Doug Pederson On 4th Down Calls: 'We've Had Blown Assignments'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- "If you're gonna sit in this seat, you better expect a little heat," Eagles coach Doug Pederson said at the beginning of his Monday morning interview with Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show.
The Eagles fell to the Giants 28-23 on Sunday, losing their fourth game in five weeks. The Eagles were 1-4 on fourth down against the Giants, and on two of those decisions to go for it, Pederson passed on three points.
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"Well both of those plays are obviously designed specifically, for a specific defense," Pederson said on Monday. "Again, this is two weeks in a row that we've have blown assignments on both plays. The one in the Dallas game and then the one in this game. So it's a little bit of an assignment error and then it's definitely a different outcome."
The first questionable fourth-down decision was a 4th-and-two from the Giants' 23 yard-line trailing 14-3 at the start of the second quarter. Carson Wentz lost four-yards on read-option keeper.
The second one also came in the second quarter. It was 4th-and-1 from the Giants' six-yard line trailing 21-10. Pederson called an off-tackle run to Darren Sproles, who went no where.
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"The second one, the fourth-and-one play, we didn't get up to the backside linebacker who makes the play all the way on the backside, with an opportunity to continue and extend both of those drives and obviously stay on the field," Pederson said.
Some wondered why the bigger Ryan Mathews, who played on 11-percent of the snaps, was not receiving the short yardage work there.
"I don't think it would have mattered in this situation because number 91 [Kelvin Sheppard], their backside backer, met us in the hole and it wouldn't have mattered on that particular play," Pederson said. "Again, we didn't have a hat for a hat on the backside backer and credit the Giants. Their big nose tackle, 95 [Johnathan Hankins] got off on the ball, anticipates the count pretty well and got a little bit of penetration on the play. Again, it's those situations that I put our offense in. I have full confidence in our offense that we're gonna make those plays. Because earlier in the season, those plays we capitalized and we made the exact same plays on those fourth downs earlier in the season. We just gotta keep evaluating that and keep putting our guys in those situations."
