For the first time since the Super Bowl LVII second half meltdown by his Eagles defense, Jonathan Gannon addressed what went wrong. The now Cardinals’ coach answered three questions from Philadelphia reporters about the 24 points and 212 yards his defense allowed as the Eagles blew a 10-point halftime lead.
“They made a lot of good plays in that second half,” Gannon said when initially asked about the Eagles defense in the second half. “We weren’t able to get some stops when we needed to. I obviously could have done a better job of coaching a couple things that I want out of the calls. Tough to swallow when you look back at that because it’s such a big stage and we didn’t get it done. . . . But learned a lot from it. You’ve got to give credit to Kansas City, but obviously I could have done a lot better job with some of the things were were doing.”
Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who is scheduled for free agency later this month, saw a tweet of Gannon’s response and quote tweeted “You ain’t put us in a position to make plays.” He later deleted the tweet.
That actually was Gannon’s answer to a second question about what he could have done differently.
“Just how we set up a couple calls situationally,” Gannon said. “I could have done a better job with that. And really that’s what it came down to. I think, situationally, could have put our guys in a better spot than I put them in.”
The third question about the subject tested Gannon’s patience Tuesday.
“Yeah, I’ve answered two questions about that. I’m sorry I’m going to not talk about that one,” Gannon said. “But I’ve kind of moved on from that. As always, guys, when you’re the leader of a unit or the leader of a team, everything that goes on out on that field is my responsibility. And obviously them scoring what they scored, how they second half went, I didn’t do a good enough job.”