Eagles

Nobody Was More Relieved On Thursday Night Than Doug Pederson

By Russ Joy

Published: Sep 27th, 2019 · 8:50 PM EDT

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It’s been about 24 hours since the Eagles took the field and reasserted themselves as a legitimate threat in the NFC with a 34-27 victory over the previously-undefeated Green Bay Packers. While no one was likely more relieved to make a game-winning interception than linebacker Nigel Bradham, who had earlier dropped a likely pick-six, it’s pretty clear that head coach Doug Pederson felt the pressure to avoid a potentially disastrous 1-3 start:

“One thing I love about you is the way you fight for 60 minutes.”@novacare | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/DuPuIgaUT1

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 27, 2019

Pederson: Look, I have told you guys this before. One thing I love about you is the way you fight for sixty minutes and you hang in there for one another. When things don’t look pretty -and it’s never a pretty win- but it is a win. Listen, it took all sixty minutes, it took every man in this room to get this thing done. There is no quit in this team. It’s all about fight, it’s all about hanging together, about one play at a time. We talked about that stuff this week on a short week. I’m so proud of this group. And we needed this. Okay? We needed this for a lot of reasons. One… to get to 2-2. Let’s not kid ourselves. But, we’re 1-0 this week.

That’s our coach. He’s been a constant in the midst of what’s been an injury-riddled start to the season for his team. As usual, it’s clear that the guys in the locker room respect and rallied around their leader. The only downside? No Eagles game on Sunday. We’ll survive and, in just nine days, the Birds will thrive at home against the Jets.