Doug Pederson talks about losing to the Cowboys, Josh Adams, Golden Tate, and more

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson spoke to the media on Monday following the team’s ugly loss to Dallas at home on Sunday Night Football. He gave some updates on injuries and talked about how they used Golden Tate in his first game as an Eagles.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

Pederson opened by saying that he didn’t think the problem with the play was due to a lack of effort during practices. He said there’s been some times where players needed to finish better in practice, but that there wasn’t a correlation to thinking that and the times they’ve lost this season.

He took full responsibility over the play calling, and noted he looks at what he wants to do during the opening drive, and what they’ve done in the past so they aren’t too repetitive. Pederson said that their struggles sometimes just comes down to execution — whether it be sustaining the block or the read by the quarterback.

He went on to say that the players and coaches need to feel a sense of urgency when it comes to starting games off fast. Pederson said that their slow start against Dallas was part of the reason the ended up with the loss, and blamed some of that on the long break they had going into the matchup.

Pederson said that part of their job now is to bounce back from this, and get back to work. He said the leaders in the locker room last night talked about being disappointed with their and the groups performance, but that they try and finish each practice and game with no regrets.

He went on to admit that he’d have to look internally to see if he’s doing enough in coaching this team, and making sure they have the proper conditioning and are properly motivated.

Later on he talked about defense’s being better prepared against RPOs and how it’s affected their playcalling. Pederson said they had 18-19 called runs against Dallas, and some of those ended up being completed passes, so it’s based on what the defense is giving them. But because of that you’re also seeing some deep throws open up, and they were able to take advantage of that several times on Sunday.

He also talked about Josh Adams having a good night rushing and that he should get some more opportunities coming up. Pederson also lauded Corey Clement, saying he played with a bit more urgency, and Wendell Smallwood has been a consistent guy for them, but that Josh Adams has been the spark the past few weeks.

On a lack of turnovers

Pederson pointed to a few reasons for the lack of turnovers created by the defense, including the front putting pressure on the quarterback, and a lot of one-on-one matchups. He went on to say that right now some of the fundamentals and technique problems are being ironed out in practice but aren’t translating to game day.

On Golden Tate

Pederson said they had a nice plan in place for Tate against Dallas, and they included all huddle calls. The head coach said in fairness to Tate, that after the third series he went straight up-tempo, and it’s all code words and moving guys around, and they didn’t want to put Tate in a position where he felt uncomfortable. Going forward his touches will increase and you’ll see him in a little more.

Injury Updates

Pederson said that Ronald Darby tore his ACL and will be out for the remainder of the year.

The rest of the cornerbacks are still out too, including Sidney Jones, who is improving and will get some work during the week but is getting close to returning. Jalen Mills is a little further away than Jones, but they’ll see where those guys are before making a decision about who will fill Darby’s role.

He went on to say that Timmy Jernigan is someone else they can take a look at this week to see if he’s ready to return, and lineman Lane Johnson was really close to being able to play but they though the extra week of rest would help.