Pederson sticks to his guns on decisions in defeat
Unmoved by the fans' dissatisfaction with his coaching decisions in the Eagles' 28-23 loss to the New York Giants, Doug Pederson doubled down on those decisions Monday. He reviewed the fourth-down attempts and his play calling, and he did not second-guess anything he saw.
Unmoved by the fans' dissatisfaction with his coaching decisions in the Eagles' 28-23 loss to the New York Giants, Doug Pederson doubled down on those decisions Monday. He reviewed the fourth-down attempts and his play calling, and he did not second-guess anything he saw.
"I felt comfortable in everything we did, the way I called the game," Pederson said.
The plays that drew the most scrutiny were two fourth-down attempts in the second quarter. Pederson kept his offense on the field on fourth and 3 from the Giants' 23-yard line with the Eagles trailing, 14-3. Quarterback Carson Wentz kept the ball on a running play but was stuffed 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage. It would have been a 41-yard field goal if Pederson sent the kicking team on the field.
Later in the half, Pederson elected to go for a fourth and 1 from the Giants' 6-yard line with the Eagles trailing, 21-10. Darren Sproles failed to gain a yard, and the Eagles were left with zero points instead of a 24-yard field goal.
"I still feel strong about those," Pederson said. "I think the decision is to go for it. It shows confidence and belief in the guys. At that time, I felt like we were moving the ball, and at the end of the day, when you look at it, we had more opportunities in this game. To me, in my opinion, it didn't come down to those two plays. There were enough things in this game that cost us this football game, but I still stick by what I did - how I chose to go for it in both of those situations."
Context is relevant when evaluating Pederson's decisions. The Eagles entered the game 5 for 5 on fourth-down attempts this season, a statistic that Pederson took pride in. Two weeks ago, he boasted about the message it sends to the team when a coach keeps his offense on the field for fourth down.
After the Week 8 overtime loss to Dallas, Pederson said his takeaway from the loss was that he needed to stay aggressive. In fact, the decision he regretted in that game was not sending his offense back onto the field after a penalty on a field goal would have given the Eagles a fourth-and-1 attempt. Pederson has an apparent disdain for three points when he believes seven are attainable, and he wished he thought that way against the Cowboys. After Sunday's loss, Pederson said he was not trying to compensate for his lack of aggression against Dallas. He also pledged to remain aggressive.
Both fourth-down decisions came after the Eagles fell into a 14-0 bind. That prompted speculation that Pederson was reacting to the score, but he insisted that was not the case because it was early enough in the game that the Eagles did not deviate from their plan.
"Even down 14, there was no panic," Pederson said. "There was the eagerness obviously to get back on the field and sort of right the ship at that time - you put your defense in a bind early in that game, something you can't do. But it didn't have an effect on the decisions, because it was so early in the football game."
The Wentz run on fourth down appeared doom from the start. Wentz could not outrun the Giants defenders to the corner, and he was converged on by five blue jerseys with only left tackle Jason Peters to block. Pederson said the Giants sent a "zero blitz" and the Eagles missed a blocking assignment. But even if every player blocked who they needed, the Giants still outnumbered the Eagles on the left side.
"In critical situations like that, if one piece of it fails, then the rest of it has to kind of pick up that piece, meaning there are other pieces on defense that are free, and it just happened on that play again that . . . we just missed it," Pederson said. "We just failed on the block. It wasn't a mental thing. It was just a physical error that we just missed on the block, and it caused us not to get the first down."
Pederson also examined his play-calling on the game's final drive, when Wentz threw four incomplete passes from the 17-yard line with the team trailing by five points. Pederson said the Eagles "had opportunities," and he liked the play calls - especially the fourth-down play when Wentz misfired a pass to Jordan Matthews. Pederson pointed out that the Eagles succeeded on the same play earlier in the game, and they executed it for a touchdown in Week 1.
But it did not work at the end of the game, which was why Pederson was left answering for his decisions after another loss. He was confident with them on Sunday, and he stood by them on Monday.
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