Doug Pederson missed a chance at making these Philadelphia Eagles lethal

Forget the playcalling. Doug Pederson screwed Philly long before this season.

Call them reasons or excuses, but the conversations surrounding Doug Pederson’s playcalling evoke many emotions. Some Philadelphia Eagles fans defend him. After all, what does anyone expect for him to do when, on just about every game day (or night), his best offensive weapons aren’t available?

There’s also another side. There are a lot of instances in which Doug has the right play call, but his players don’t execute the plan properly. It also has to be mentioned that, regardless of who filters in and out of the lineup, Pederson keeps on winning.

Philly has hustled their way into the last three NFL postseasons, even if much of the NFL world feels like they don’t deserve to be there, but if they’ll be there for a fourth-consecutive season, they may qualify with the worst win-loss total of Pederson’s era. Thank goodness for a weak division huh?

So, now what? Fingerpointing isn’t helping, but it’s hard not to do it. So, who do we blame? Do we blame Carson Wentz’s decision-making? Do we blame Howie Roseman? That always works. No, instead, let’s blame the head coach, but don’t blame him for the injuries. Don’t blame him for all of Carson’s interceptions. If you’re going to blame Doug, blame him for a decision that occurred back in February.

Why didn’t Doug Pederson hire a real offensive coordinator?

If you’re going to blame Doug Pederson for anything, this is why you do it. Philly entered the offseason with a chance to really set themselves up for success. All they needed to do was replace Carson Walch, the former wide receivers coach, and replace Mike Groh, the former offensive coordinator. Then, all they would have to do is find a defensive backs coach, a defensive line coach and fill in some of these remaining holes on the coaching staff and on the players’ roster.

They hired Marquand Manuel as the defensive backs coach and he’s okay, not great but okay. They added Aaron Moorehead as the wide receivers coach, and the wide receivers don’t look any better in 2020 than they did in 2019.

Doug also added to Press Taylor’s role as a quarterbacks coach by making him a Passing Game Coordinator, whatever that is. He’s awful, but he’s Carson Wentz’s buddy. Then, as if all of that wasn’t bad enough, to fill the role of offensive coordinator… No, wait. He didn’t hire an offensive coordinator, and to add salt in the wound, there were some brilliant ones available like Jim Caldwell. Good idea Doug!

This team’s offense was its best version of itself when they had a good wide receivers coach (Groh was a bad OC but a good wide receivers coach), a talented OC (Frank Reich), and a capable quarterbacks coach (John DeFilippo). Instead, they decided to make up two roles. Thay added a Senior Offensive Assistant and a Senior Offensive Consultant, Rich Scangarello and Marty Mornhinweg. That hasn’t added any creativity to this offense other than throwing Jalen Reagor on the field to get popped five or six times per game.

Then there’s Doug Pederson, a coach who is too stubborn to turn the play-calling duties over to someone else even though it’s obvious that he needs to do so. Philadelphia’s quarterback plays the game like it’s Madden 20, and the only person he talks to on the sidelines more often than not is Nate Sudfeld. Some Eagles fans wouldn’t even be able to pick Press Taylor out of a lineup.

Heading into Week 8’s game versus the Dallas Cowboys, fans are frustrated. Sure, the Eagles are in first place, but they’re 2-4-1. Sure, they’re leading a weak NFC East, but they beat a San Francisco 49ers team that was more injured than they were, they struggled to a tie versus the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, and they had to rally to beat one of the worst teams in all of the NFL at home, the hated New York Giants.

What are they going to do if they actually make the playoffs? You’re not expecting a deep playoff run, are you? If you’re going to blame anyone, blame this organization and its head coach for putting yet another average coaching roster together with no OC. This is not how this season was supposed to go.