By Sam Bush
Eagles fans must be wondering:
How will coach Doug Pederson manage to screw up this Sunday at Cincy?
If you think Pederson might have committed one of the dumbest challenges of the year by arguing a 2-yard Packers completion on Monday night, you’re wrong.
It was definitely the dumbest challenge of the year.
The Eagles won it, but as Pederson explained, throwing the red flag was a mistake because he hadn’t properly weighed the prospect of losing the challenge against … the value of gaining 2 yards.
He said he wouldn’t do it again.
He didn’t escape criticism.
After a hot start, Pederson has fallen out of favor with the Philly media, seemingly struggling to explain why his team has lost four of five. Pederson defended his defensive line’s play by saying: “If you’ve never played that position or played this level of football, I think it’s easy to speculate …” a well-worn trope for coaches who have no real answers.
Jeff McLane wrote in the Inky this week that Pederson is essentially a puppet for his GM and owner and was brought in because he’s (a) generally social and (b) is definitely not Chip Kelly.
McLane also stressed that the only thing on which Pederson can be judged is in-game decisions, and those, like the 2-yard challenge, have been bad.
