Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
A week later, Pederson punts blame
In coaching, there is a studied and predictable list of ways to respond to game- to- game disappointment. It’s not a deep list. It’s a two- options- long list.
The first option, the one the Eagles coaches tried a week ago after a loss to the Rams, is to quietly shut the locker room door and apologize for putting the players in the wrong position to succeed.
The other, the one Doug Pederson apparently turned to Sunday after a 23- 23 tie with the winless and visiting Cincinnati Bengals, is to remind the players that the room has been properly fitted with 65 mirrors.
Over the decades, each plan has worked. And the very open plea for forgiveness last week from defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz nearly worked Sunday, when the Eagles’ were better, particularly at the defensive end. For that, they wouldwin the peaceful cosmic consciousness of knowing they will not go 0- and- 16.
Just the same, after moving seven days closer to going 0- Something- and- Something, Doug Pederson was not about to engage in any plea bargaining. As part of the eternal coachplayer agreement that only Buddy Ryan ever had the inner strength to break, Pederson did slip in the disclaimer that he had to do a better job.
But if there was a reason he seemed to take a little longer slipping into the studio for a postgame zoom conference than usual Sunday, it wasn’t because he was ordering a round ofmea culpa balloon bouquets.
No, not this time. Not after the Eagles’ final overtime possession was a virtual refutation of all football physics, one in which they were in game- winning field- goal range then were so sloppy that they wound up punting.
Blame somebody else for all of that, Pederson effectively said, stopping short of making a public handwash display for effect. Not guilty. Not. “I told them in the locker room after the game that we weren’t a very, very, very smart football team today,” Pederson said. “We had 11 penalties. They came at crucial times. And we couldn’t get off the field on defense.”
While that comment was as observational as it was critical, the football- to- English translation was clear. For when any coach publicly admits to telling his players they weren’t smart, what he means is that they were made aware of what they were supposed to do, only to do something else. For that, there are only a handful of explanations. The players aren’t listening. The players aren’t motivated. Or the players aren’t good.
That whole blame- the- coaches thing?
That hasn’t been a thing around News Control Nation for days.
“We didn’t execute well enough,” Pederson said. “We had some injuries, but that’s going to be part of the game. We’re just not a smart football team right now.” Ok, Coach P. Just for the record, go for it: “That’s on me and we’ll get that fixed.” So that’s out of the way.
Only Pederson knows why he was inspired to blame the on- fieldmistakemakers. But it’s likely he was hipped before meeting his press obligation that he was already under some criticism for punting with 19 seconds left in overtime rather than allowing Jake Elliott to rock a 64- yard game- winner with a favorable breeze. Nor were the masses expressing full- throated support for his decision not to attempt a two- point conversion after pulling within 23- 22 with 21 seconds left in regulation.
Neither of those decisions were outrageous. The Eagles were at home, so they played for overtime. And had Elliott failed to hit a trey after Matt Pryor’s unacceptable motion penalty drove the Eagles to Cincinnati 46, the Bengals would have assumed possession in Eagles territory with about 13 seconds left in the overtime. One completion, and the Bengals would have been in business.
“Coach did what he did,” Brandon Graham said. “I’ll ride with that.”
It was Graham who was most vocal about the Eagles’ defenders carpooling with Schwartz after his willingness to accept blame for the loss last week. And the Eagles did settle defensively Sunday, with Graham, Darius Slay, Malik Jackson, Nickell Robey- Coleman, Fletcher Cox and more making loud secondhalf contributions. But Carson Wentz was intercepted twice, the Eagles forced no turnovers, and 11 penalties were enough to make The Coach Formerly Known as the Aggressive Doug Pederson settle for a tie.“The fight was there from guys,” Wentz said. “The effort was there. We’ve just got to be smarter. I’ve got to be better as well. It was just a frustrating way to end the game, to be sure.”
That was the theme leaking out of the room: That the Eagles didn’t play, as theman said, very, very, very smart football. For that, though, there is the eternal question: Why?
Oddly, and uncomfortably, Pederson has been making noises all season about the difficulties the Eagles have had building a team under the NFL’s virus restrictions. So casually does he join that conversation that he comes off as oblivious to the reality that the other 31 head coaches have had similar if not identical challenges.
Other reasons? They are old in too many places. There have been some difficult injury challenges. Wentz, while a little better Sunday, has been well below Pro Bowl level. If Schwartz said he had a lousy game plan against the Rams, well, maybe he did. Poor recent drafts have compromised the depth. Pick one. Pick several.
The Eagles are 0- 2- 1, but they remain in a pedestrian division, played better Sunday than they had a week earlier, and played better later in the game than they did in the middle.
They didn’t win. But at least Pederson let them know where to find the blame. One of these weeks, one of those coaching tricks might even work.