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Eagles News: Doug Pederson explains key decisions made during Seahawks game

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 12/4/17.

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Philadelphia Eagles v Seattle Seahawks Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

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Doug Pederson explains challenges, fourth-down decisions in Philadelphia Eagles loss to Seattle Seahawks - PennLive
The Philadelphia Eagles saw their nine-game winning streak come to a screeching halt in a 24-10 loss at the Seattle Seahawks in primetime on Sunday Night Football. The juggernaut that had been leaving teams in the dust ran into another team boasting a stingy defense and a playmaking quarterback, and the Eagles couldn't quite put together enough to come away with a victory. Over the course of the game, Eagles coach Doug Pederson faced a number of decisions on fourth down and whether or not to challenge some borderline plays. Some of those plays had a key role in the result.

NFC Playoff Picture: Literally nothing went right for the Eagles in Week 13 - BGN
Today really sucked for the Philadelphia Eagles. Not only did they lose, but they didn’t get help from anyone else, either. At all. Go look back at my “NFL Week 13 rooting guide for Eagles fans” from today. None of the desired outcomes took place!

The Eagles lost, but there's no need for alarm - Inquirer
The morning after a loss has been an unfamiliar feeling in Philadelphia, so let’s start with a reminder: The sky is not falling. There is no reason to sound an alarm. The Eagles lost for the first time since Week 2 to a tough-minded, experienced, desperate team with a scorching quarterback. They are still 10-2 and still control their path to a first-round bye. Even though the Eagles were favored, this shouldn’t be an earth-shattering result or lead to a week of a despair. (I’ll be in California all week, but I can only imagine what the conversation will be back in Philadelphia.) I thought the Eagles were going to lose to the Seahawks and still think they’ll finish 13-3 and have the first weekend of January off. That would be an outstanding regular season.

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Seahawks game - PhillyVoice
Carson Wentz made some terrific plays, as he always does, but the biggest play in this game, by far, was Wentz's fumble at the goal line, which resulted in a Seattle touchback. A score on that drive would have tied the game. Instead, the Seahawks capitalized with a touchdown on the ensuing drive and went up by 14. Wentz also missed two major opportunities on throws to Nelson Agholor. The first was an overthrow early in the game that might have been a touchdown with an accurate pass. The other was actually a 30-plus yard completion, that also could have gone for a touchdown, but poor placement on the throw did not allow Agholor to get yards after the catch. Wentz is an MVP candidate, and the stat sheet will show that he threw for 348 yards, but this was not his best game.

Sloppy in Seattle - Iggles Blitz
What an awful night. The Eagles laid a major egg. The offense was anemic in the first half. They got better in the 2nd half, but still made crucial mistakes. The defense had no answers for Russell Wilson and his magic show. Doug Pederson and the coaches weren’t on their A-game. And it didn’t help that every close call seemed to go against the Eagles, some proving to be huge. Other than that… Some will want to say “The Eagles have been exposed!” I don’t think that is the case at all. The Eagles have been sloppy in some recent games, but were so much better than the competition that they got away with it. Not tonight.

Correctable mistakes hold back Eagles in loss to Seahawks - NBC Sports Philadelphia
And while they lost to the Seahawks, they didn't necessarily get outplayed. The Eagles made way too many mistakes. Players made sure to give credit to Seattle, but thought they beat themselves more than anything. In a strange way, that's actually encouraging. "It's definitely better when it's a self-inflicted thing that you can correct," Jason Kelce said. "It's not like, in my opinion, still have to go watch the tape, but it wasn't like we were by far the worst team out there. I think we were the more undisciplined team today. And that ended up culminating in putting us in a situation where we couldn't win the game. I think that it's encouraging that as long as we get that fixed, we can beat a team like this and we should beat a team like this. It's encouraging, but at the end of the day, it's still frustrating."

Eagles miss opportunity to clinch East, pulled back to NFC pack - ESPN
The Eagles' defense entered as one of the stingiest in football but yielded three touchdowns on as many red zone trips. Philadelphia committed two turnovers and had untimely penalties. Coach Doug Pederson has had an aggressive mentality all season but played conservatively in the first half as his team fell behind. The Eagles had a chance to clinch the NFC East, and failed to do so. It’s the first bit of adversity in a while for the Eagles. Now, it's time to see how they respond.

On Disappointing Night, Eagles Miss Chances - PE.com
SEATTLE – It just didn’t feel right from the very start of the game on Sunday night at CenturyLink Field. The Seahawks took the first offensive possession down the field for a field goal a couple of possessions later put together a touchdown drive. The Eagles offense was off kilter. There were too many penalties, too many missed tackles, too many missed chances for touchdowns in a 24-10 loss to Seattle...

The day after: Mistakes doom the Eagles in loss to Seahawks - The Athletic
The most concerning aspect of this game may be the play of Halapoulivaati Vaitai. He got worked by Frank Clark (two sacks, three tackles for loss, two QB hits) all game long. Vaitai had his share of struggles last week against the Bears. In the playoffs, the Eagles figure to face some talented defensive fronts. Vaitai has performed better than expected since getting the call to fill in for Jason Peters, but he still needs to develop quite a bit. Teams will continue to test him in the weeks ahead.

Russell Wilson got away with a forward lateral that the Eagles chose not to challenge - SB Nation
Doug Pederson definitely should’ve challenged this one.

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