The Philadelphia Eagles flew all the way across the Atlantic Ocean just to hand a victory to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Unsurprisingly, former All-Pro cornerback Asante Samuel has seen enough.
Eight seconds left, a one-point lead, and a squib kick sealed it. Instead, Nick Sirianni gifted Jacksonville a live return, setting up an improbable walk-off win.
Speaking on the “Say What Needs To Be Said” show, Samuel put Sunday’s 19-17 collapse squarely on Philadelphia’s head coach.
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“You lost the game for your team,” Samuel said. “Of course, the team was going to have his back and say, ‘No, coach, it’s not on you. It’s on us.’ But all the coach had to do was call a squib kick. A squib kick at the end of the game is normal and done all the freaking time.”
Samuel torched Sirianni for his lack of awareness in crunch time.
“Nick Sirianni must have had a lapse in his brain or something and wasn’t paying attention for him to miss out on that situation,” Samuel said. “There’s no way your team fights that hard for that long, and you let your team down by not making sure the right call is being made.”
The blunder erased what should have been a gritty road win. Down Saquon Barkley and DeVonta Smith to hamstring injuries, Philadelphia took a 17-16 lead with eight seconds left on Jake Elliott’s 48-yard field goal.
Jacksonville’s Ameer Abdullah responded by fielding a clean kickoff, ripping off a 53-yard return, and setting up Cam Little’s walk-off 57-yarder as time expired.
The loss dropped Philadelphia to 2-3 while pushing the Jags to their third-straight victory.
Sirianni fell on his sword Sunday right after the final whistle.
“I didn’t make the right decision and I lost us that game,” Sirianni told reporters. “And that’s what I said to our guys. What hurts there is that the guys fought so hard, and then I don’t make the decision that I should make at the end of the game and I cost us that game and I put that fully on me.”
When asked why Philadelphia left eight seconds on the board before Elliott’s kick, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts made it clear game management was outside his control.
“Its not my place, and were prepared, Im prepared as a quarterback to not worry about those things,” Hurts told reporters Monday. “So Im honoring a play call, honoring the things that are coming in the game. When Im up at night, yeah, I think about, ‘Man, should I have said something, or should I have took a step back and said, “Wait”?’ But ultimately, theres a commitment to that and going out there and executing. And so this was one where it did not work in our favor.”
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Sirianni doubled down Monday, shutting down any idea that Hu
