The Philadelphia Eagles are still in first place in the NFC East. That’s about where the positives regarding this team end.
Sunday provided another disappointing twist in a down season as the Eagles were soundly beaten, 27-17, by the now 3-7 New York Giants, dropping Philadelphia’s division-leading record to 3-5-1 while letting another chance to open up a healthy cushion atop the NFC East fall by the wayside.
Appearing on Sports Radio WIP on Monday morning, Pederson held nothing back as he sifted through the rubble of one of the Eagles’ worst losses of the season.
“I’m pissed off at myself, I’m pissed off at the way we played. It frustrates me. It frustrates me to no end,” he told WIP’s Angelo Cataldi. “We have too much pride and I have too much pride. These players have too much pride. We work our ass off during the week and, you know, it’s frustrating.”
“Blame it on me all you want, I’ll handle it with the players. You can blame me, I’m a big guy, I can handle it, it’s fine.”
While Carson Wentz and the Eagles offense continued to sputter and misfire against an improving Giants defense, mental mistakes and a lack of execution had Pederson seeing red. The Eagles committed 11 penalties for 74 yards while going 0-for-9 on third downs.
It was the first time since 2004 that the Eagles went an entire game without converting a single third-down opportunity.
“We’re self-inflicting ourselves, we’re killing ourselves, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. All those cliched little statements are still showing up and it’s frustrating,” Pederson said. “I looked at a lot of different things. I look at, you know, number one, I looked at 11 penalties. I mean, let’s just start there. Let’s start with 11 penalties. Whether we agree with them or not, there were 11 penalties. Let’s start with 0-for-9 on third down. Let’s look at that. Penalties are discipline things. Third down are execution things and also play-calling things. And when I look at this tape today, it’s exactly what jumps off of the screen.”
What Pederson failed to mention, however, is the seeming lack of respect his team played with for their opponent. Despite the Giants entering Week 10 at 2-7, they had the Eagles beat three weeks ago before a furious fourth-quarter comeback salvaged things for the Birds.
Wentz continued throwing toward New York’s top cornerback, James Bradberry, with little to no success while the Eagles’ defense seemingly ignored the zone read that saw Daniel Jones reel off some big runs, including a 34-yard touchdown. The Giants, who are one of the worst rushing teams in the league, posted 157 yards on the ground Sunday.
“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses that we have young players, no, that’s over with,” Pederson said. “We’re 10 weeks into this thing. We all have to do our jobs and we all have to do it better.”
What there seems to be, however, is a disconnect between the coaching staff’s message and priorities and an ability to execute them on the field. It has Pederson searching for answers as his team’s countless chances to put the NFC East away early are running out.
“There’s things we talk about as a team, things we talk about as coaches to the players during the week about how these games are going to be, how these games are going to play out. I mean, it’s almost like you can sit here with a crystal ball on a Monday and go ‘I know exactly how these Giants are going to play,’ right? You just know that,” he said. “It’s the NFC East. It’s the same way when you play the Cowboys or Washington. You just know. And to me, that’s what’s frustrating is being able to explain that during the week and even have the players understand and even communicate that back and then to go out and play like we did is very frustrating.”
