Earlier this week, Head Coach Doug Pederson went on 94.1 WIP and said "we're gonna win that football game, and when we do, we're in first place in the NFC East." in regards to the upcoming match up with their arch rivals the Dallas Cowboys.
Maybe it's just me, but this feels awfully similar to the Zach Brown comments last week about Kirk Cousins right before he lit up the defense for over 300 yards and three touchdowns. We don't need to relive that one but honestly why would Doug say something like that? Obviously as the Head Coach you always want to express confidence in your team, but saying you guarantee a win does something to your opponent. Dallas defensive end DeMarcus Lawerence has already responded to the comments saying that Pederson should "shut up and stay on the sidelines".
Now don't misunderstand me on this, I have all the confidence that the Eagles can go in and win this game, but making guarantees is impossible to do in this league. The league is too unpredictable, and anything can sway the outcome -- from a missed block or a missed call anything can decide the fate of the game. Coach Pederson has recently retracted his statement stating that "he never said guarantee". Whether he used that word or not, the point is his original statements were perceived that way and there is no taking it back.
You can look at this one of two ways: you can say the Eagles now have extra weight on their shoulders because of the big check the coach wrote for them, or you can say that the Eagles now have extra motivation seeing as how their coach really does believe in them (which he should). Personally, I believe that latter on this one. The Eagles still have to prove that they are good enough to win this division and they are going to have to go through the Cowboys to do it. This game is gonna show us a lot and I for one can not wait to see it.
