Doug Pederson, Fearless no More?
PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles won a Super Bowl and Doug Pederson wrote a book. It was called “Fearless.”
Three years later, that philosophy has seemingly disintegrated. At least it did on Sunday in the Eagles’ 23-23 tie against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The last time the Eagles played to a tie was in 2008, also against the Bengals. Pederson was still coaching high school football in Shreveport, La., at Calvary Baptist Academy back then.
Fast forward 12 years and Pederson was in the thick of this knot.
Twice, he had a chance to be fearless, and both times he took the safe way out.
The first time was after Carson Wentz overcame another poor performance with his arm by using his legs to bring the Eagles to within 23-22 with 21 seconds left in regulation on a 7-yard TD run and dive into the end zone.
Fearless Doug would have gone for the two-point conversion and the win. The Bengals were on their way to giving up 175 yards on the ground. Heck, the Eagles may have been able to run the ball in for two.
There was no hesitation, however. The PAT team trotted onto the field and Jake Elliott’s sure-footed boot made it 23-23.
Pederson said he considered it, but “I also liked the way our offense was playing down the stretch, battled to get ourselves back in position. Carson in overtime felt comfortable there to just kick the extra point, and then put it back in our offense's hands at that time. Just elected to kick the extra point.”
OK, fine.
But where was that same trust in the offseason in decision No. 2, this one in overtime?
The Eagles were going to try a 59-yard field goal with 19 seconds left until Matt Pryor false-started. The five-yard penalty pushed the ball back to the 46-yard line and made the try 64 yards.
Only one kicker in the history of the NFL has ever made a kick from that distance, and that was seven years ago when the Broncos’ Matt Prater did it, clearing the crossbar by a yard against Tennessee in the mile-high altitude of Denver.
Can’t fault Pederson for changing his mind on not trying a kick from that distance, especially because the Bengals would have taken over inside Eagles territory at the spot of where the ball would be kicked from, about the Philadelphia 47.
Again, 19 seconds remained and the Bengals were out of timeouts, so why not send the offense back onto the filed to see what it could on fourth-and-12 from the Bengals' 46? Running a play would have drained maybe four to seven seconds off the clock, especially a high-percentage throws to the flat to Sanders or Boston Scott.
Here could be why: there hasn’t been any such thing as high-percentage throws for Wentz this year and a sack would have been bad.
If it is as it looks and the coach didn’t have confidence in Wentz and his offense to try to pick up a first down or at least move the ball a few more yards and milk clock or his defense to be able to make at least one stop, maybe two, with whatever time remained, well, that's bad.
Still, punting the ball away and surrendering is even worse.
Asked why he didn’t send the offense onto the field on fourth-and-12, Pederson said, “We were struggling a little bit on third down. Again, looking back, hindsight is 20/20, I guess. I'll look at that decision (Monday) with clearer eyes and make a decision later.
“Obviously in those situations, you hopefully do what's right for the football team. That's probably a decision I'll look back on tomorrow and say we could have done something else. It is what it is. We'll learn from it. I'll learn from it. We'll get better.”
It should be pointed out that the Eagles ended the day converting 48 percent of their third downs (10-for-21), though this was a fourth-down call.
So, what kind of message does that send to his players for seemingly not having trust in the offense or the defense?
Well, based on the four players made available for postgame videoconference interviews, nobody has an issue with it, at least publicly, and who knows what the other 44 players who dressed on Sunday felt?
“He (Pederson) had to do what he had to do,” said DE Brandon Graham. “(There are) tough decisions that have to be made. We trust coach and that is what it is. We trust that he is going to put us in a position. If we miss that field goal, then they go down and kick a field goal, off one play, they get into field goal range and we lose the game, then you are getting him on that.
“I trust coach. I am not worried about nothing else. Coach definitely makes the right decisions on whatever he feels for this team. I got his back.”
Nobody should have to have Pederson’s back. He was once fearless, after all.
He needs to figure out how to be again, and really soon.
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