Doug Pederson’s instant reaction to the Eagles loss to the Cowboys “We didn’t play well”

Well, that was ugly. There’s really no denying it — although, there are a lot of adjectives you could use to describe the Eagles’ blowout loss to the Cowboys.

After the game, Lane Johnson has some interesting comments about the next team meeting, and head coach Doug Pederson spoke to the media before heading back to Philly.

This begs the question: Who is showing up to meetings and practices late? And why is that being tolerated?

You’d think that at this point in the season, now 3-4, the players would be taking things seriously — or at least as seriously as Doug Pederson makes it sound like. Based on the product on the field, this news from Johnson doesn’t surprise me, but it surprises me that given the current state of the team, they wouldn’t all already be completely locked in.

No one really took to Twitter to apologize for their performance, offer some “we’ll get it right” or “keep that same energy” tweets.

But, the one person who faced a lot of important questions following the game was Pederson.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

Pederson was asked about his comments and confidence earlier in the week, and he was quick to say the did not regret what he said and had a lot of trust and faith in the guys to step up.

“After a game like this, we all have to kind of step back, look in the mirror — especially myself, it starts with me. This is one of those games, I take personal from that standpoint. We didn’t play well, and that’s personal on me. So, I gotta get that fixed.”

He wouldn’t call the team unprepared, but pointed to all the turnovers, especially starting the game with two fumbles. Pederson said against good football teams you can’t do that, you can’t allow 14 points that early because it’s hard to come back from that. Plus, the missed tackles, and plenty of other things that they need to fix — and fast.

The head coach was asked about the deep ball to Nelson Agholor, and he (politely) said they “just missed”.

On the 3rd and 4 in the second quarter and the decision to run, Pederson took ownership for the decision and said he called for the run. It was not a Carson Wentz check, and Pederson called it because he thought Dallas was going to play a soft-zone defense.

He also said that Carson Wentz’s protection needs to be better, but Dallas does have a good pass rush. Pederson said that they still need to be critical of themselves and get better there.

“They flat out beat us,” the head coach acknowledged. And, he also said this loss was the No. 1 or 2 worst since he’s been the head coach.

He said moving forward they need to make adjustments, get to work and see why they’ve had two big losses in a row. Pederson said that he will carry the blame for the loss to Dallas and look hard at what they need to fix.

But, he said that he’s confident they have the guys in the locker room to get things fixed, and he still has confidence in the individuals and team. He also was quick to say that he thinks this group is talented enough to be better and you’ve seen glimpses of that this season.

The head coach also was emphatic that you can’t put the blame on the defense, especially with the turnovers on offense. Pederson said it was everybody, not just one unit.