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We know tanking isn’t fun for gamers, but for sports fans it offers an engaging thought-provoking exercise. Talking about heads can fill hours of radio on the idea. Fans can consume those hours of content. Reasonable people can find themselves on opposite sides of the debate, and that’s okay.
As long as teams are given higher draft slots to lose more games – or better chances of “winning” a higher draft pick – there will be an incentive to tank. And what we understand about tanking is that management gives coaches a paltry cupboard of players and says good luck to them. Everyone with a jersey or helmet is supposed to give their all.
This is what made Doug Pederson’s tanking Sunday night so shocking. He broke the rules we all agreed on. And that’s why it’s not right.
No, the league doesn’t need to interfere with what Pederson did on Sunday night. No one needs to speak to the manager here. And no, I don’t care that it ultimately screwed the Giants off a postseason trip. They shouldn’t have started 1-7 just to end up relying on one division foe to beat another division foe.
Pederson actively aggravated his team in the second half of a competitive game. Even though he had dropped clues throughout the week of his plans, like telling Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels at their production reunion that he wanted to see what Nate Sudfeld had, it still didn’t. need to happen like this.
The first obvious sign was not to take the points at the end of the third quarter. The Eagles scored the fourth and the fourth goal, down 17-14. Washington’s offense stalled out of the half, registering two three-and-outs and one first-game interception in his third second-half practice. After failing to enter the end zone five attempts from inside the 10-yard line, the game here was to kick the basket and tie a game that still had 17 minutes to go. same analysis say like that!
I shudder to think of the depths Pederson could have gone if Jalen Hurts had actually completed that fourth touchdown pass. Nonetheless, it was the Sudfeld Show after that, and it displayed a level of play worthy of the Arena Football League.
“Yes I was training to win, yes it was my decision only,” Pederson said after the game. “Nate has obviously been here for four years and I felt he deserved an opportunity to take a few shots. Look, if there’s anything out there that thinks I wasn’t trying to win the game, you guys. know, (tight end Zach) Ertz is over there, (defensive end) Brandon Graham is over there, (cornerback) Darius Slay is over there. All of our best players are still on the pitch at the end, so we were going to win the game.
“Pretty simple, the plan this week was to give Nate some time and I felt it was time to bring him into the game.”
Sudfeld made two turnovers in his first five games on the field. He finished the game 5 for 12 for 32 yards while being sacked on two more drop-backs. Sudfeld has been with the Eagles and Pederson since 2017. He’s a 27-year-old quarterback. What he brings to the team, at this point, needs to be known.
And because it should be known, I believe Pederson knew it. And what he understood was that Sudfeld gave the Eagles their best chance to lose. Coaches aren’t supposed to be involved in tanking as much as the decisions at stake are made, so shooting a more competent quarterback in the fourth quarter of a one-scoring baseball game is as blatant as it gets.
No, it’s not like we’re resting key starters before the game. The Chiefs weren’t intentionally trying to lose the game against the Chargers by leaving Patrick Mahomes, Sammy Watkins and Tyreek Hill to rest. Were they doing their best to win the game? Of course not, but we football fans understand that they weighed the risk of injury in what amounts to meaningless play in an attempt to repeat themselves as Super Bowl champions and have decided that some players were gaining 0% risk and others could go in and gamble.
Did the Steelers try to start their game against the Browns? After all, it was a divisional game where Pittsburgh could have built their comeback win in Week 16 over Indianapolis, potentially securing the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs and knocking out the hated Browns from the playoffs. playoffs.
Once again, Mike Tomlin did not field his most competitive team. However, he made decisions about the composition of his squad based on competitive reasons. He’d rather win next week (coincidentally against the Browns) with a healthy roster than win at Week 17 with a roster that could be replaced by the wildcard weekend.
The point is, the decisions of Reid and Tomlin and every other sane coaches in season-ending games for decades have been rooted in competition. Live to fight another day. Don’t shoot all your bullets. Choose your axiom.
The closest thing to tanking in play that comes to mind is the 2014 Week 17 game between the 2-13 Buccaneers and 6-9 Saints. The Bucs built a 20-7 halftime lead, then Lovie Smith fired wide receiver Mike Evans, linebacker Lavonte David and others for the second half. The Bucs maintained that lead in the fourth quarter before the Saints returned.
And until 20-14 with 5:33 left in the game, third and 5 near midfield, quarterback Josh McCown attempted his first pass of the second half which was intercepted. (See! Even they were still trying to win at this point.) This gave the Saints a short field to score the touchdown and ultimately win the game. At 2-14, the Bucs held the tiebreaker for the No. 1 overall pick over the Titans and ended up selecting Jameis Winston.
I want to avoid phrases like protect the integrity of the game. I’m not that guy. But Pederson has adopted a coaching behavior that has made his team worse in the times when we learn from an early age that it’s Go Time.
I don’t think Pederson came into the game trying to lose. I think his attitude changed in the second half to be more than okay with the loss. He has achieved a certain ease to lose in a game that should be odious to anyone who enjoys competition. And he did it without preparing his players like a coach would by announcing he is on rest earlier in the week.
Pederson’s method of tanking is unique. He clearly entered the game with the confidence that he would return next season. Because he’s a smart man, he recognizes that there is a difference between the No.9 overall pick and the No.6 pick in the 2021 Draft. And if he and Howie Roseman want to progress, you better deal. the sixth choice than the ninth.
Maybe the Eagles will find a player who will switch franchises with where they choose in April. It will be perhaps the biggest movement of the organization since Philly Philly. But it came at a cost to Pederson.
His players know what he did. We all know what he did. And you can use whatever pretzel logic you want to explain it, but there was some intentional in-game tank work on Sunday night. And I hope no other coach has had any ideas.
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