Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Eagles coach Doug Pederson 'had so much confidence' on Jake Elliott 61-yard field goal

Here is what Doug Pederson, Carson Wentz and Jake Elliott said after Sunday's win over the Giants.

Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson shakes hands with defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz after the 27-24 win over the New York Giants.
Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson shakes hands with defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz after the 27-24 win over the New York Giants.Read moreYong Kim/Staff Photographer

Here are some highlights from Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, kicker Jake Elliott and quarterback Carson Wentz's postgame press conferences.

Doug Pederson

Quite honestly, I had so much confidence standing there, calmness. I had just watched him kick a couple kickoffs extremely deep into the end zone. It was pretty awesome. Sounded like a cannon off his foot. Great snap, great hold, the protection was there. Yeah, awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

[…]

With time and only one timeout, we were trying to get as close as we could, but we felt that if we were outside of that, about where we were, we were going to at least attempt it.

It was something that I discussed with the guy that's helping me upstairs with some of the analytics. Where we were on the field, what we were doing offensively at the time, the defense was playing extremely well. We had an opportunity to keep ourselves on the field at that time. So I elected to go for it at that point. And then obviously we didn't get it, and the defense held.

It's risky. But again, I take into consideration our offense. Our defense was playing extremely well the first half of the game, early in the game, and I made that decision. I ended up making the decision to punt it later in the game, obviously, in those situations. I stand by my decision.

You know what, I trust those guys [from] the standpoint of they're going to give me every piece of information I want, because I have to, being the head coach, make the decision. And it's ultimately my decision. It's like going for two. I want to know what the analytics say.

I still have to trust my gut instinct, I still have to look at a lot of factors to make sure that it's right to make that decision. And it's still ultimately up to me.

So we continue to study these things every week. Our guys are right on point with it. All the way down to replays and challenges and things of that nature. So they give me the information, and then it's my job to pull the trigger.

Just the fact that we wanted to get both of those guys an opportunity today. It just so happened that 'Wiz' ended up taking the bulk of the reps. But we had them both ready. I think it was just based on performance at the time. It's kind of like receivers. We rotate them from time to time.

Jake Elliott

It's kind of all a blur to me. I just know the ball was in the air for a really long time, real close to that right upright.

In pregame we kind of go over it, and just kind of how I'm feeling during my warmup and what, in the normal course of the game, I would feel comfortable at. Given that situation, I kind of just ran up to the coaches at the end, and just kind of prayed and asked for a chance there.

[…]

I'm not sure what they were going to do, but I definitely ran over there real wide-eyed wanting to get it done.

Carson Wentz

We knew Jake had pretty good range. I wasn't sure 61 was doable. You never really think that. But coach had a lot of faith in him, and he got it done. It was pretty crazy.

The O-line and running backs came with an attitude today. They came and ran their tails off, blocked their tails off. And that's a good defense. That's a great defense that we just played. Their record indicates they're 0-3, but you know, that's a good football team. And they came down here in a great environment, really hot day today.

But again, the running backs, they kind of left their mark today. The O-line did a great job. And that's what we've got to do against good defenses like that.

Get insights on the Eagles delivered straight to your inbox with Early Birds, beat writer Zach Berman's new twice-weekly newsletter for Eagles fans. Click here to sign up.