Had Doug Pederson known Matt Tobin was injured, maybe things would have ended differently on Sunday afternoon.
With under two minutes left in the 27-22 loss, Carson Wentz drove the Eagles down the field, all the way to the Washington 14-yard line. On first down, his pass to Nelson Agholor fell incomplete and in the process, a couple bodies fell on Tobin's right knee.
The veteran offensive lineman hobbled back to his post at right tackle and lined up against Washington's best pass rusher, Ryan Kerrigan, on second down with 21 seconds left.
Kerrigan easily scooted around the Eagles' fourth right tackle option and forced a sack and fumble to end the game.
"I honestly did not know that he was injured on the play before," Pederson said. "There was a pile and he came out of the bottom of the pile, but didn’t see anything at that time. On the last play, yeah, had I known, maybe I could have done something with a back or a tight end over there. Thing is, Matt did a great job that whole drive blocking him. And a lot of times they were line gaming, they were stunting and Kerrigan was coming inside. It just so happened on that last one, he was a little bit wider. And obviously on film, Matt, just an unfortunate situation, just couldn’t push off the knee."
Tobin was only in the game because Allen Barbre suffered a hamstring injury. Barbre was only playing right tackle because Halapoulivaati Vaitai has an MCL sprain and has been out. Vaitai had only been playing because Lane Johnson was suspended for 10 games.
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So with the game on the line, the Eagles were down to their fourth option at right tackle ... with an MCL sprain that's serious enough that it might end his season.
Had Pederson known Tobin was injured, he could have offered help by way of tight end or running back. Or he could have put reserve lineman Josh Andrews at guard and moved Isaac Seumalo to right tackle.
No one saw the injury happen. Pederson was asked if there are people in the Eagles' booth who could have relayed that information to him.
"We’re always looking for those situations and those things," he said. "Obviously, we didn’t catch it. And as coaches, we have to be a little more in tune to that and then if we see it, we can either substitute or help him."
