Doug Pederson on Eagles' miserable season : 'It starts with me' originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
There are a lot of reasons the Eagles will miss the postseason for the first time since 2016. A lot of reasons the Eagles have lost 10 games for the first time since 2012.
After the Eagles were eliminated by the Cowboys Sunday, Doug Pederson identified one of the biggest reasons:
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Himself.
"As the leader of the team, it starts with me, right?" Pederson said.
The Cowboys' 37-17 win at AT&T Stadium dropped the Eagles to 4-10-1, only their fifth 10-loss season in the last 34 years.
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After getting to the bye week at 3-4-1, the Eagles have lost six of their last seven games.
Only the Jaguars and Jets have fewer wins.
"Look, if I don't look at myself in the mirror it's hard for me to correct anybody else, and that's what I mean when I say it starts with me," Pederson said. "Because I've got to look in the mirror and make sure I'm doing everything I can — whether it be play-calls, decision-making in games, personnel in and out of the football game, whatever it might be — to help our team win."
Pederson's future beyond the Eagles' finale against Washington is unknown.
On the one hand, the Eagles made the playoffs the last three years and won a Super Bowl in 2017. On the other hand, they've won 10 games under Pederson only once in five seasons.
Pederson was asked what he'll look at when he evaluates his performance this year:
"You look at decisions, you look at opportunities to put the team in better situations," he said. "All things that I will evaluate when I look back on the year. ... We're all disappointed. I can do my part to put them in situations to be better and that's where I'm hard on myself.
"We had a lot of expectations going into the year ... and then things began to sort of slowly unravel with the injuries and different things of that nature, all things that as a sport, are out of your control. What's unfortunate is where we are, and we didn't make the most of our opportunities when we had them."
When it ended, it ended with a thud.
The Eagles led 14-3 after the first quarter, only to get outscored 34-3 the rest of the game.
This was only the third game in franchise history the Eagles led by 10 or more points after the first quarter and lost by 20, the first since a 48-17 loss to the Raiders in 1995 that was Randall Cunningham's last start as an Eagle.
And this is now nine straight years the Eagles haven't swept the Cowboys.
"My disappointment is just how everything's gone this season," Pederson said. "It's not what we expected."
It's not what anybody expected. And it makes for a very interesting offseason.
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