Doug Pederson defends third down call, talks Nelson Agholor comments

Doug Pederson gave a winding, 26-minute day-after press conference on Monday afternoon following the Eagles’ overtime loss to the Cowboys on Sunday night. He touched on a lot of stuff.

First, injury updates:

Pederson said left guard Allen Barbre is “week-to-week” after he left the game on Sunday with a hamstring injury. The last time Pederson called a player “week-to-week” was Bennie Logan, who has missed the last two games.

Speaking of Logan, Pederson said he expects Bennie back at practice this week. He didn’t commit to whether Logan would be available for Sunday’s game against the Giants, but that’s certainly an encouraging step for the defensive tackle.

On Stefen Wisniewski, who stepped in for Barbre

“Wiz did well. He’s such a competitor, and he’s a pro. He focuses in on his assignments, his job, and he’s itching to play. He got an opportunity, and he played well.”

On the 3rd & 8 play call that pushed the Eagles “out” of field goal range in the fourth quarter

“I looked at that again this morning, I looked at it on the plane last night, and I would have called the same thing again. It’s assignment football. It’s one of our basic, fundamental plays that we’ve repped the entire season, in a man situation, which we got. It just comes down to assignments, and we busted one assignment, and the negative play happened. We have to look at it, we have to own up to those — it starts with me, obviously. And each man on the team has to own up to their responsibility, and make sure that the negative plays don’t happen again.”

On whether he second-guessed not going for the field goal after that play

“No, I did not. That was another one where, I felt, too, where we were in the game, defense was beginning to kind of catch their legs. We had some momentum, and we were stopping their run game. ... I was trusting my defense, in that situation, to pin them back at the 15 and the 10 and stop them.”

On why the Eagles weren’t able to throw the ball down field much

“When you come in on a Monday and you look at the tape, and you look at it with a different set of eyes, yeah, you can always make a determination on certain things down the field. But, you know, Dallas, too, played a little more two-deep than we’d seen in previous weeks.

“I thought Carson was very efficient with the throws he did make. He made some tough throws at the end of the half. There were some situations there. But overall, I thought we came away in the passing game pretty well in this game. We’ll evaluate it some more, but at the same time, I thought the decisions he made, and the down-the-field throws we did have were good, and led to a field goal before half.”

On his wide receivers dropping catchable passes

“Any time you drop the ball it’s a problem. Everyone has to do their job; I talk about it every week with the team, you have to do your job and do your assignment, no excuses. And you have to own up to them. Were there some drops in the game last night that were crucial? Yeah. That’s part of it. We’ve just got to continue to work, to get better, and keep putting our players in situations to make those plays.

On a possible trade for a wide receiver

“As far as I know, we’re not making any moves. The guys we have are the guys we have. We’re going to continue to work and get better at that position.”

On whether a team can win without deep passes and plays

“Yeah, we went 9-0 in Kansas City and didn’t do it. I’ve seen it done. You can do that. It’s just, we have to figure out and find ways to get the ball down field. You have to trust protection, you have to trust reads and progressions, and you have to trust the guys to get down the field. So there’s a lot involved in that kind of stuff. We just have to evaluate it. But yeah, I think you can win.”

On Nelson Agholor’s comments about drops being blown out of proportion

“I’m disappointed in the type of comments. Each individual has to be responsible for their own job, obviously. We’ve got to make good, smart choices. Everybody’s mad and disappointed and angry after the tough losses we just came through, and cooler heads prevail. We just have to bite our lip sometimes, just suck it up, and get to work.”