The late-game breakdowns befalling the Philadelphia Eagles aren’t for lack of analysis on coach Nick Sirianni’s part. The head coach made that clear Wednesday during a lengthy and open discussion comprising nearly 10 minutes of a press conference into the decision making in the final two minutes of Monday’s 22-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. That included what share of the play calling comes down to him and what is done by offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, and a tour of the league to see what other coaches have done in similar situations in recent years, furnished by his analytics staff. “I’m going to try to drag myself through the mud as much as I possibly can, because quite frankly, that’s the only way you get better,” Sirianni said. “It’s to really look at your decisions, to look at every decision you make and say, ‘Hey, did I make the right decision’? And sometimes the play fails for whatever reason, but you’ve got to still look at each decision.” There’s been no shortage of grist for the Monday — in this case, also Tuesday and Saturday — morning quarterback mill. In Week 1, Sirianni elected to kick a field goal with 27 seconds left to go up by five points on Green Bay, after a presumptive tush push attempt on third-and-goal from the 1 resulted in a fumble. Jake Elliott converted, and five points was the winning margin in Sao Paulo. Monday, things didn’t go quite so nicely to plan. From a decision to go on fourth-and-4 at the 9-yard line in the first quarter instead of a field goal to the third-down pass dropped by Saquon Barkley to the field goal decision with 99 seconds left on fourth-and-3 at the 10, it’s enough to send a second-guesser’s head spinning. Sirianni isn’t one to shy away from the blame when things go poorly, at which he’s had some practice. See last year’s loss to the Jets, or the Seattle debacle, or the demoralizing loss to Arizona at the Linc last year. Sirianni would, correctly, counter with the game management against Green Bay as having been effective, as well as late-game situations against Dallas at home each of the last two years. Barkley took blame for the drop on a third-and-3 postgame, which would’ve gotten the Eagles at least a first down and iced the game against an Atlanta team out of timeouts. Sirianni reiterated his logic for the throw, after the Falcons had brought pressure through run gaps on second down, to stretch the field. He also remained convinced that taking three points and going up six was the right call on fourth. “Is the outcome always what you want? No, but your conviction in the call, I was completely convicted that kicking the field goal there was the right decision based off all my studies,” he said. “Now I come back and I reevaluate it, and I’m even more convicted, to be quite honest with you, because of everything that goes into that.” Those decisions, he stressed, don’t come just from Moore. They also aren’t spur of the moment but decisions they script each week. Sirianni rehearses those kinds of situations so that when they come up, he has some comfort with them. “If Kellen and I are just having that conversation right then, we’ve done a (lousy) job getting ready all week,” he said. “That conversation happens throughout. That conversation happened today, of what we would be thinking in those scenarios, and it’s just, hey, remember that we said in this scenario? Boom. So that’s something that we prep for all week.” Whatever Sirianni decides to do in clutch moments, one thing is certain: His defense needs to be better. And not just better as in don’t let Kirk Cousins carve you up for 70 yards in 65 seconds for a touchdown. It’s not going to get any easier on Sunday when the Eagles travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints. That’s the third-worst total defense in terms of yards allowed per game (399.5) against the NFL’s top scoring offense (45.5 ppg). That will be an emphasis this week, lest the Eagles get embarrassed in Louisiana. They have forced one turnover in two games with a minus-3 margin and have three sacks. It’ll be a back-to-basics week for that unit this week, Sirianni said, like “how to tackle” basics. “Regardless of what the call is, it’s going to be how we put our hands on people, how we knock them back, how we shed that block, whether it’s a cut block or whether it’s an up-high block, and how we tackle after that,” he said. “We have to build on those fundamentals. I don’t want that to sound like we have to do that as coaches. We have to put them in positions as far as how to strike blocks. It’s us as coaches putting them in position to make plays, but also teaching them how to put their hands on blocks.”