Emotional intelligence, the offense and the quarterback.
When the Eagles hired Doug Pederson to be their head coach in 2016, those were the three qualities at the top of his resume that qualified him for the job in the eyes of owner Jeffrey Lurie. Despite being somewhat mocked at the time for making the hire, the Lombardi Trophy sitting in his office shows Lurie was dead right in bringing in Pederson to run his football team.
What happened on Sunday night in Dallas, and in the days leading up to it, however, show how much better Pederson has to be for this team to turn around from the ugly funk they are in.
The Eagles 37-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys was a complete failure and the majority of the blame for it falls on Pederson. Each step he took to prepare his team for the game backfired.
First, Pederson put the bullseyes directly on his team's back when he said to 94WIP this past Monday that the Eagles were going to beat Dallas and be in first place in the NFC East. The message seemed calculated and one he felt the team needed to hear, even if he did try to walk it back a little. The decision to cut Zach Brown also felt like a move made with sending a message in mind.
Although the effort didn't seem like an issue against Dallas, Pederson sending a strong message during the week and then having his team lose by 27 points to a division rival is concerning. Pederson either drastically misread what his team needed in trying to send that message or sent the wrong one. Whatever motivational tactics or emotional intelligence he used this week didn't work.
On the field, Pederson's performance left a lot to be desired as well.
The first bad decision Pederson made was deciding to take the ball to start the game after they won the coin toss. Pederson has believed in deferring for years. The move felt reactionary and fueled by panic, not from a belief in his team.
Pederson's gameplan was also confusing and concerning. Pederson came into Sunday night with a clear determination to run the ball. To start, that is not the way teams win in the NFL. The league is built for throwing the ball and the Eagles are built around a player that does just that. Aggressive, smart head coaches build their gameplan around the pass, not the run.
A key sequence in the game, when it was still in question, came after the Eagles pulled to within 14-7. After the Eagles' touchdown the defense forced a punt, and finally the Eagles had some momentum.
On the next offensive possession the team ran the ball three straight times and punted it.
The Cowboys scored on the next possession to make it 21-7 and the route was on.
However you feel about Carson Wentz, Pederson spending a week coming up with a gameplan that takes the ball out of his hands is confusing. The Eagles clearly believe in Wentz as their franchise quarterback and have proved that financially. The last two weeks, however, the gameplan seems to be focused on running the ball instead of giving Wentz a chance to get the offense going.
In the first half on Sunday night, when the game was being decided, Wentz threw the ball eight times. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott threw it 20. That large discrepancy makes no sense and falls directly on the shoulders of Pederson.
The hard reality is that over the last three weeks the offense is averaging 15.6 points. In a league built for the offense to succeed, and on a team that is supposed to be loaded on offense coached by an offensive head coach, the Eagles' offense is broken.
Going forward it is clear things to need to change and with Jalen Ramsey in Los Angeles, no one move is going to be big enough. The season will need to be saved by the players in the locker room. That means the team needs to be better prepared to start games. Whatever issues are going on behind the scenes in the locker room need to be fixed. The gameplans need to be better and the offense has to be better.
All of those things fall on the shoulders of Pederson.
And if Pederson can't do exactly what he was brought in here to do, the Eagles' season is going to be over a lot sooner than anyone expected — and it won't be ending in a trip to the playoffs.
You can follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
