PHILADELPHIA — The loss itself could be couched as football reality and snugly pressed into history. As for the loss within the Eagles’ ranks Sunday, that would not as seamlessly been dismissed.
Early in that 20-14 stumble against the host New York Jets, Lane Johnson — perhaps the Eagles’ best player, achievement for achievement — left the game with an ankle injury, not to return. The All-Pro right tackle underwent an MRI, but Nick Sirianni was light on any meaningful reports during his normal day-after press availability Monday.
“Obviously, we’re really early,” Sirianni said. “Real early. I got to see Lane today. I got to talk to Lane today. Status to be announced. We’ll see how it goes.”
With the Eagles set to host 5-1 Miami, which is leading the AFC East, on Sunday night, there is limited time for that status report. As for the most immediate results, Sirianni’s offense essentially broke down once the 11th-year tackle was lost.
Fourth-year pro Jack Driscoll, who has played 43 career games, replaced Johnson and was of no immediate help. Should the 33-year-old Johnson be unavailable for Miami, Driscoll will make his 17th career start.
“We have won a lot of football games with Jack Driscoll there playing a little bit last year when Lane had to miss, too,” Sirianni said. “But make no mistake about it: When you lose a guy like Lane, he’s just one of the better players in the NFL. It’s going to affect things.
“I’ve got a ton of confidence in Jack. We’ll continue to work with Jack. Jack is versatile and can do a lot of different things. We’ll try to put Jack in the best positions we can to help him succeed as well.”
Beyond that, Sirianni will be charged with designing an offense less likely to produce a scoreless second half or to surrender three interceptions, one of which led to the game-deciding touchdown.
“Of course, you’re always going to look at it and say, ‘Hey, could we have done more here, done more there?’” Sirianni said. “There are different types of help you can give to an offensive line. Sometimes that help comes with an immediate thump on the side by the tight end or receiver. We sprinkled some of those in there. And sometimes the thump or chip help or whatever you want to call it comes from the back.
“And so, there’s a lot of different ways you can do that, but it’s not always guaranteeing the help, even when you might call it.”
Also driven from the field by injury was safety Reed Blankenship, whose ribs were damaged in a third-quarter collision. With Justin Evans on injured reserve with a knee injury and Sydney Brown nursing a tender hamstring, Sirianni will need a quick solution should Blankenship need more than a week to heal.
“Obviously, we’ll monitor Reed,” Sirianni said. “We’ve been banged up at this position, and as you know, it kind of rains and pours on that position.”
Among the possible solutions would be to formally swing undrafted rookie cornerback Mekhi Garner to the safety role he was forced into Sunday.
“Our defensive coaches did a really nice job getting Mekhi reps these last couple weeks,” Sirianni said. “We’ve just got to be able to do that with guys consistently throughout the year just because you’re limited in the amount of players you have. You’re limited to the amount of guys you can have up on game day.
“So good job by Mekhi. I thought he did a nice job. He hasn’t played a lot at safety outside of practice, so I thought he did a nice job under the circumstances, and he’ll continue to improve.”
Darius Slay did not play Sunday with a knee injury, and Avonte Maddox (pectoral muscle) and Zech McPhearson (achilles) are lost for the season.
”Hopefully we will get Sydney back,” Sirianni said. “We’ll see. I don’t like to get too much into that because I don’t know yet and there is a lot of week to be played until we have to make that decision.
“I know Howie (Roseman) is always working to put ourselves in great spots as far as personnel goes.”
For that among other reasons, Sirianni was not in a panic mode Monday.
“We have a lot of time,” he said. “We have a lot of things to do before we play this game and a lot of time to go before we play this game. You’ll have more feel of where they are on Wednesday. So, we’ll see on all those guys. They’re all going to be in a little bit different categories as far as potential time out, but I don’t want to put unnecessary timetables on anything really because there are just so many different things that can happen within the next couple days.
“ I’m just going to always keep that close to the vest, as you know. But our guys in the training room do an unbelievable job of helping guys get better. and also the guys do a great job of getting in there and helping themselves out and giving themselves every opportunity to play as soon as they can play.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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