Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson took some flak after Sunday's loss against the Washington Football Team — particularly for his play-calling towards the end of the first half.
Leading 17-0 with 1:44 left in the second quarter, the Eagles had a golden opportunity to essentially put the game away when they got the ball back at their own 28-yard line. But, on the first play of the drive, QB Carson Wentz tried to hit rookie WR Jalen Reagor near the left sideline, only for Washington CB Fabian Moreau to jump the route and intercept the pass.
Second-year QB Dwayne Haskins led Washington into the end zone to cut Philly's lead to 10 at the break. Washington rode the momentum through the second half, outscoring the Eagles 20-0 in the final two quarters to upset their division rival, 27-17.
On Monday, Pederson regretted how the end of the first half played out, though he placed most of the blame on his fifth-year QB.
“When you call the play, you don’t expect an interception,” Pederson said on 94 WIP. “Hindsight’s 20-20 and I trust my quarterback. Could he have made a better decision maybe to go somewhere differently with the football? Sure.”
Washington tallied eight sacks against the Eagles' banged-up offensive line. Overall, Wentz completed 24 of 42 passes for 270 yards, including two TDs, two interceptions, and a lost fumble.
Just because that play didn't work out, though, don't expect Pederson to change his generally aggressive approach to play-calling that helped deliver a Super Bowl to the city of Philadelphia.
“In this league, I don’t care if it’s 17-0, 20-0, 17 points in this league is not a win and by no means am I going to sit on the ball and do any of that,” he explained. “I trust my guys and I put my guys in a position to be successful. It is unfortunate, it’s a costly mistake obviously, and it wasn’t the only one. But I’m going to continue to put our guys in that position. I’ve got to … show confidence in the guys, so I would definitely do that again.”
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