Why Nick Sirianni is even more confident about the Eagles going for a FG instead of going for a 3 after losing to the Falcons

Nick Sirianni has no regrets about the decision to kick a field goal instead of trying to win the game in the Philadelphia Eagles’ loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. After Saquon Barkley dropped a third-and-3 pass at the Falcons’ 13-yard line that could have given the Eagles a first down and an 18-15 win, Sirianni brought out the field goal unit to put the Eagles ahead 21-15 with 1:42 left.

Had Barkley caught the pass, the Eagles would have just had to line up for the win and the Falcons would have had no timeouts left. Going for the first down on fourth-and-3 would have also sealed the win.

Sirianni opted to kick, making it clear why going up six points and giving the ball back to the Falcons was better than not converting a fourth down and leaving the Falcons on the Eagles’ 13-yard line — when they needed a field goal to tie with 1:40 minutes left and no timeouts.

“If you look at the history of that call, I would try to drag myself through the mud as much as possible,” Sirianni said Wednesday. “What I did was I looked around the entire league and asked our analytics department ‘Can you give me every fourth-down decision when teams are in range with four minutes of offense?’ So I asked for every time from one point to five points when the team was up and for every fourth down from the 34 and inside.

“I put myself in that position before the call. I firmly believed at that point that I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Is the outcome always what you want? No, but I was absolutely convinced that the field goal was the right decision based on all of my studies.”

“Now, I’m going to come back and evaluate it. And to be completely honest with you, I’m even more confident. Because there’s a lot involved.”

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Eagles had a 94% chance of winning before they kicked a field goal on fourth down. After the Eagles kicked the field goal, the chance of winning decreased to 85% – even though the score went from 18-15 to 21-15.

“It’s a different kind of stress being down six instead of three,” Sirianni said. “That’s my experience as an offensive coach, too.”

After the Eagles kicked the ball into the end zone, the Falcons had to drive 70 yards in 1:39 to tie the game with a touchdown. Atlanta needed only six plays to do so, gaining 58 yards in 43 seconds to get into the red zone. Cousins ​​threw a touchdown pass to Drake London with 38 seconds to play, and Younghoe Koo kicked the extra point to give the Falcons a 22–21 lead over the Eagles in the final minute.

The Eagles lost their fourth lead since the start of last season with less than two minutes to play in the fourth quarter, the most in the NFL. Despite Sirianni’s decision, he doesn’t regret his decision to give the ball back in the loss to the Falcons.