Doug Pederson accused of purposely losing Sunday Night Football
Doug Pederson says the decision to play Nate Sudfeld was his. “I was coaching to win.” Says Sudfeld has been here with the #Eagles a few years and deserved snaps. — Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 4, 2021
This is hilarious. If Doug Pederson actually believes this then he is the biggest buffoon to ever win a Super Bowl. Because there is no way benching the starting quarterback in favor of the third string is “coaching to win.” Especially when the game is 17 to 14. Playing the third string quarterback might give you a better chance at winning a higher draft pick, but not winning a game. The Eagles were playing for draft picks last night, not wins.
Hurts knew the fix was in. Clearly dejected. Obviously says “it’s not right” and shakes his head. pic.twitter.com/rSZibS4HZn — rone’s gamblin corner (@_rone) January 4, 2021
Jalen Hurts is right. It’s not right to bench the starting quarterback in favor of the third string if you’re “coaching to win.” But there was no point in Doug Pederson coaching the Eagles to a win during Sunday Night Football. You know, besides the integrity of the game and the fact that winning is a hell of a lot more fun than losing. Other than that there was no reason for the Eagles to win this game.
The Eagles were 4-10-1 coming in to the game and had already been eliminated from the playoffs. If the Eagles win this game they pick 9th overall. If they lose this game they pick 6th overall. The only benefit the Eagles could have gotten from winning was if Jalen Hurts went out there and looked like a franchise quarterback in the process. And he didn’t There was no benefit to the Eagles winning this game. The only team that would benefit from an Eagles win were the Giants.
And the Eagles owe the Giants absolutely nothing. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Had the Eagles won this game the Giants would have won the NFC East and would be hosting a playoff game. Instead Doug Pederson and the Eagles lost and the Giants were kept from the playoffs. The Giants placed their hopes of going to the playoffs in the hands of a division rival. That is a recipe for disaster if I ever heard one.
Had the Giants wanted to go to the playoffs so badly they should have tried winning more than 6 games. Instead you have Giants players saying this is disrespectful to the game, and that what Doug Pederson is doing makes no sense.
You play the game to win point blank period JJ Watt said it best the other day outside of how it effects us this just disrespectful to the game — Darius Slayton (@Young_Slay2) January 4, 2021
Why on gods green earth is Jalen Hurts not in the game — Darius Slayton (@Young_Slay2) January 4, 2021
Can someone make it make sense to me what’s going on….? — Saquon Barkley (@saquon) January 4, 2021
And I can make it make sense. Doug Pederson played Nate Sudfeld in this game for one reason. Because he told everyone Nate Sudfeld was going to play.
Sure was. I swear if this game had been played at 1 o’clock no one blinks. The fact that it was SNF and Sudfeld looked that bad on a stand alone game means we get notes app’d https://t.co/3Ngnvw6LYX — B1G Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) January 4, 2021
Earlier in the week Doug Pederson said that Nate Sudfeld was going to play in Week 17 at some point. It was no secret. This should not have come as a surprise to anyone in the NFL. Nate Sudfeld was going to play for the Eagles in Week 17 at some point. Doug Pederson said so. Giants fans are mad at Doug Pederson for doing exactly what he said he was going to do. In spite of all the Giants players and fans thinking it was, this wasn’t a plan by Doug Pederson and the Eagles to purposely lose a game and screw over the Giants.
This was a plan for Doug Pederson and the Eagles to evaluate the quarterback position. Because they have no idea what they are going to do next year. Carson Wentz looked like a flaming pile of dog shit all year and the Eagles owe him a ton of money; Jalen Hurts didn’t outright prove he is the franchise quarterback once; and the only way to find out if Nate Sudfeld could be the franchise guy for the Eagles is for Doug Pederson to play him. So the Eagles did what they had to do in Week 17. They evaluated their quarterbacks and it cost them a win.
This wasn’t an elaberate scheme by Doug Pederson to lose the game so that the Eagles could get a better draft pick and simultaneously keep the Giants from the playoffs. Doug Pederson isn’t smart enough for that. This was just a predetermined plan to play every quarterback so that the Eagles know what they have at the position going in to next year. And it looks like a lot of hot garbage. Although at least the Eagles haven’t had to cut their first round quarterback like the Washington Football Team had to. Yet.