his three small children.

» READ MORE: Opinion: The Eagles made it clear Sunday night: They’re a Super Bowl-caliber team

Since then, the Eagles have won six games in a row to give them a seven-game streak and a 9-2 record. They’re tied with the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings for the third-best record in football and stand a game behind the Detroit Lions for the NFC’s playoff bye.

They entered Monday night with the No. 1 rushing offense, the No. 3 overall offense, the No. 7 scoring offense, and the No. 7 third-down offense. They also had the No. 1 overall defense, the No. 3 passing defense, the No. 6 scoring defense, the No. 7 rushing defense, and the No. 4 third-down defense.

Credit Nick? Sure.

After firing his coordinators from last season and hiring front-office favorites Kellen Moore to run the offense and Vic Fangio to run the defense, Sirianni vowed he would diminish his day-to-day involvement with the offensive scheme and game plan, and he would assume a more CEO-type role. He has done so.

After his embarrassing behavior following the Browns game, which followed similar incidents in road stadiums, Sirianni admitted, “I’ve got to have better wisdom and discernment. … I’m sorry and disappointed on how my energy was directed at the end of the game.”

He has done so.

Sirianni also has supervised a marked improvement in Hurts’ play, which has been the most significant catalyst in the Eagles’ winning streak — and yes, that includes Saquon Barkley’s incredible production. Since the bye week, only Lamar Jackson and Jared Goff have a better passer rating than Hurts’ 116.6, mainly because Hurts has stopped turning the ball over.

There are other worthy candidates, of course; perhaps more worthy, in fact. Reigning Super Bowl champion Andy Reid has had to coach his butt off to get the Kansas City Chiefs to 10-1. Dan Campbell’s 10-1 Lions are a joy to watch. Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers are 8-3, somehow. Jim Harbaugh is 7-3 in his first year with the Los Angeles Chargers entering their game on Monday. Second-season candidates Jonathan Gannon in Arizona and Sean Payton in Denver have an outside shot, but Sirianni has already beaten Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur and Washington’s Dan Quinn.

You can dismiss Sirianni’s candidacy by saying it’s Fangio who’s getting incredible production from defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Milton Williams, linebackers Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean, and rookie cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean.

You can say that Moore alone recognized Barkley’s potency, and the credit for the offensive line’s dominance after the retirement of Jason Kelce and despite injury issues all should go to line coach Jeff Stoutland.

You can even credit GM Howie Roseman for supplying depth to weather injuries to left tackle Jordan Mailata, right tackle Lane Johnson, receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, tight end Dallas Goedert, and cornerback Darius Slay.

But if the defense stunk, the offense stalled, and the backups couldn’t play, you’d be blaming Nick Sirianni first.

It might stick like a bone in the throat, but so far this season Sirianni has done as good a job as a head coach as anybody else.

I tore my triceps in 2016 after taking a fall while skiing. It rolled up the inside of my arm like a window shade. The doctor cut a hole in my arm, drilled holes into a bone in my forearm, inserted a pair of screws into my elbow, secured my tendon to the screws, closed me up, and sent me home. Eight years later I still have numbness in the two middle fingers of my hand, I can’t fully straighten the arm, I regained about 75% of my strength, and my elbow hurts after I work out.

I was in my 40s. Graham is 36. I was diligent in my rehab, but he will have access to personnel, treatments, and therapies about which I can only dream.

That said, Eagles-affiliated physicians performed my surgery.

It was a wild three minutes.

Commanders tight end (and Eagles legend) Zach Ertz caught a TD pass which, after a two-point conversion, cut the Dallas Cowboys’ lead to 20-17.

On the ensuing kickoff, KaVontae Turpin mishandled the ball, which went through his legs near the 5, then died at the 1. He had to pick it up and try a return. He trotted out to the 10, faked right, spun left, and juked five defenders with the move. He’s the fastest man in football this season: He hit 22.36 mph during his 64-yard TD catch and run last Monday night.

That 99-yard touchdown made it 27-17, but a Commanders field goal and a Cowboys punt made it 27-20 with 33 seconds to play. The Commanders got the ball — with no timeouts — at their own 14-yard line. The Cowboys, of course, promptly surrendered an 86-yard catch-and-run to Terry McLaurin, the Commanders’ most obvious target, who split and outran five defenders.

However, Austin Seibert missed the extra point, so the Commanders, trailing 27-26, had to try an onside kick.

That landed in the hands of Juanyeh Thomas, who, unwisely, returned it for a touchdown. Unwisely, since simply covering the ball would have guaranteed a victory. Instead, the Commanders got it back with 9 seconds to play, which gave Washington two more plays, the second of which, a Hail Mary, was intercepted.

Whew.

Anyway, the Commanders lost, so the Eagles lead the NFC East by three games in the loss column.

You’ve seen this happen before: Patrick Mahomes romped for 33 yards in the final moments of a tie game and set up a last-second field goal.

That’s just where the story gets good.

Spencer Shrader — a 25-year-old rookie in his second game for the Chiefs who was a home-schooled Floridian and spent 2018 trying to play professional soccer in Brazil and Canada before walking on at South Florida, transferring to Notre Dame, going undrafted in April, and spending time with the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans — nailed a 31-yard field goal for a 30-27 win in Carolina, his first NFL game-winner. He’s now 3-for-3 with the Chiefs.

Harrison Butker, star kicker and noted women’s rights advocate, is out for at least two more weeks following knee surgery.

Mayfield threw a block 30 yards downfield on Bucky Irving’s 56-yard run;

covered a fumble that nobody else even saw;

then scored a touchdown by hurdling a defender — and mocked the celebration of New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito, whose celebration celebrates his Italian heritage.

“Tribute. Tribute to Tommy,” Mayfield quipped postgame.

Mayfield’s Buccaneers beat the Giants, 30-7.

The Giants last week first benched franchise quarterback Daniel Jones to avoid a possible $23 million injury guarantee, reneged on their agreement with backup Drew Lock by naming DeVito the starter, then cut Jones a few days later.

» READ MORE: ‘Meant to be’: Saquon Barkley authors MVP-level performance in the Eagles’ romp over the Rams

After the game, many players accused their teammates of playing with little heart, including receiver Malik Nabers, the No. 6 pick in April’s draft. Nabers also complained about the play-calling, saying, “It ain’t the quarterback. … Same outcome when we had [Jones] at quarterback. … I started getting the ball when it’s 30-0. What do you want me to do?”

Not to be outdone, meddlesome New York Jets owner Woody Johnson reportedly helicoptered to Jets practice Tuesday, pulled GM (and former Eagles vice president of player personnel) Joe Douglas off the practice field, and fired him. Johnson fired head coach Robert Saleh last month.

Also, free-agent bust Aaron Rodgers reportedly is dealing with injuries but refuses routine medical exams to pinpoint their severity.

He probably figures he’ll be fine after spending the bye week in a darkened yurt receiving a condensed Panchakarma cleanse while drinking ayahuasca tea. After all, he did get “immunized” for COVID (narrator: he did not get immunized or vaccinated; he lied about his status, and he later contracted COVID).

C.J. Stroud unwittingly ran out of the back of the end zone and took a safety while scrambling late in the Texans’ loss to the Tennessee Titans. It’s a move ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky trademarked in 2008 in his first NFL start, with the Lions, which Jimmy Garoppolo reprised in 2022 with the San Francisco 49ers. … The Los Angeles Rams and 49ers are now in the cellar of the NFC West, and the Niners, defending NFC champs, look like they’ll be in the basement for a while. QB Brock Purdy (shoulder), edge rusher Nick Bosa (hip), and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) all missed the 38-10 loss in Green Bay with injuries.