“I love coming down here, speaking to you guys,” said Doug Pederson with a wry smile as he kicked off his midweek media availability at NovaCare.

Here are some notes and quotes on a ‘hump day,’ as the camel from the Geico commercials would say:

  • Sidney Jones will take part in a walk through today and is “day to day, but doing well”
  • DeSean Jackson “won’t do anything today” practice-wise, as he continues to rehab
  • Corey Clement is going to make an impact on special teams, “first and foremost.”
  • Avonte Maddox is “doing well” and still in concussion protocol
  • Carson Wentz didn’t “have to be flashy” in the win, the ability to run the football took pressure off the quarterback on Thursday.

That’s about it for the injury updates and whatnot.

Doug also explained the reasoning behind going for two while up seven, which is a situation that popped up in the Green Bay win. After that game, he kind of blew off Jimmy Kempski for some reason, but answered the question this time around (from somebody else) –

Obviously the touchdown put us up seven. If you kick the extra point, you’re up eight. So touchdown and two-point conversion, you’re tied. If you don’t get the two-point conversion, you’re still at seven, and a touchdown plus extra point and you’re still tied.

So the rationale there was that I was going to chase those two points and try to go up nine, now it becomes a two-possession game with however much time is left. You saw it the other day in the Baltimore game; they were down, scored, went for two got it, and so it does something for your psyche. Being down one score instead of two is a lot different mindset for a play caller and opposing team. For us I wanted to get the extra two points and go up nine.

Pederson went on to say that they study the opposing team and their two-point tendencies, which factors into decision making.

It’s simple enough to understand, just the difference between going up by one score or two scores. You can split hairs over the analytics of two-point conversion rates, which seems to be where people get hung up on the strategy. If you like your chances to convert and you like the opponent’s chances of not converting, then it’s probably worth the risk, which is what the Eagles attempted Thursday. I just didn’t like the play call on that particular sequence, the back shoulder fade to Alshon Jeffery.

Full video of Doug in the hyperlink, plus the Geico camel commercial: