Hayes: Pederson too aggressive for his personnel

IT IS the responsibility of every leader to identify and utilize the abilities of his followers. He might subscribe to a certain philosophy, but unless he has the right tools he must ignore personal preference and employ the skills and talents in front of him.

This is as true of an NFL coach as it is of a SEPTA supervisor or, God bless them, sports editors.

Doug Pederson understood this responsibility for the first three weeks of his career as a head coach. This understanding deserted him in four of the five games that followed.

In the hangover of losing a game by five points in which you freely forfeited six, a spotlight shines on Pederson's misevaluation of the capabilities of his current roster. In this moment, at 4-4 after a 3-0 start, his offense simply isn't good enough to impose its will and his defense isn't good enough to compensate.

The first two failed fourth-down conversions at the Giants on Sunday amplified the team's shortcomings and clarified Pederson's mindset - a mindset no doubt fueled by five consecutive fourth-down conversions to start the season.

"I'm going to stay aggressive."

He has repeated this with bullheaded resolve from the moment he left the field at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon until the moment he left the dais following his Monday postmortem. He is a man with a swizzle stick who thinks he has a battering ram.

Given the choice, Pederson said, he will continue to ignore his excellent kicker, Caleb Sturgis, and the best punter in franchise history, Donnie Jones. Granted, his offensive line is diminished at 60 percent of its positions, and he has no fullback, no power runner, no No. 1 receiver and no tight end who operates well in tight quarters, but his mind is made up: Fourth down will bow to him.

That mindset needs to change.

Apparently, it won't.

"I still feel strong about that," Pederson said of the two failed conversions. "It shows confidence, belief in the guys."

Let's consider The Guys.

Pederson essentially has benched Ryan Mathews, his biggest back, due to fumbling issues, and replaced him with Darren Sproles, his smallest back and his oldest. Sproles, running behind lead blocker and rookie guard Isaac Seumalo, got nothing on fourth-and-1 on Sunday. It was not all little Darren's doing.

Seumalo saw his first NFL action from scrimmage because the offensive line has eroded. Clever center Jason Kelce is overmatched in the middle. Left guard Allen Barbre is injured, replaced by center/guard Stefan Wisniewski. Most significant, right tackle Lane Johnson, the best player on offense, is four games into a 10-game PED suspension, replaced by fifth-round rookie Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Yes, the Eagles were 5-for-5 on fourth down entering Sunday's game, but four of those conversions came with Barbre and Johnson on the field.

The receivers . . . OK, they've taken enough abuse. So has tight end Zach Ertz. Let's move on to the rookie quarterback.

Carson Wentz is big and strong and mobile but, in the NFL, he lacks the speed you need to succeed. In a definition-of-insanity behavioral pattern Pederson keeps calling Michael Vick-type read-option plays for Wentz, a guy who is only marginally faster than Sam Bradford.

Pederson did not help himself when he blamed a blown assignment for Wentz's failed fourth-down run that started the second quarter. To be fair, Kelce appeared to be beaten on a block, as was Jason Peters, but five Giants got a piece of Wentz who was still 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Yes, somebody blew an assignment:

Play-caller Doug Pederson.

He disagrees.

"I felt confident in everything we did," Pederson said, "the way I called the game."

In a world driven by analytics, statistics might indicate that down, distance, field position and time of game combine to represent a benefit for going for it. The problem is, analytics cannot incorporate the limitations of specific personnel grouping. That's the coach's job. It requires intuition. Ignoring the opposition's strength and underestimating your team's weakness is irresponsible to the point of negligence.

As such, regardless of what the statistics say, fourth down will not be a friend to a team thus composed. It is the sort of cavalier behavior that colors a coach as incompetent and overmatched; done enough times, it presages dismissal.

For the moment, however, the Eagles do not have a crisis at coach. They have a neophyte.

When the Birds hired Pederson, he had been around the NFL game for 19 years but he had only coached for seven, all as an assistant. He had never been in charge of a team composed of grown men; for that matter, he had never been in charge of an adult offense.

This lack of experience does not disqualify him; rather it explains why, in the guts of an exhausting, pressurized, distraction-laden season, his neurons seem to be misfiring.

To be clear, Pederson has, by and large, done a fine job. He has nursed four wins from an FCS (I-AA) quarterback who had virtually no preseason experience; a ravaged offensive line; receivers who run routes on treadmills and catch with their elbows; and a defensive backfield whose charm lies in its occasional success despite its relative anonymity. The Birds now have played every team in their division to a standstill, have beaten an undefeated team and have rolled Big Ben.

Further, Pederson deftly handled explosive issues from Day 1: disgruntled Bradford and Fletcher Cox, mischievous Nigel Bradham and Nelson Agholor, gunslinger Josh Huff. He clearly has a knack for this.

Pederson also called a wide-receiver pass play for Huff at Dallas before late-game decisions led to an overtime loss; called two questionable plays that led to a late loss at Detroit; and, Sunday, after two Wentz interceptions dug a 14-0 hole, Pederson mangled the Birds' best chance at a comeback. He's been coaching like a rookie. Finally.

It is a long and grueling season, and only half gone. Quarterback-friendly rules changed the game years ago. Pederson seeks to exploit those advantages; but, to a large extent, NFL football often distills to a contest of field position and field goals. Staying aggressive in the NFL means understanding your limitations and attacking only to their limits.

No matter what your personal preference might be.

@inkstainedretch