Doug Pederson went on the 94 WIP morning show today, as he does every Monday.

Angelo Cataldi asked if JJ Arcega-Whiteside should have come down with the 4th down pass thrown by Carson Wentz on the game’s final drive, to which Pederson replied:

“Yeah I think so. It’s a 50/50 ball and we expect our guys, that’s our expectation, and we put that expectation on them to make those plays and come down with those plays. He’s one of those guys who has the height advantage, can elevate, and make that play. There were many of those plays, several of those plays all over the game yesterday, all over the field on both sides of the ball, even special teams, that we didn’t make.”

“I sat here this morning and I wanted to look back at just the stat sheet and look at the numbers. When you look at the numbers we dominated the football game except for really three categories in my opinion. Offensive pass interference, turnovers, and dropped passes. And to me, that was the game. We kept ourselves in too many third down and long situations on offense.”

Pederson went on to say that he agreed with the OPI calls that went against the Eagles:

“It was pretty obvious. Mack and Sproles both, those guys were fighting for the ball obviously, but the extension of the arm is what they saw on the field. I had a pretty good look at it myself, so I would agree with the officials there.”

But to Doug’s point, the Eagles did look pretty good in most statistical departments, as I highlighted this morning in the takeaways column.

Beyond that, it looks like they’re doing enough league-wide to win games, when you consider these rankings:

  • 33:13 time of possession (3rd)
  • 56% third down conversion rate (2nd)
  • 25.3 points per game (9th)
  • 365 yards per game (13th)
  • 265 passing yards per game (12th)
  • 99.7 rushing yards per game (17th)

Those numbers are generally indicative of a 9-7 team, or better. They are in the top half of the NFL in most key offensive and ancillary metrics, which mirrors what they did in 2017 and 2018.

Defensively, it’s a different story:

  • 350 yards per game (16th)
  • 57 rushing yards per game (2nd)
  • 293 passing yards per game (29th)
  • 26 points per game (24th)
  • 3 takeaways (tied for 16th)
  • 2 sacks (30th)
  • 37.8% opponent third downs (13th)

They’re still stuffing the run game but teams are throwing the ball over the field. The Birds can’t get to the quarterback and passers are sitting in the pocket relatively protected. The third down number is pretty good but the takeaways just aren’t there through three games.

We’ll see where the Birds wind up after Thursday. Short turnaround, trip to Lambeau against a 3-0 Packer team.

Here’s the full audio: