Doug Pederson Confident in Eagles' Chances vs. Cowboys, Stops Short of Guaranteeing Win
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson is confident about his team's chances against the Cowboys on Sunday, but he's not guaranteeing a win.
Earlier Monday, he told Sports Radio 94WIP that his team was going down to Dallas and “our guys are gonna be ready to play. And we're gonna win that football game, and when we do, we're in first place in the NFC East. We control our own destiny. We're right where we need to be."
When Pederson met with reporters several hours after going on the radio, he said the comment was never meant to be a guarantee.
“Never said guarantee a win,” said Pederson. “I would never do that.”
Pederson said he was simply showing confidence in his football team.
“I’m not going to stand up here and go on record and say we’re going to go down there and try to win a football game or hopefully we can go win this,” said Pederson. “It just doesn’t show confidence and I want to show confidence in our players. I have a ton of confidence in them.”
The Eagles didn’t inspire much confidence during their 38-20 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
The secondary surrendered 333 yards passing to Kirk Cousins and four touchdown passes while the pass rush was able to notch only one sack against a banged up Vikings offensive line.
“People on the outside of this building think the sky is falling, and everything is just crumbling,” said Pederson.
“We’re tied for first place in the NFC East. We have a great opportunity against a great football team on Sunday night to go down and attempt to win a football game. Our goals don’t change. We’re trying to go 1-0.”
Pederson said the confidence he has in his team was inspired by wathing the film from Sunday's loss, which snapped the Eagles' modest two-game winning streak.
“You put the tape on this morning and you watch it and we’re just missing on a couple of little detail things,” said Pederson. “Obviously it starts with the coaches, it starts with me.
"We have to make sure there’s great communication in the meetings, in the walkthrough and how we practice and what we do in practice to make sure we don’t make those mistakes in games.”
The Eagles and Cowboys are both 3-3, which means Sunday night’s game is for first place in the division.
The Cowboys have lost three straight, but they beat the Eagles in both games last year on their way to an NFC East title.
“We have a lot of things stacked against us going down there,” said Pederson. “As the head football coach, I’m going to stand here and show confidence in my football team because that’s what I have, I have confidence in my football team, the guys that are on the football field.”
