PHILADELPHIA — On Feb. 4, 2018, just before halftime of Super Bowl LII, Doug Pederson called a play on fourth-and-goal from the 1 that called for a backup running back to hand off to a backup tight end to throw to a backup quarterback, against the greatest defensive mind of the modern football era. It worked. A career backup quarterback and an Andy Reid sycophant, Pederson’s NFL profile had never been higher. The play, called “Philly Special,” vaulted Pederson into coaching royalty and earned him a statue outside Lincoln Financial Field.
Now, the New York Giants, their fans, and NFL purists everywhere want to tear that statue down.
On Jan. 3, 2021, on Sunday Night Football, Pederson ruined his reputation. The NFL’s season finale determined whether the Eagles’ opponent, Washington, or their rivals, the New York Giants, would win the NFC East. It also determined whether the Eagles would draft sixth overall, if they lost, or ninth, if they won. This framed two decisions that Pederson will forever regret.
In the third quarter, Pederson decided not to try to tie the game at 17 with a field goal on fourth-and-goal from the 4. Instead, he called a passing play. It failed.
Then, the coup de grace: Trailing by three points entering the fourth quarter, Pederson replaced starting quarterback Jalen Hurts — who had scored the Eagles’ two touchdowns — with career third-stringer Nate Sudfeld. If you’re not familiar with Nate Sudfeld, that’s probably because he hadn’t taken an NFL snap in 734 days.
Pederson had planned to play Sudfeld, who’d been inactive for the previous 14 games, as a reward for his service, but a win was within reach. Putting in Sudfeld ensured that didn’t happen: interception-fumble-sack-sack. Washington won, 20-14. The Giants were done. So was Pederson’s reputation.
Giants Nation erupted in outrage. Giants players, denied their playoff slot and the paydays that come with them, tweeted their outrage. NBC broadcasters Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, who usually are reluctant to criticize coaches, ripped Pederson without mercy, on the air, in real-time.
A day later, Pederson’s tank job remained the talk of the league. Newspapers in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington led their sports pages with the debacle. Tank talk scorched the airwaves of radio stations all along the I-95 corridor.
Overnight, Pederson had turned from Super Bowl genius into NFL punchline.
“I don’t know how he comes back from this,” said one NFL source who has known Pederson for more than two decades. “I just don’t know.”
PEDERSON’S flawed reasoning: “We were struggling just a little bit to move the ball. … Nate’s a guy that’s very capable of running our system and executing, and an opportunity to pull that game out last night.”
Nate’s also a guy who had thrown a total of 25 passes in five seasons.
Sure, Hurts had struggled against the stout Washington defense: 7 for 20, 72 yards, a bad interception, and a badly thrown pass that would have converted the aforementioned fourth-and-goal, which turned out to be Hurts’ final play. Yes, Hurts is a rookie who was making his fourth NFL start. Hurts still was a better option than Sudfeld. Every one of the Giants knew it — especially receiver Darius Slayton, whose Auburn Tigers lost to Hurts and Alabama twice in three games from 2016-18.
Slayton tweeted, “Why on God’s green earth is Jalen Hurts not in the game” and called Pederson’s moves “disrespectful to the game.”
Pederson’s explanation made things worse because it was simply implausible. He could have claimed that he took Hurts out of the game to protect Hurts’ health. After all, considering Carson Wentz got benched for the last four games and has twice let it be known he wants to leave the organization, Hurts might be the Eagles’ starter for the next few years.
