Postseason will define Pederson and his players
For the first time in five years Saturday, the Eagles will step into an NFL postseason. There, they will be revealed for what they are, one way or another. The NFL postseason is where coaching is validated. The NFL postseason is where quarterbacks are branded. The NFL postseason is where anything that appears to be a hardened truth often is proven flimsy and worthless.
Two of the three modern-era coaches most identified with the Eagles, Buddy Ryan and Andy Reid, would know that better than anyone. The third, Dick Vermeil, once had a similarly stinging early-career lesson. Ron Jaworski learned it, and so did Randall Cunningham, and so did Donovan McNabb. The fans
learned it, too, though they are much quicker to forget. They all learned that whatever seemed comfortable from September through December suddenly turns tense in the new year. Plays that worked for months suddenly are smothered. Routines that soothed are disrupted by noise, real and otherwise.
In the regular season, bad teams are allowed to participate. In this particular season, the Eagles had more than a healthy sampling of that from the NFC East alone. In the regular season, ordinary coaches do ordinary things. In the regular season, injuries that may not be serious are treated with rest, and if necessary, more rest. None of that is true in the playoffs.
Ryan was perfect for a regular season. He would bluff his way through it, his players cackling along with his relentless public snark and then overachieving for his benefit. But when the single-elimination portion of the event began, requiring fresh strategy, he was left with nothing but an empty bag of boasts.
More sophisticated than Ryan, Reid would be prepared, strategically, for all postseasons. His challenge was stage fright, a problem that he has dragged to Kansas City. Throw Andy Reid into a tight playoff game, and he will forget to do something as basic as watch the clock and order an appropriate hurryup scheme.
Vermeil once went into a playoff game against the Falcons and forgot to bring a placekicker. Years later, before a Super Bowl, he panicked in New Orleans, keeping the Eagles so sequestered for the week that they were conditioned to believe they should be terrified by the moment. Then, they played that way in a loss to the Oakland Raiders. Unlike Reid and Ryan, Vermeil matured as a head coach, learned from his errors and won a Super Bowl.
Saturday, it will be Doug Pederson’s turn to spin the win-or-exit wheel. Just five months ago he was still tattooed as having never been a head coach above the high school level and was still lugging around a 7-9 career record. But he went 13-3 in the regular season, which should make him the NFL Coach of the Year. A well-earned bye has shoved his team into the second playoff round, and the Super Bowl is two home victories away.
The other day, in what could be proven to be a fact, Pederson said this about the Falcons: “They are not going to try to trick you or do anything to get in your head or anything like that. It’s just line up and try to beat us.” Since there is enough filmed evidence of how the last NFC team in a Super Bowl approaches postseason games, figure Pederson to have completed his necessary research. But how does he know what tricks the Falcons will use? Isn’t that why they are tricks? And not that he cannot adapt to those tricks, or that he is not surrounded by superb assistants who will prepared to do that too, but what will happen when things look different on the field than they did on a screen?
Pederson was noticeably short with the press, at least early in the week. Sources believe that was a business decision and that it did not carry into the locker room. Since postseason play demands changes, it could be good for the Birds that Pederson has shifted his public persona down a gear. It shows that he is not taking it like Game 17 of the regular season. Yet one question haunts: He comes from the Reid coaching stable. He was invented by Reid. He was promoted by Reid. He was taught by Reid. In his two seasons with the Birds, Pederson has been different from Reid in many ways. He can prove that again by not being overly tense in the postseason.
In the Eagles’ locker room this week, there was a distinct atmosphere of confidence. The Birds were oddly bothered by a goofy betting line, but there is no rule about where motivation can arrive. Pederson has indicated that he will let Nick Foles loose, even actively keeping Carson Wentz out of sight, eliminating that distraction. Foles was the quarterback in the Birds’ last playoff game, a 26-24 loss to the Saints in the Linc. Ever since, he has been judged by that. It’s how it works. This time?
“I don’t care how we get the win, but we are in the playoffs, and we have to get a win,” he said. “I’m going to give it everything I have for these guys. And I know they are going to give it everything they have for me. That’s the beautiful thing about a team. It doesn’t matter how you get it, just get the W.”
Anything else would show something Foles, Pederson and the Eagles don’t want to be revealed.