Eagles-Bengals Report Card: Pederson's Lack of Faith Generates Failing Marks
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles didn't win or lose on Sunday, playing the lowly Cincinnati Bengals to a 23-23 stalemate and avoiding the organization's first 0-3 start since 1999.
That's the good news.
The bad is that Philadelphia remains winless at 0-2-1 on the 2020 campaign after the organization's first tie since the 2008 campaign, ironically a 13-13 duel against these same Bengals in Cincinnati.
A potential long Jake Elliott field goal as overtime was waning was derailed by a false-start penalty on Matt Pryor and perhaps the end of the field the Eagles were looking at.
Elliott set his franchise-record 61-yard FG against the New York Giants in the 2017 season kicking toward the skyline of the city. This potential attempt, a 59-yarder pushed back to 64, which would have matched the NFL record, was set to go toward the I-95 end which has trickier winds.
Rather than risk a long miss which would have given Cincinnati a short field with less than 15 seconds to go, Doug Pederson allowed Cameron Johnston to punt it and settled for the tie, certainly not in character with his reputation as an aggressive head coach.
THE GRADES:
Doug Pederson's Decision-Making: F. For a guy who made his bones in this league as a head coach on his aggressiveness, Pederson failed on two occasions to show faith in a team clearly doubting itself. He could have gone for two in regulation, understanding he was up against it due to the in-game injuries to Dallas Goedert and DeSean Jackson while also playing up the narrative of trusting his team.
In overtime, once Pryor got called for the false start. Pederson could have let Elliott kick the potential record-setter, gone on 4th-and-12 or punted and he again went cautious.
The proper decision would have been to keep his offense on the field. Even an unsuccessful play drains the clock down to 13 or 14 seconds and forces Cincinnati to need 12 yards minimum with no timeouts so the bed off was showing no confidence to both his offense and defense.
Carson Wentz: C-minus. The QB giveth and he taketh away.
Wentz continued to struggle mightily with his accuracy but also made a number of plays by keeping things alive and extending the play, including the 7-yard touchdown run at the end of regulation that tied the game after the PAT.
He was really put behind the 8-ball when Goedert (ankle) and Jackson (hamstring) were out of the game by halftime but his passer rating of 62.8 and two more interceptions is just not good enough.
It's also worth noting that Bengals rookie Joe Burrow has a poor offensive line and had no offseason but managed to look better when throwing the football.
The Offensive Line 3.0: C. Nate Hebig acquitted himself well again despite moving from right guard to left guard and Pryor was also fine for the most part until the big false start took a chance to win it away from Elliott.
Jason Peters hobbled off late in overtime and the two stalwarts - Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson - weren't quite their usual selves but certainly not detriments to the team.
The Pass Rush: B. If the Eagles had won this game, this would be something to build on with eight sacks.
Granted the Bengals have a poor offensive line and the rookie QB but anytime you put up those types of numbers it builds confidence.
Fletcher Cox powered through an abdominal injury and took over the game late while both Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett got home twice. Josh Sweat also continues to be a bright spot during the bad start, notching another sack.
Jake Elliott: A. You just had a feeling that Elliott was primed to win it with a 59-yarder against his former team and it's a shame he never got the opportunity. The one-time draft pick of Cincinnati was perfect on the day, however, notching FGs of 27, 42, and 54 yards.
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM and every Monday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
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