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The Philadelphia Eagles have never lost a season opener under Nick Sirianni, going 4-0 in such games since he became head coach. Were they sloppy in the Week 1 win over the Green Bay Packers? Sure, as was the case with the rest of the league.
Only one offensive starter took a snap in the preseason — Mekhi Becton. The rest took a seat during the exhibition slate, yet the Eagles scored the third-most points (34) and fourth-most yards (410) in the NFL in Week 1. The league averaged 22.9 points per game and 309.8 yards per game.
The Eagles passed for 266 net yards and rushed for 144, significantly higher than the league average of 188.3 pass yards per game and 121.5 rush yards per game. Oh, and they won.
“I don’t think it matters who played their starters in the preseason, who didn’t play their starters in the preseason,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “I saw sloppy football out of both sides yesterday. I won’t get into ‘This team was sloppy and this team,’ whatever. I got to sit and watch football yesterday and there was a lot of the sloppy football. Just like we had sloppy football.”
The Eagles have just as strong of a case as any team why they elect to not play starters in the preseason. They haven’t lost a Week 1 game in the Sirianni era, as the head coach is 4-0 in season openers. Only Jim Harbaugh has a better record in season openers (5-0) amongst active head coaches, as Sirianni is one of just three active head coaches to never lose in a season opener (Harbaugh and Mike McDaniel are the others). All of the Eagles season openers have been away from Lincoln Financial Field, too.
More importantly? Sirianni has all his star offensive players healthy in Week 1. The Eagles were the only team in the NFL to have a 100+ yard rusher and two 75+ yard receivers in Week 1 after all, a product of having A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley available.
“The availability of…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/eagles-win-proves-nick-sirianni-is-right-about-resting-players-in-preseason-with-plenty-to-back-up-claim/
Author : Jeff Kerr
Publish date : 2024-09-10 17:50:41
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