The Philadelphia Eagles held on for a 10-7 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football in a defensive slugfest, but it wasn’t thanks to the decision making of head coach Nick Sirianni.
Green Bay couldn’t move the ball all game, but facing 4th and 6 from the Packers’ 35-yard line with just 33 seconds left, the Eagles inexplicably decided to go for it instead of pinning the Packers deeper in their own territory with no timeouts. Although the weather at Lambeau Field wasn’t that conducive to kicking, we’ve seen kickers all across the NFL make longer field goals than ever before. Had the Eagles not converted, they would have given the Packers a great chance to just pick up a couple first downs and attempt a field goal to tie the game.
And both Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were in disbelief in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth.
“Sirianni will be answering a lot of questions about that decision on 4th down.” – Troy Aikman pic.twitter.com/MAG4U54MPb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 11, 2025
“I don’t know what he’s going to do, this is surprising to me,” Aikman interjected. “Can’t believe they’re going for it here on fourth down.”
After the failed conversion, the Packers got on the very edge of field goal range for Brandon McManus. In fact, he even got a practice attempt before a timeout that fell just a couple feet short from 64 yards out. However, when it came time to kick for real, his attempt was a duck hook that almost exited the field of play and the Eagles escaped with a victory.
After the game, Troy Aikman returned to the fourth down decision from Nick Sirianni and said the Super Bowl winning head coach would have to answer some serious questions about his strategy.
“I’m not sure either coach feels real good about this. Sirianni will be answering a lot of questions that decision on fourth down, but he escapes Lambeau Field with a win,” Aikman said.
Throughout the game, Aikman and Buck talked about various analytics that could inform whether to go for it or not on fourth down. But there’s probably not a computer or human being alive that thought it was worth taking the risk to go for it in that situation given how greatly Jordan Love and the Packers offense had struggled all night long.