Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo know each other well.
Really well.
The two came to the Eagles in 1999 and were on Andy Reid’s staff as position coaches through the 2006 season, when Spagnuolo went to the Giants for his first stint as their defensive coordinator.
Then, the two friends reunited in St. Louis from 2009-10. After Spagnuolo was hired as the Rams’ head coach, he brought in Shurmur to be his offensive coordinator. Shurmur left in 2011, when he was hired as the Browns’ head coach.
“I have a lot of respect for him,” Shurmur said on Wednesday. “He’s been very successful, very detailed coach. You can see his fingerprints all over the defense now.”
The two are still good friends — as are their wives — and even saw each other a couple times during the summer.
With that extensive history, it would stand to reason that their knowledge of one another would come into play when they lead their two units Monday night.
NFL
But Shurmur isn’t going overboard.
“I think it comes down to the players playing,” he said. “You have a little bit of an idea of what you’re seeing on tape. But the players still have to go and execute plays against defenses.
“Nobody does anything 100 percent of the time in every situation, so our players have to respond to whatever coverage or whatever pressure he brings. I think when you know somebody, there’s maybe a thing or two you can talk about with the players, but if you paralyze them by saying, 'They're going to do this and I know this,' ... I’ve been on the other side of that when we say we know this defense and then you go out and the players are paralyzed and they don’t play. I think it comes down to the players playing.”
Shumur said Spagnuolo became “very impressed” by former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson and that certainly shows in Spagnuolo’s coaching. But Spagnoulo’s defense is different from his time in St. Louis.
“He’s a little bit more man-free, a little bit more just pure three-deep zone,” Shurmur said. “But he’s an outstanding coach.”
This season, the Giants' defense is 27th in the league, giving up 384.8 yards per game, but is 14th in points per game, allowing 21.8. And the defense is particularly stout against the run, giving up a paltry 80.6 yards per game, the second best number in the league.
It’s far from a regular occurrence, but the two have coached against each other at least once before.
In that game — on Nov. 13, 2011 — Spagnuolo's Rams won a defensive battle, 13-12. Cleveland outgained St. Louis, 335-281, but was held out of the end zone.
The only touchdown in that game?
A 7-yard touchdown reception by Brandon Lloyd ... from Sam Bradford.