Doug Pederson Explains Curious Game Plan
The game plan was curious, and we learned why on Monday.
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said he went in search of explosive plays rather than be content with balancing the run and pass in his team’s 17-10 loss to the New England Patriots at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.
Pederson liked the way the deep crossing patterns were beginning to develop, especially with tight end Dallas Goedert, and basically fell in love.
“I was looking for that – and there were opportunities,” said Pederson the day after the Eagles fell to 5-5 with the Seattle Seahawks coming to town in Sunday afternoon. “Even though Dallas dropped the one pass, those deep cross routes were starting to come open against their man coverage. We hit some in-breaking routes; we had some opportunities there.
“So for me, I kept going back to those types of plays and trying to hopefully get that explosive play and then mix the run in after that throughout the course of the second half.”
The Eagles never cashed those opportunities and Pederson never really returned to the run in a second half that was devoid of points for the home team.
In the first half, the Eagles had 12 runs and 16 pass attempts by Carson Wentz. You could quibble and say that two of those runs were Wentz scrambles and designed to be passes, but you could also add two more pass calls since Wentz was sacked twice.
Bottom line: The offense was balanced.
With the right blend between run and pass, the Eagles were able to possess the ball for more than 10 minutes in the first quarter.
In the second half, the Eagles had nine runs to 24 pass calls. Again, you could say that one of those runs was a Wentz scramble after trying to throw and add three more pass calls since Wentz took three more sacks.
Bottom line: The offense was out of balance.
“I think again just trying to find that explosive play and kind of like what we had in the first half,” said Pederson. “We did have a nice balance … And then once we got later in the game, we were more in a two-minute mode trying to get ourselves in position to score.”
Pederson also said that the run game was getting the desired result in the second half as the Patriots began taking away running back Miles Sanders by using linebackers and safeties covering him.
Some of the inability to run could be, too, that right tackle Lane Johnson went out in the second quarter with a concussion. Pederson said Johnson is in concussion protocol and the team could give rookie left tackle some practice reps this week at right tackle in case Johnson cannot play.
“Some of it was Lane but it’s not all on that injury, obviously it happens during the course of the game,” said Pederson. “The other thing was just we did struggle to kind of get positive yards in the run game and sustain positive yards. We might have one good play and then we might take a step back or there was a penalty.
“And then, two, as the game progressed, I felt like in order for us to kind of get ourselves in a position to score and tie it, we needed to find an explosive play, and so the passing game became a little more important at that time.”
Either way, Pederson’s explanation that he was searching for explosive plays with an offense that is more pop-gun oriented than bazooka-based remains curious, especially since the Eagles were only one touchdown behind for most of the entire second half.
