Eagles, head coach go back to work
Pederson, Super Bowl-bound Eagles get back to work quietly
PHILADELPHIA » The Linc was empty Monday, the NovaCare Complex quiet. Parking lots around the stadium complex had been swept clean. No one was trying to scale any greased lamp posts.
The Eagles had won their way into the Super Bowl a night earlier, swatting the Minnesota Vikings, 38-7. Doug Pederson had a small get-together at his South Jersey home afterward, went to bed about 2, then returned to work early.
He knew what was next. He knew it was the Patriots. He knew what that meant.
“I think everybody in the league sort of envies their success to some extent, and rightfully so,” Pederson would say at his regular day-after press briefing. “They’ve been there, done that many times. And that’s something that every other team would love to have.”
The Patriots were there and did that last year, rallying from a 28-3 deficit to defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28 in overtime. Sunday, they were in the AFC Championship game, down double figures in the fourth quarter, then emerged 24-20 winners over Jacksonville. And that will be them in two weeks in Minneapolis, a franchise playing in its 10th
Super Bowl since the 1985 season. Ten. Ten of ‘em. Double figures.
“It’s impressive, obviously, and it’s well-respected and well-documented,” Pederson said. “At the same time, we’re just going to prepare the same and try to block out all the noise. There’s going to be a lot written to probably both extremes. But again, our guys have been resilient. They’ve been able to block that noise out. Once the ball is teed up and kicked off, we will just trust our players, trust our schemes, and play football.”
The Eagles are 15-3 overall, 15-2 in games they tried to win so far this season. The Patriots, too, are 15-3. Both No. 1 seeds advanced to the finals. It’s serious. And the Eagles know it’s serious.
“To be the best,” Brent Celek said, “you have to beat the best.”
That will be the Eagles’ challenge in Super Bowl LII. That’s what Pederson was planning for, bracing for and accepting on what might be the last quiet day around his workplace for quite a long while over the next few weeks leading up to it.
“I’ve got to communicate and keep things on a rigid, tight schedule, and make sure the guys are focused on the job at hand,” he said. “They even said it after the game last night in the locker room, that there’s a lot of unfinished business still to do.
“There is one game left. One game left in the season. We’ve come this far and want to make sure that we stay focused. We have a great locker room, as you know. I’ll trust my leaders of that team to get the job done.”
Pederson will strive to maintain normalcy, though aware that it will be difficult. He has been on a Super Bowl roster, winning a ring as a backup quarterback for the Packers who defeated, yes, the Patriots in January of 1997. The hype has grown, even since then. But at some point, football preparation is standard.
“It goes back to getting a lot of work done this week, preparing the guys, getting the film study in,” he said. “Then when you get up there, it’s just a matter of continuing to review, implementing the plan during the week, and just building towards the game.
“That’s the way we did it then. And, really, not much has changed since.”
In that spirit, Pederson would prefer that the Eagles not change their approach leading up, either. From the time they soaked him in Gatorade after a Week 1 victory, through multiple choreographed touchdown celebrations, to a viral video of them over the weekend dancing even before the NFC final, Pederson’s players have been loose.
So … keep the music playing?
“It’s probably one of the calmest I’ve seen our guys, the most relaxed I’ve seen our guys all season,” Pederson said of the run-up to the Vikings game. “I do want them to feel relaxed. If I’m tight and uptight, then they’re going to feel it, and they’re going to probably react the same way. So I want them to let their personalities show. Let them have fun. Enjoy the moment.
“This is why we coach and play. It is for these opportunities and these moments right here. Yeah, I felt like our guys were not only well-prepared but relaxed going into that game.” That was one game. The next one will involve the Patriots, and Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick, and a halftime show that never ends.
“You never know until you play the game if your scheme and all that works,” Pederson said while speaking with the media on Monday. “But listen, at the end of the day there is no magical offensive or defensive play or special teams play. It comes down to players and players making plays. Our guys did that last night.”
Then came the morning, and the quiet, a new reality and a new challenge … a challenge the Eagles’ coach believes can be met.
“Bottom line,” Pederson said. “It comes down to players making plays.”