Sirianni defends decision to motivate Eagles with 49ers' trash talk
Sirianni defends decision to motivate Eagles with 49ers' trash talk originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The 49ers backed up their smack talk with a 42-19 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, much to the displeasure of Nick Sirianni.
The Eagles coach showed his team some of San Francisco's offseason chatter in an effort to motivate them for their Week 13 game against the 49ers, whom they handily defeated in last season's NFC Championship Game after quarterback Brock Purdy was injured early.
But Sirianni has no regrets, even after the 49ers blew out the Eagles in their return to Philadelphia.
"Yeah, I’m fine with that," Sirianni told reporters of his decision after the Eagles' loss. "Really, what it was is kind of what I say to you guys all the time as far as, hey, there were some things said after last game. If you want to use that as motivation, use it. If it distracts you, then don’t.
"But make no mistake about it, the biggest motivation you always have is to play for each other. I’m not going to second guess -- I’ll second guess everything that -- I’ll rethink through everything that I do or don’t do, but as far as the messaging goes right there, shoot, yeah, again, that’s what we’re going to do with a lot of things.
"If it helps you, it helps you; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But play for each other. With all that, try to play under control. Again, there have been times we’ve used some stuff like that that it’s been good for us; today it wasn’t. Again, that is a really good football team and well coached."
After their title game loss to the Eagles last season, 49ers players including Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey lamented they would have defeated Philadelphia and advanced to the Super Bowl had Purdy been healthy the entire game. They got a chance to prove that Sunday and they did, with Purdy completing 19 of 27 pass attempts for 314 yards and four touchdowns.
Samuel scored three times -- twice through the air and once on the ground -- while McCaffrey had one rushing touchdown on the night.
It was an all-around effort by San Francisco, who certainly entered Sunday's game with a little extra motivation of their own based on last season's end result. And like Sirianni said, playing for each other always trumps all.
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