What did Head Coach Doug Pederson have to say about his play calling?

Eagles fans may be panicking about this team and its’ chances, but Pederson is still confident.

Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson hasn’t lost any confidence in his play calling, his team or where this team is headed. There have been plenty of opportunities to criticize what’s going on with this Philadelphia team. Even though we all, as fans, may vary in what’s bothered us. One takeaway from each game that has had everyone scratching their heads has been the play calling.

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Pederson spoke with Angelo Cataldi & The Morning Team as he does every Monday morning at 8 AM EST on 94 WIP-FM in Philadelphia and was immediately asked about his decision making process. “Both of these plays were designed specifically for certain defenses” said Coach Pederson when asked about two failed fourth down attempts. We’ve seen plays called, on more than one occasion (three times yesterday), where rookie quarterback Carson Wentz is asked to keep the ball, run it and pick the first down up himself. The most notable was a 3rd down run where the Eagles needed three yards to keep a drive going. It didn’t work then, and it normally hasn’t worked. It didn’t work three times yesterday.

Also on Sunday, we saw running back Darren Sproles placed in positions where he was asked to power forward for first down yardage. The most memorable was on a fourth and one play. Maybe there’s some fear to do anything else because both Ryan Mathews and Wendell Smallwood have shown an inability to hold on to the football. Whatever the reason, this team has serious issues in the backfield and lacks the ability to extend drives when asked to run the ball to do so.

Pederson chalks this up to “assignment error” stating the Eagles were unable to get a “hat on a hat” and get to the second level to block the backside linebacker. They, instead, were greeted in the hole, and the play was over. He was asked if it would have been better to have Mathews in. He replied that it wouldn’t, again stating execution of the play call was the issue and not the play itself.

As a matter of fact Pederson’s theory has typically been the same whenever he’s answered similar questions. There’s two ways you can take this. On one hand, he could be right and trying to give anyone listening more insight on what they’re not getting by just watching the result of the play. On the other hand, even though he probably doesn’t mean to convey this message, his comments could be taken the wrong way. It kind of sounds like what he’s saying is “we’re calling the right plays, and the team isn’t executing”.

Next: Eagles vs. Giants recap: Pederson’s play calls cost the team

Neither theory is comforting. Regardless of the reason behind the statement, what can’t be ignored is the fact that play calling is about results. Currently, his team, more often than not, isn’t getting results that are desired. That’s been magnified because each schematic mistake has had a direct impact on the outcome of games. The head coach is spending too much time on why it should have worked and not enough time on finding ways to call and execute plays that will work,especially in crunch time.

He doesn’t have long to get it fixed beacuse the 6-3 Atlanta Falcons come to Philadelphia on Sunday.

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