The Philadelphia Eagles Are Treating NFC Championship Like Just Another Game, Because They Can

Anything can happen in football, of course, but there’s been a certain calm in Nick Sirianni this week as he’s met with the media ahead of Sunday’s 3 PM ET NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field.

When you’re the coach of the team in the game deploying the best quarterback, knowing your home field advantage is a given — and as extreme as any in the league — it makes much of what might otherwise serve as nerves ahead of Sirianni’s first NFC Championship Game melt away.

“Somebody asked me last week what my message was to [QB] Jalen [Hurts] going into this game,” Sirianni told the media on Thursday. “It’s his second playoff game, what’s your message to Jalen? Be you. That would be my same message to our great fans, our great city is just be you.

“The reputation of having to come into Philadelphia and play is the reputation that we have because it is intimidating and it’s loud and it’s hype. They are passionate fans; we have great passionate fans. Be who you have been for the entire time the Eagles have been here.”

He recalled the moment his defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon came into Philly with his then-employer, the Minnesota Vikings, back in 2017, only to be taken aback by the sheer noise and spectacle of the Eagles’ partisans.

But both the crowd and Hurts himself reminded everyone why the Eagles have dominated so often this season as recently as last week, in a 38-7 drubbing of the New York Giants that brought Philadelphia to the precipice of another Super Bowl.

But for Sirianni — so much of this moment comes down to an unchanging approach itself, meaning that it is not only a luxury borne of the team’s advantages at quarterback, on the offensive and defensive lines, even in the stands — but a continuation of that consistency. It’s another thing he shares with his quarterback, also on the verge of a breakthrough that will put him in elite Philadelphia company for as long as he lives.

“His dad is a football coach,” Sirianni said of Hurts. “Speaking from another guy whose dad is a football coach, you don’t leave that building and his DNA — it’s in his DNA to be here at all times working on his craft. Whether that’s in the weight room, whether that’s in the training room, whether that’s in the film room, this guy is obsessed with getting better. He’s obsessed with getting better.

“The thing I really admire about that is that he doesn’t allow — again, the season can go like this (motioning up and down), right, and it does that and that’s just the nature of the season, but he doesn’t allow the highs or the lows of the season dictate his next move. He is so even keeled and so locked in. That will to win. Again, it’s all that, it’s all him being here, him leading his teammates, him connecting with his teammates, all those different things.

“What you said, he’s so even keeled. I find that a big part of his will to win, right, in the sense of like — he just played an unbelievable game but he’s got this look on his face like, I can do more. I’m going to get better from it. It’s amazing.”

The Eagles even managed to stack their injuries this season into the portion of the calendar they could afford them most — Hurts missing two games once the team had sprinted out to a 14-1 start, back healthy enough to play his typical game by the playoffs. The Thursday injury report included just two players beyond normal rest — Lane Johnson and Avonte Maddox — and both are active and expected to play Sunday.

So while San Francisco offers a formidable challenge, especially defensively, Sirianni can rest on the knowledge that this is the most complete team he’s ever coached — not just talent-wise, but total personnel on hand this late in the season.

Of course, the talent part helps, too.

“Yeah, in the NFL this is the most complete team that I’ve ever been around,” Sirianni said. “The thing that makes you say that is that I’ve been taught from very young that it’s O-line, D-line, O-line, D-line, O-line, D-line. It doesn’t matter if it’s my son’s pee wee game, it doesn’t matter if it’s a high school game, it doesn’t matter if it’s a college game, it doesn’t matter if it’s a pro game, the O-line, D-line, wins games and sets the tone.

“We have a great defensive line. We have a great offensive line. And not only do we have these pieces in place there, we also understand that we have backups and we have rotations, guys ready to step in and make plays and guys that have stepped in to make plays.

“We also know this about San Francisco: They have a great O-line and D-line. You get to the NFC Championship game, that’s what it’s going to look like. I haven’t looked at Cincinnati or Kansas City, but I am assuming it is similar traits. So, it’ll be a battle.”

A battle, yes. But not a battle Sirianni is approaching any differently than his previous ones this season.

He’s the head coach of the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles. So he doesn’t have to.