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Just minutes into the game, all Eagles fans were probably wondering what Doug Pederson would do.
After a pass to Josh Adams on the 3rd and 11th, he racked up 10 yards and left the Eagles with a 4th and 1st loss on a 24-yard line just 87 seconds into the game, Pederson faced his first huge decision of the day. .
Do you risk getting started, knowing that if you fail, the Saints will probably score in just a few games, but knowing that if you convert, you could really give a positive and aggressive tone for the day?
Or do you punish, turn the field position and take the conservative path?
As we now know, the Eagles dropped, the Saints took a 3-0 lead eight times later, a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter and won a 48-7 win.
Pederson admitted Monday that he was seriously considering getting into this race.
Would the end have been different? Probably not. Even if the Eagles had been converted, there would be no guarantee, they would have dropped and scored. But it was impossible to look at this sequence and wonder if 2017 Pederson would have gone there and if the game would have been different from there.
"I was really close," Pederson said. "I know we were on the 30 or 25 meter line somewhere over there. But maybe that's what you understand, you stay in the field and you see what happens. But I think maybe you're doing something different here. "
Under Pederson, the Eagles converted 81% into 4th and 1st (25 versus 31), including 5 out of 7 this year. This is the fourth highest place in the NFL since 2016.
When they run, they are 17 years old for 21 during this period. When they throw, they are 8 for 10.
In the league, 4th and 1st places represent 66% of the total since 2016 and 73% this year.
When Wentz keeps it in 4th and 1st position, he has 10 for 10.
Here is the detail of the 4th and 1st attempts of the Eagles under Pederson (all these statistics come from Pro Football Reference):
Operation
Carson Wentz: 10 for 10
Nick Foles: 2 for 2
Corey Clement: 2 for 2
LeGarrette Blount: 1 for 2
Ryan Mathews: 1 for 2
Jay Ajayi: 1 for 1
Darren Sproles: 0 for 1
Josh Adams: 0 for 1
Who passed
Carson Wentz: 5 for 7
Nick Foles: 2 for 2
Trey Burton: 1 for 1
Sam Bradford was 1 for 1 in 2015, and the last time the Eagles failed to get a first try on a quarterback and a defender, it was December 29, 2013, while Foles had been stopped without gain in the third quarter of the previous year. Eagles 24-22 win over the Cowboys.
Obviously, it's rare to play 4th and 1st in your front line. The Eagles have only tried it once in the past 25 years. After the Vikings, 24 against 9 in 2013, LeSean McCoy was stopped without a win.
Over the entire league, 24 attempts were recorded for the 4th and 1st attempts over the last 10 years, with faults converted to 67% of the time.
What about the first quarter of a scoreless match?
It's only happened twice in the last 25 years and it was mockery. Timers Masthay with the Packers in 2011 (he ran six yards for a first run against the Bucs) lost a court and fumbled).
The only recent attempt at 4th and 1st in the first quarter that was not wrong inside the starting line of a team came in 2016, when RG3 – then with the Browns – it's reconverted to Cleveland. already behind the Bengals, 13-0.
The Eagles needed about half a meter for the first descent, although there was no measurement.
Wentz can fall and have half a meter.
"I think it's just sending a message to the team: we're going to maintain the aggression we've established here," Pederson said.
So why not go?
"At the beginning of the match, it was the first training," he said. "Just hit the ball right there."
And he's done killing.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl last year defying the norm, and it's impossible not to wonder if the situation would have been different if Pederson had done it again in the first quarter on Sunday.
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