Nick Sirianni’s future in peril after Jordan Mailata rips Eagles’ focus? CJGJ spits, ejected; Browns on top: NFL Week 6

With the retirement of right tackle Lane Johnson, the trade of center/guard Cam Jurgens, and the chronic injury issues of left guard Landon Dickerson, Jordan Mailata has fully replaced retired center Jason Kelce as the Eagles’ conscience and soul.

He was asked Sunday what the players could improve upon during an error-riddled, four-game losing streak.

“The only thing that comes to mind is ‘want to,’” Mailata said. ”The ‘want to’ to execute that rep. The ‘want to’ to dominate the guy next to you. ... Getting guys to just to finish the blocks.”

» READ MORE: Jordan Mailata says lack of ‘want to’ is leading to Eagles’ offensive struggles

Whoa.

Mailata went there.

His boss refused.

“I don’t question our guys’ toughness,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “I don’t question our effort.”

Why not?

The most prominent team leader is questioning it. Why won’t the head coach?

Because lack of focus, toughness, and effort is a direct reflection of the effectiveness of the head coach — especially a CEO head coach who delegates coordinator duties.

If there’s a problem with effort, that’s on the coach.

If there’s a problem with effort and the coach can’t change it, that’s an indictment of the coach.

If there’s a problem with effort and the coach can’t even see it — or worse, refuses to see it — that’s coaching malpractice.

Even with the losing, when factoring in the injuries and a new offensive scheme, Sirianni’s future in Philly seemed solid before this slide. If owner Jeffrey Lurie thinks Sirianni is ignoring culture rot, that future becomes much less solid.

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Mailata on Sunday spoke mostly about the offensive line, but he really could have been speaking for all 53 players. The Birds, now 2-4, committed a season-high 11 penalties in Sunday’s 25-14 loss to the visiting Panthers. It’s the third time in six games this season they’ve hit double-digits; they were flagged 10 times against the Bears in Week 3 and the Rams in Week 4, the two losses that started the slump.

They hit double-digits just twice in the 34 games of the last two regular seasons combined. Mailata had another false start Sunday, his third this season, as many as he had all of last year.

It’s not just penalties.

Players are lining up in the wrong spot, blocking the wrong opponent, and generally playing a sloppy brand of football a team with a sudden deficit of talent cannot afford to play.

Of the five planned starting linemen, only Mailata and Tyler Steen are playing their original positions. The left guard and center spots are occupied by third-stringers. The top three running backs are all injured, not to mention quarterback Jalen Hurts, who missed the first of at least four games with a blood clot in his calf.

It’s easier to swallow when you lose to a superior opponent if you’re focused and playing hard, but there are no excuses for failing to execute the fundamentals.

“Those are all individual mistakes,” Mailata said. “If you’re lapsing in the moment ... if you’re not focused in the moment, that’s like you’re not wanting to focus. ... The ‘want to’ to not cause any false starts to try to jump the cadence because you’ve got to pull (as he did). You know, it’s silly little errors that we can control.”

Josh Allen threw a backhanded, 12-yard touchdown pass after a 7-second scramble to charismatic receiver Keon Coleman in the Bills’ 33-30 win in Las Vegas that moved them to 5-1.

That wasn’t the only backhanded incident from the Bills, or even the most interesting.

Just before halftime, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was ejected for spitting on Raiders tight end Brock Bowers.

Gardner-Johnson said he expects a fine, or worse. Expect(orate) worse.

Last season, Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter was ejected for spitting on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. He was suspended ... sort of. Since Carter spat before the game’s first snap, the NFL declared that the missed game counted as his suspension and just forwarded his game check to NFL charities.

The Bills have a bye next week, so don’t expect Gardner-Johnson to play when the Ravens visit Nov. 1. After all, he’s a repeat offender.

Gardner-Johnson was a starter on the Eagles teams that went to Super Bowls after the 2022 and 2024 season and earned a reputation as an uncontrollable player. In his eight-year career he has 10 unnecessary roughness penalties. In 2024, he was ejected from an Eagles game against the Commanders for unsportsmanlike conduct, the second ejection of his career. Sunday’s was his third.

After the sexual assault lawsuits, the resulting suspension, the megatrade amid all of it, and the injury issues that followed, Deshaun Watson will be the headline associated with Cleveland for the foreseeable future. However, on Sunday good-guy head coach Todd Monken got some shine.

Monken was the offensive coordinator in Baltimore the past three seasons. Ravens coach John Harbaugh was fired and Monken, whose relationships with Ravens stars had deteriorated, was expected to follow Harbaugh to the Giants ... if he didn’t get his first NFL head coaching job, at the age of 60, in Cleveland.

Monken got the Cleveland job.

Then, on Sunday, he and Watson and the rest of the Browns beat the visiting Ravens, 13-10. They shut them out over the final three quarters, came back from a 10-0 deficit, and moved to 4-2. That’s the same record as Baltimore and Pittsburgh, but you can argue the Browns are in first place in the AFC North since they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker against both the Ravens and Steelers.

Monken, perhaps the most authentic NFL coach since John Madden, did not gloat.

“I wouldn’t have this job without the Ravens,” Monken said.

Bad call: Trailing by one point with 47 seconds to play and the ball on their 35, the Cardinals completed a 21-yard pass over the middle to Jalen Brooks, who was hit by Josh Wallace. It was a soft, safe hit, but was ruled unnecessary roughness, and it set up the winning field goal. The Rams lost to the visiting Cardinals, 18-16, their second straight defeat since beating the Birds in Philly. ... Frequent fumbler Cam Skattebo got zero carries in the Giants’ loss to the visiting Saints, in which the Giants trailed by 24 early in the fourth quarter, prompting a wave of early exits. Skattebo has four fumbles. He played but did not touch the ball, though coach John Harbaugh denied freezing him out. ... The Steelers scored 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to take a 19-16 lead, gave up a last-minute field goal, then scored a touchdown in overtime to beat the host Buccaneers (1-5). ... A week after beating the Eagles on a long, last-second field goal in London, the Jaguars lost to the Texans on a long, last-second field goal in London. ... Prescott threw two interceptions as the Cowboys (2-4) lost in Green Bay. ... The Titans beat the Colts for their first win (1-5). ... Andy Reid’s Chiefs moved to 5-0 and Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers fell to 0-6, but, while the zeros are more important, they weren’t as interesting as the block Patrick Mahomes threw on Kenneth Walker’s 2-yard touchdown run near the end of the second quarter.