Doug Pederson following the Eagles’ loss to Football Team: ‘We got a lot of work to do’

The Eagles’ season opener against Washington was UGLY. Not good, at all. Head coach Doug Pederson spoke to the media following the 27-17 loss to a division opponent, and talked about the offensive line, number of sacks allowed, and Carson Wentz’s performance. Pederson also reiterated his post-game message to the team.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

On the 8 sacks and the OL

Pederson said that it can’t happen, and that it was a little bit of both the offensive line and Carson Wentz not getting rid of the ball. He was sure to note that not all sacks are on the line or the quarterback, either, and that the running backs and tight ends play a role, as well as the receivers needing to get open.

“Ultimately, that cannot happen.”

Later, he talked about how when you change up the players due to injury, it’s going to mess with that continuity a bit, but the guys don’t let that bother them — Pederson said they just have to go out and execute.

“This front, today, is a really good test for our guys. Valuable experience for guys like Nate Herbig and Jack Driscoll — Jordan Mailata got in there today. So, you don’t want to move too many parts up front, but at the same time, we take pride in getting our guys prepared and go play.”

Pederson was asked about Matt Pryor not playing, and he said they make those decisions based on a couple different factors, but they felt Nate herbig had a good week in practice.

On Carson Wentz’s performance

He agreed that at the beginning, Wentz was executing the tempo offense, but said he’d have to review the film to see where the breakdown was after that.

Pederson was later asked about their fourth-down attempt at the end of the game.

“It’s a play we’ve executed many, many times. I thought Carson did a nice job of executing, going through his progression and getting back to his backside reads, and he had Zach [Ertz]. And, we just missed. Flat out, we just missed. When we put the ball in Carson’s hands and Zach’s hands like that, two of our leaders, you expect to make that play. But, we didn’t today. We’re going to clean that stuff up, and get better next week.”

The head coach said that both interceptions were away from him, so it’s hard to say whether the rookie receivers would have been able to keep the ball out of Washington’s hands.

Overall reaction

Pederson said that they all have to get better — the players, the coaching staff, and it starts with him.

On his post-game message to the team:

“We got a lot of work to do. Today was not our best, and we’ve got to eliminate the mistakes. We can’t have the sacks, we can’t have the turnovers that we had today and expect to win — especially against a division opponent. So, it’s just one game. I told them that we’re going to go to work tomorrow and get ready for next week.”

The head coach took responsibility for the team not executing and giving Washington so many short fields throughout the game.