Doug Pederson says he did not actually guarantee a win on Monday’s 94 WIP morning show.

I wrote up that story this morning, which was highlighted by a quote he gave on Angelo Cataldi’s show about five hours ago. Here’s that exchange verbatim so you can refresh your memory:

Cataldi: Did it help you at all that Dallas lost?

Pederson: Anytime Dallas loses it helps, because here’s the thing, I know the sky is falling outside. It’s falling, and I get that and the fans are reeling just a little bit. We’re going down to Dallas, and our guys are gonna be ready to play. And we’re gonna win that football game and when we do we’re in first place in the NFC East, we control our own destiny, we’re right where we need to be. Has it been perfect or beautiful or all of that? No. But all we gotta do is try to be 1-0 this week, beat the Dallas Cowboys, we’re in first place. And listen, they’re reeling too. They’re struggling too. They dropped their last three games so this will be an exciting football game.

Hmm. Well he didn’t say the word “guarantee,” but that’s about as close as you can get to saying it without saying it.

So Doug was asked about it that quote straight up at his Monday afternoon press conference down at the NovaCare complex, the idea of guaranteeing a week seven Sunday night win.

Pederson: Never said that. I never said that. Never said guarantee a win. Nah, I’d never do that.

Was it a phrasing thing? Does he regret the way he phrased it?

No, because again it shows confidence in our football team, and I promise you Jason Garrett is going to say the same thing with his football team, that they’re going to win the football game as well. I’m not gonna stand up here and go on record and say we’re going to ‘try’ to win a game. Or ‘hopefully’ we’re gonna win. That doesn’t show confidence. I wanna show confidence in our players. Got a ton of confidence in them. We’re gonna put a good week of preparation in and go play.

Fair enough, though it seems like the quote already made it through the wretched Cowboy Twitter-sphere, so those cockroaches are reacting to it in whatever way they see fit.

Doug was also asked what exactly inspires confidence in his team, which right now sits at 3-3:

Listen, you watch the film, and I also said that people on the outside of this building think the sky falling and everything is just crumbling. We’re tied for first place in the NFC East. We have a great opportunity against a great football team on Sunday night to go down and attempt to win a football game. Our goals don’t change. You try to go 1-0. You put the tape on this morning and you watch it and we’re just missing on a couple of little detail things. Obviously it starts with the coaches. It starts with me. We gotta make sure there’s great communication in the meetings and the walkthrough and how we practice to make sure we don’t make these mistakes in games. For instance, the blown coverage we talked about in the secondary, or communication up front on run plays or pass protection, things of that nature. So there’s enough good and positive that came out of this game from that standpoint to get better. That’s what we’re gonna do, continue to improve.

Again, Dallas is a great football team, they’re reeling like we are and they’re gonna come out and play hard. They always have. They beat us twice last year. We’ve got a lot of things stacked against us going down there. But as a head coach I’m gonna stand here and show confidence in my football team, because that’s what I have. I have confidence in my football team, the guys on the football field. It’s our job as coaches to prepare them, get them ready to play, and we go play.

Other notes from the presser:

  • the Eagles were in cover four (quarters) on the first Stefon Diggs TD, which we mentioned in the takeaways column
  • Malcolm Jenkins was out of position on the second Diggs touchdown, when the Birds were playing single-high safety. “The second one he should have been helping Rasul on that one. That’s the one he got caught,” said Pederson.
  • He’ll get more information on Jason Peters and Nigel Bradham, who will have second opinions but are being labeled as ‘day to day.’
  • Andre Dillard “had some good plays and had some bad plays, quite honestly.” 
  • Eagles will incorporate Jalen Mills in practice and see where he is this week. Ronald Darby’s work load will also be ramped up.
  • DeSean Jackson is working and is still day to day. He’s going to keep running early in the week as part of his rehab.
  • The reason JJ Arcega-Whiteside is not playing many snaps is because the Eagles are spending a lot of time in “Tiger personnel” (12 personnel). Mack Hollins was ahead of JJAW as far as “game plan depth chart.”
  • He’s gonna take another look at the idea of deferring to the second half in order to try to establish the offense early.
  • He reiterated what he told Angelo Cataldi about the fake field goal. I wrote about that earlier. “In case you’re wondering, the play didn’t work,” Pederson said.
  • On the opening series, the first play was a pass but killed to a run. The second play was an RPO. The third play was a run (this defeats the idea that Doug called three straight running plays to start the game).

Full video here: