OUT OF CONTROL
Birds are doomed unless Pederson fixes locker room chaos
PHILADELPHIA » As the Eagles turn to the midpoint of the NFL season, Doug Pederson is in a familiar spot. He is being doubted.
Once blasted by a failed NFL executive as the least qualified coach in history, Pederson’s team has lost its last two in lopsided fashion. That includes a 3710 spray of football incompetence Sunday night in Dallas.
“A little sloppy,” was one of his descriptions.
It fit. But while it dropped the Eagles to 3-4 and into second place in the NFC East, and while it was in concert with troubling offfield issues, Pederson would promise only to keep working.
That commitment helped him shake off all that criticism and coach the Eagles to the 2017-18 world championship.
It helped him one famous time before that, too.
“A great example,” Pederson was saying Monday, at his regular day-after news conference at the NovaCare Complex. “I was 1-5 in Kansas City in 2015 and we won
10 straight after that. I see a lot of the same similarities kind of where we are. We’re only 3-4, and we’re still a game out of first place in our division here with a lot of football left.
“Obviously a sense of urgency has to pick up from the standpoint of each week becoming a little more important. But we have the guys in the locker room and I have the coaches on this staff to get it done. And that’s what we’re going to do.”
A week earlier, Pederson predicted he would take his team to Texas and win. So much for that tout. Yet his experience in Kansas City, where he coordinated the offense in that turnaround season, was meaningful.
“I think, No. 1, it starts with me, with my messaging to the team, and then with the leaders of the football team,” Pederson said. “I think about back then, the guys that we had in that locker room and keeping it together, and that’s the type of men we have here in this locker room.
“They are not going to let one game or a couple games define our season. They are going to get better and learn from it. That’s what we did back then, and so we are going to carry that over to this year.”
Having lost their last two by a combined 75-30, the Eagles have issues. DeSean Jackson continues to recover from a lingering abdominal injury and is unlikely to practice, if he practices at all, until later this week. And they have been tormented by at least one anonymous locker room voice complaining to ESPN about the play-calling. There have been injuries. And the schedule, a concession to a Citizens Bank Park World Series that never happened, will require them to play a third consecutive road game Sunday in Buffalo.
But Lane Johnson, who revealed on Channel 10’s post-game mea culpa show Sunday night that some players have been late to meetings or practices, has assured there will be a team meeting. That could prove therapeutic.
“I think everybody is a leader on this football team,” Pederson said. “I do rely a lot on my player committee. I address certain things with them during the week. Can everybody do more? Sure. Including myself, we can all do more. That’s what we have to do. We just have to roll up our sleeves, come to work tomorrow and get ready for Buffalo.”
Just seven weeks into a 17-game season, with a late-season schedule likely to make up for the earlyseason inconveniences, Pederson is unwilling to spread drama.
“We have nine games left, and it’s a one-game season,” he said. “By no means are we pushing any panic buttons. We’re one game out of first place in our division. The things that are showing up on tape are fixable. They are correctable. So from that standpoint, the sky is not falling for us.
“We have the men in the locker room to get the job done.”
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Not that the Eagles didn’t flub other plays in Dallas, but one TV replay appeared to catch Nelson Agholor pulling off a potential long reception as the pass fell incomplete.
After his own film study, Pederson was convinced the receiver gave maximum effort.
“I do,” he said. “I do. I mean, I go back to the Minnesota game and we had a chance to hit him down the middle. We’re just missing by about a yard or two on plays like that. But it felt like the effort was there.”
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With Jalen Mills having recovered from a foot injury and starting, Sidney Jones was unlikely to start at cornerback. But Jones, the second-round draft choice in the 2017 draft, did not play at all in Dallas after a difficult performance in Minnesota.
“We had Jalen Mills back this week, so it was great to see him out there,” Pederson said, attempting to redirect that issue. “And we had Rasul Douglas on the other side. That game plan going in.”
Pressed as to why Jones had so disappeared from the rotation, Pederson would say only that, “Sidney is fine. He’s OK. He’s fine.”
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NOTES » The Eagles will sign defensive tackles Anthony Rush and Albert Huggins. Rush is from Oakland’s practice squad, Huggins from Houston’s . ... Defensive tackle Akeem Spence and cornerback Orlando Scandrick have been waived . ... Neither Jackson nor Timmy Jernigan (broken foot) are likely to practice Tuesday. Pederson said they would be re-evaluated later in the week. … Avonte Maddox remains in concussion protocol after a neck injury. Pederson: “He still has some soreness.” … Hassan Ridgeway injured his ankle and left the Dallas game early. The defensive tackle was to be better evaluated Monday, Pederson said.