It’s the playoffs! The intensity grows exponentially! The hits get harder! The blocking and tackling get more ferocious!
Nick Sirianni doesn’t buy it.
He doesn’t want his players looking at the playoffs any differently than the regular season.
The Eagles won 14 of 17 games, so they must have been doing something right. Why change? The same approach that got the Eagles into this position is what is going to give them the best chance to make a deep postseason run.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
So on the contrary, he wants his players doing the exact same things this week as they did the last 18 weeks.
“Same process, same everything,” he said. “Everyone is going to tell you how much bigger this atmosphere is and how much bigger this is. …
“But it's really, don't do anything different than what you've been doing. When the stakes get higher, when the game gets bigger, you need to lockdown and do the tough detail, together. You’ve got to lockdown and do the preparation that goes throughout the week.
Philadelphia Eagles
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles and their NFL rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“So you’ve got to go and do your business to put yourself in the position to succeed. That's it.”
Sirianni’s belief - and it makes sense - is that if you feel a need to suddenly do more just because the stakes are greater that means you weren’t doing enough before.
And there will be more at stake Sunday when the Eagles face the Packers in a wild-card game at the Linc than in their previous 17 games. But he wants his guys to just keep doing what they’ve been doing, whatever they did to prepare themselves to play football from Week 1 through Week 18.
Don’t do more than you’ve been doing. Do the exact same thing.
“When you really sit down and think about it, these guys are at the pinnacle of their sport,” he said. “So some of them have played in state championship games. Some of them have played in national championship games. Some of them have played in rival games that are bigger rivals than anybody has ever played in.
“These guys have been playing in (big games) their entire lives. I want them to stick on their process, I want to stick with what got us here and not think about anything else. I don't think it's a winner's mindset to be like, ‘Here is what I'm doing different now,’ or, ‘Here is how this game is going to be different.’
“Screw that. It's about what we do all week. It's about us.”
That was a big part of Sirianni’s message to his players this week. Don’t stray from your process. Don’t do more, don’t do less. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.
It’s working. Why change?
“As you come in here, you don't say, ‘Hey, we won 14 games, won the NFC East. Now here is what we're going to do,’" he said.
“Really, at the end of the day, it's getting back to our toughness, detail understanding that our process through the week is what gives you a chance to win a football game.
“It doesn't guarantee you a chance to win the football game, but it gives you a chance to play to the best of your abilities. It gives you a chance, again, to win. A better chance to win the football game when you go through the week like this. That's been the message all year.
“Again, I don't think you want any of your guys going, ‘All right, now it's the playoffs. Here is what I'm going to do now.’ Doesn't work that way. A winner's mindset is the same week in, week out. That's what our message was (Wednesday), and it will be the rest of the week as well.”
“You don’t pay too much attention to anything except for your process. And just try to stick to that.”
Tune in to Mission 59 specials all playoffs long on NBC Sports Philadelphia, presented by Toyota.
Subscribe to Eagle Eye anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Watch on YouTube
