Pederson's explanation for Chiefs' slow two-minute drill makes no sense
The Eagles' new head coach and former Chiefs' offensive coordinator was asked about the Chiefs' slow two-minute drill from Saturday. His explanation didn't make much sense.
Doug Pederson might have a new job as the Eagles' head coach, but he can't escape his past -- a hard truth he learned during his introductory press conference in Philadelphia.
Considering Pederson helped orchestrate the Chiefs' offense as the coordinator, reporters wanted to know what was up with that drive on Saturday, when the Chiefs, trailing by multiple scores to the Patriots, embarked upon a 16-play, 80-yard drive that burned more than five minutes off the clock. By the time the Chiefs scored, only 1:13 remained in the game and their comeback hopes came down to an onside kick. The Chiefs didn't recover, allowed an unlucky first down, and the game ended.
So Coach, we know you're the Eagles' head man now, but we're wondering, "Why did that drive take so long?"
Philly media is the best. Introductory press conference, #Eagles coach Doug Pederson gets asked "why did that drive take so long?"
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 19, 2016
It's a valid question, especially since Pederson confirmed he'll be running the Eagles offense as the playcaller. So ...
"It took so long because number one, did not want to give Tom Brady the ball back. We knew we were gonna score," Pederson said, per NFL.com. "We knew we had timeouts and time. We were also limited with the number of receivers. We had Jeremy Maclin out of the game at the time. We were down numbers. We felt like at that point not to give the ball back to Tom Brady. We still had timeouts and time even with the onside kick to put ourselves in a position to tie the football game."
Now, that explanation would've made sense if the Chiefs were trailing by just one touchdown at the time. But they weren't. The Chiefs faced a 14-point hole. They needed the ball twice and they needed to score two touchdowns. They needed to save as much time as possible. If they were going to give the ball back to Tom Brady, they needed to do so quickly.
Even if the Chiefs thought they had a better chance to recover an onside kick than stop Brady, they still should've attempted the onside kick with as much time as possible remaining in the game. That way, in case the kick failed, they also would've had more chances to stop Brady. Furthermore, if the Chiefs had managed to recover that onside kick, they would've needed as much time as possible to go down the field and tie the game.
This is all incredibly obvious, right?
In other words, Pederson's response makes no sense -- just like Andy Reid's explanation.
Coaching edge: Andy Reid pic.twitter.com/s7tJereygV
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) January 17, 2016
Now, the good news: Philadelphia is already more than used to the strange concept of the two-minute drill that winds up taking more than two minutes.
















