Coordinators take aggressive, confident approach to game in Seattle

Brian Johnson: Finishing drives is an emphasis

It starts out so well, and in the last two weeks against San Francisco and Dallas, early drives have ended short of what the Eagles desire. They want touchdowns, of course, and against San Francisco (field goals on the opening two drives) and Dallas (a giveaway) first-quarter drives have ended in frustrating fashion.

That has to change, says Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson.

“You want to go down and score your first drive,” he said. “I think the last two games we have moved the ball down there and haven’t finished, whether we had an opportunity for a first-and-goal at the 6- or 5-yard line and got a penalty and then we end up turning the ball over.

“But the previous game I think we drove down there and did not finish in the red zone. Ended up kicking field goals. You do want to attack, be aggressive, and you want to try to jump out to a lead. So that’s something that we haven’t been able to do in the past couple games. We have to get it corrected.”

The Eagles didn’t score an offensive touchdown in Dallas, so Johnson and the offensive coaches are looking for solutions, both believing in the process they’ve had the last three seasons and also evaluating everything as they move forward. Seattle, Johnson said, has a well-coached, disciplined defense with a great home crowd, so Monday night will be a true test.

“We have had a ton of success here throughout the course of the two and a half or three years we’ve been here,” Johnson said. “I think Nick (Sirianni, head coach) gave a great message at that point in 2021. We were 2-5 and he talked about doubling down on our process and sticking true to what we believe.

“I think that’s very, very important and important lesson to take when you’re in a process-driven profession, but it’s really ultimately results-based. When the results don’t match your process for two weeks in a row, you still need to evaluate and still need to try to find new and creative ways to do things and put the guys in the best spots to go out there and execute the plan each and every week.

“It is definitely a balance. We know what we have, and we know what guys do really, really well. Guys have done some of that stuff really, really well, and we got to continue to do that and complement it and to put them in the best spots to be successful.”