PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles had just won a football game, and sometimes there are people who are paid to remind the media that what counts most, if not only, is the end result on the scoreboard. So let’s pay a postgame visit with Eagles coach and father of three Nick Sirianni and get his take on this. “It’s hard to win,” Sirianni said Sunday, to the gathered media and to his three kids gathered around him, after the Eagles had just made it hard to win over the Cleveland Browns. “What we’ll do is we’ll stay hungry, we’ll stay humble, and we’ll look at the things we messed up and we’ve got to fix. Did we play like a championship-level team today? No, not by any means. We had mistakes that, first and foremost, always are going to be on me. We’ll get those cleaned up. … All that matters is that we get better from this, and so, excited about the win.” Well yeah, but… Since the Eagles had just closed out a 20-16 victory over the now 1-5 Browns, in a game that was tied 10-10 at halftime with the Browns being outgained 200-70 at that point, and a game which was lowlighted late in the second quarter by a brief fan chant calling for Sirianni’s dismissal, and since after the game he made it obvious that he had heard that by pointing at fans who may or may have chanted him down earlier as he was exiting the field … it seemed a strange place for a subsequent group hug in the media interview room. That was not exactly new, however. Sirianni has often had one or more of his cute children up there for … moral support? Sometimes he’ll ask them what they think of his answer or whatnot for comic relief. But this time it just seemed a little off key, especially when he came very close to engaging in a snappy argument with the people in The Interview Room paid to ask the questions. Because, you know, they’re working. Such as … why are the Eagles the only team in the NFL that hasn’t scored in the first quarter, and through five games already? That question went out to numerous older kids in the locker room, and they seemed to agree it’s an issue worth breaking down. “It’s definitely on our minds,” lineman Lane Johnson said. “It’s something we haven’t done for a long time, dating back to last year. We’d love to see it come back. We battled good in the second half but we made the game closer than we needed to. … It wasn’t pretty. But like you said, the way we start games, it needs to be better.” “I think it’s just settling down,” receiver DeVonta Smith added. “Kind of let the game come to us. … We can win ugly like this. It’s not the best feeling but it is a good sign that you can play the way we played and still find a way to win.” It’s true that despite a first half in which they half-dominated and didn’t score enough, they were tied at halftime only because Cleveland lonely superstar Myles Garrett blocked a Jake Elliott field goal try with 21 seconds left, and former Eagle Rodney McLeod scooped it up and returned it 50 yards for a game-tying touchdown. So the Eagles eventually shrugged that off. Jalen Hurts missed some chances early, but wound up with a 16 of 25, 264-yard day with two touchdowns. A.J. Brown and Smith each caught a TD pass, and Brown put the game away late with a 40-yard reception that essentially capped a nearly four-minute Eagles possession at the end of the game, Hurts taking three knees to run the clock to nil. And yes, the Eagles’ defense played well, keeping Deshaun Watson and the Browns offense out of the end zone, settling instead for three field goals. But Sirianni seemed to know what was coming afterward. The Birds could have, should have made this win a lot easier. So when the inevitable question came about another scoreless first quarter, his kids gathered around him at the podium/table, he made another point. “I guess that means we didn’t work at all then,” Sirianni said somewhat defensively. “You’re all making a big deal about it … we’re going to figure it out. We’re going to fix it. We’ve known how to score in the past. We get it, you guys have a job to do and you’re going to fixate on one thing  ‘They don’t start fast and they turn the ball over’ – like, we’ve got it. We’re going to do everything we can do to fix it. “I don’t want that to be in their heads,” he added about his players. “That’s why I’m basically telling you guys that we got it. We’ll figure it out. Sometimes you get things in your head, and you continue to, and it kind of works there. But the defense started their ass off. The defense started their ass off. It was 10-nothing to start the football game off and the defense didn’t let up a play. So, they played their ass off. They started fast, right?” Right! And Sirianni’s supporters seemed to agree, since they were, well, laughing by then. Which begged the next question … why the kids again? “I love football,” Sirianni said. “I love football so much. Like I just told the guys, the way I try to envision for our football team, our accountability, teamwork, toughness, our – and I appreciate you asking the question – our detail. It’s how I’m trying to raise my family. “So, I have so many (memories); my mom and dad are at every single game. I mean, every single home game they drive the six hours to be here. This game is why me and my brothers – I’m going to get emotional – this game is why my brothers and I are so close and my dad and I are so close and my mom is a football mom. Like, this game means so much to me. … So tell me the question one more time?” Before he tried to answer again, he talked of his memories from high school football and when he was a ball boy and the way his players are creating lifelong memories and, and … “that’s why I bring them up here,” Sirianni concluded. OK, so maybe this day’s Nick Sirianni interview spot didn’t answer any questions about this game, which before long will only count as a win instead of a poorly played victory over a very bad Browns team. What were we fixating on again? Contact Rob Parent at [email protected]