Everyone knows this is not true
The 256th game of the NFL season, played in primetime on NBC, is usually a great starter for the playoffs. Last year, the 49ers beat the Seahawks in the Sunday night football showcase to win the NFC West and get the home field advantage in the playoffs. This year everyone left it watching with a sour taste in their mouth.
The Giants, who had defeated the Cowboys earlier in the day, only needed the Eagles to defeat Washington to be crowned the NFC East Champion. Washington played as a team that knew it was on the eve of the postseason. The Eagles players also played hard, but their coach didn’t.
Early in the fourth quarter, Doug Pederson hooked Jalen Hurts and put third-stringer Nate Sudfeld in the game as quarterback. Sudfeld was terrible and the Eagles lost without a fight.
After the game, Pederson explained his decision.
“Yes, I was coaching to win,” said Pederson. ‘Yes, that was just my decision. Nate has clearly been here for four years and I thought he deserved a chance to get some snaps.
Listen, if there’s anything that thinks I wasn’t trying to win the game [Zach] Ertz is out there, Brandon Graham is out there, Darius Slay is out there. All our top men are still on the field at the end. We were going to win the game. “
The charitable interpretation of that quote is that Pederson thought he could give Sudfeld a chance to play while also trying to win the game. Everything Sudfeld’s national TV audience saw should make it clear that couldn’t be true. The game was over when Sudfeld took the field. Pederson is right: the pair of star players who weren’t inactive did stay in the game, but in the main position on the field, the Eagles played against a man who looked just as ineffective and outperformed Cowboys QB Ben DiNucci against Philadelphia before. season.
The loveless interpretation is that Pederson lied when he claimed the Eagles were trying to win the game. Pederson can point to the presence of Ertz, Graham and Slay as evidence that he didn’t give up the game completely, but there’s just no way to rectify that with his decision to put Sudfeld in charge of the attack. While Hurts easily played his worst game of the season, it’s ludicrous to suggest the Eagles had a better chance of winning on the bench with him.
Pederson added Monday morning that he was also trying to further evaluate a number of players on the depth chart.
If evaluating the future of the Eagles’ quarterbacks was the goal, Hurts should have played the entire game. The biggest decision the team will have to make in order to come out of the season is whether Hurts will remain the starter and turn Carson Wentz into the league’s most expensive backup. Every extra snap that Hurts makes – especially in a game where he was struggling against an elite line of defense – helps make that decision easier.
This isn’t college either, where a bench warmer gets some action in the final game of the season as a reward for his work over the years. Unless you’re a playoff team unable to improve your placement, players will want to win every regular season match. The only other time Sudfeld saw extensive action was in the final game of the 2017 season, when the 13-2 Eagles Nick Foles rested against the Cowboys after already taking a home advantage.
Giant players and fans (myself included) are understandably upset that the Eagles’ lack of effort ultimately decided the division race. (The Giants could also have taken their fate out of the Eagles’ hands by winning more than six games.) Fans of the 30 other non-Washington NFL teams should also be upset that the Eagles turned the game into a mockery, and that Pederson had the guts to claim it wasn’t a sham.
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About the sports world
Lamar Jackson is the first QB to rush for 1,000 in two different seasons, but didn’t know. … Mason Rudolph and Myles Garrett, a year after the infamous helmet waving incident, shook hands after the Browns vs. Steelers match. … The Cowboys might have beaten the Giants had Mike McCarthy challenged a questionable catch call, but he didn’t think it was as obvious a call as everyone else. … Drew Brees will reportedly retire after this season. … The NHL is reportedly planning two outdoor games in Lake Tahoe in February.
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