Doug Pederson Will 'Probably' Continue To Go For Two After Penalties
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Doug Pederson doesn't often yell at the officials. In fact, I can't remember a time he had ever yelled at a ref in his previous 21 games as Eagles head coach.
But in Thursday's huge win over the Panthers, Pederson was yelling at head official Pete Morelli -- not for a bad call -- but just to get his attention.
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The Panthers were flagged for an illegal formation penalty on a made extra point by the Eagles, and Morelli assumed Philadelphia wanted to take the penalty on the ensuing kick off. Pederson wanted to go for two.
"Doug Pederson is like, 'Wait a minute, Pete Morelli!'" CBS play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz said during the broadcast.
"How come you're just assuming?" analyst Tony Romo said. "You gotta look at me!"
"It's pretty favorable because now your two-point conversion goes to the one-yard line and not the two," Pederson told the 94WIP Morning Show on Friday. "It's about a 60-40 win for the offense in those situations and anytime that we can gain that extra point for later in the football game I think is valuable.
"When that penalty occurred I had my mind made up at the time -- and in most cases, that's going to probably be the case going forward just because I feel strongly about our offense. Especially, the way we were running the ball. It's just a great opportunity to get that extra point and guys did a great job executing and getting in the end zone."
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As for Morelli and his officiating crew, the 125 yard discrepancy in penalties was reportedly an NFL record -- 126 for the Eagles, 1 for the Panthers.
"Well, yes it is unbalanced," Pederson said. "That's -- I'm just looking at the sheer numbers -- you're talking 126 to 1, 125 penalty yards. It's crazy, but at the same time I'm going to look at every one of those penalties today and quite honestly, if it's a foul on the offense or the defense, special teams, then we have to correct it."
