Nick Sirianni put his Eagles in a dangerous spot on Monday when he decided to go for it on fourth-and-6 toward the end of the game against the Packers.
After recovering a Packers fumble on fourth-and-1 late in the fourth quarter with about 1:26 remaining, the Eagles, leading 10-7, appeared to be on their way to a victory. The Packers had two timeouts, and managed to stop the Eagles on the first three plays of their final series. Rather than attempt a field goal or punt the football away, the Eagles decided to go for it on fourth-and-6. Quarterback Jalen Hurts threw deep to receiver A.J. Brown, and the pass fell incomplete.
This incompletion gave the Packers the ball back at their own 36-yard line with 27 seconds to go, handing them a good opportunity to gain at least 25 yards and attempt a potential game-tying field goal. Fortunately for the Eagles, the Packers offense that had been dysfunctional for much of the night wasn’t able to generate much else on the final drive. The Packers offense did enough to put kicker Brandon McManus in position to attempt a 64-yard field goal, but on a windy night at Lambeau, it easily missed.
Sirianni explained the decision after the game, saying, “At the end of the game, we’re up three. I would have liked to be a little closer to kick a field goal, you play every situation a little differently. It was into the wind on that one, I knew the kick would have had to be a little bit lower trajectory of a kick on that particular one.”
#Eagles HC Nick Sirianni on his decision to go for it on fourth and six with just over 30 seconds remaining:
“I stand put on that decision, especially being up three, cause if you go up six, they’re still going to need a touchdown…”
His full explanation: pic.twitter.com/C7psvFIaIy
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulliNFL) November 11, 2025
“I got a lot of faith in our offense, it didn’t work out on this one,” he continued. “We just didn’t get it. The decision, I stand put on that decision, especially being up three. Because you go up six, they’re still gonna need a touchdown, Hail Mary everything like that. We would have ended the game if we we had got that. I got a lot of faith in our guys to be able to do that. The reason I didn’t kick the field goal again being up three and all so just this trajectory into the wind there on that particular one.”
Even if the Eagles felt a field goal attempt wasn’t the best move, they still could have managed the end of the game differently. If they wanted to ice the game, they could have tried throwing the ball on third down or attempted an easier completion that could have given them a first down and/or put them in position to attempt an easier field goal. Yes, the Eagles wanted to put the ball in the hands of two of their stars in Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown, but on a night when the offense wasn’t clicking, the decision wasn’t optimal.
Alternatively, the Eagles could have simply punted to try to pin the Packers deep in their own territory. The defense had been dominant almost all night and it would have been much harder for Green Bay to try and get in field goal position from their own 10 or 20-yard line.
While there’s no guarantee that the Packers would have gone on to win in overtime had they made a game-winning field goal, the Eagles certainly ended the game on a riskier note than necessary thanks to their decision to attempt going for that fourth down.
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