Eagles' Nick Sirianni Doesn't Plan to Strip OC Brian Johnson of Play-Calling Duties

The Philadelphia Eagles have become notorious for getting off to poor starts on both offense and defense this season, but head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters he doesn't plan to take over play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Brian Johnson.

"We're going to keep rolling and finding answers with the people we have," he said.

He added that he has "total confidence" in defensive coordinator Sean Desai.

The Eagles are 10-3 on the season, but blowout losses the past two weeks against the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys felt somewhat inevitable. The Eagles have played with fire for much of the season and have trailed their opponents at halftime in six straight games.

Granted, the team has gone through a brutal stretch that included matchups against the Miami Dolphins (win), Cowboys (one win, one loss), Kansas City Chiefs (comeback win), Buffalo Bills (comeback overtime win) and the Niners (blowout loss).

Despite talk of the Eagles perhaps being frauds after the past two weeks, the Birds still have a 5-2 record against teams above .500 this season.

In Philadelphia, much of the talk has revolved around the team's first-time coordinators, Johnson and Desai. Eagles fans want to see the team establish the run game more or utilize more quick-hitting routes instead of longer-developing shots down the field that at times this season have resulted in Hurts aimlessly roaming from the pocket with nowhere to throw.

The Eagles rank eighth in yards per game (358.8) and sixth in scoring (26.3 PPG), so the offense eventually gets cooking. The issue in the past two weeks, however, was that long drives against the Niners and Cowboys often ended in field goals or turnovers, not touchdowns.

Defensively, the Eagles have consistently gotten torched in the secondary and gone from a team that easily led the NFL in sacks a season ago (70) to a more modest 12th in the category (37) this season. The Eagles rank 28th in both pass defense (259.9 YPG) and scoring defense (24.7 PPG allowed) and have given up the second-most touchdowns through the air (29) this season.

From an outside perspective, it's always hard to determine the difference between a faulty scheme and players simply not executing on a game plan that would otherwise work. Philly's players, to their credit, have laid the blame at their own feet.

"I think the biggest thing for this team now is really find out who the dudes are," defensive tackle Fletcher Cox told reporters after the Dallas loss. "I've been a part of teams where the dudes in the locker room do something about it, and I've been part of teams where it kind of crumbles. And now it's time to see the real leadership, the real players, the guys that's elite on this team, myself included, step up and do something about it."