If you watched some of the other games around the NFL in Week 1 this past weekend, you would have noticed some conservative plays being called by other head coaches. A few teams decided to punt the ball on 4th down and short even when they were at midfield or even in the opposing team's territory. Then there was Kliff Kingsbury's Arizona Cardinals, who did something even more embarrassing than any other team did on Sunday -- punt the ball on 4th down in overtime with one minute remaining while at midfield.
Watching all of that madness take place, you come to appreciate Doug Pederson's play calling. In fact, Pederson remains the gutsiest coach in the NFL still (and by a large margin).
Obviously there is still some bad that can come from taking such extreme risks, but so far pretty much all of the the risks Pederson has taken have turned out good (or at least didn't turn into a disaster). In fact, his brazen call to go for it on 4th-and-one from his own 34-yard line in the 2nd half against the Redskins helped the Eagles start their comeback. He was recognized with the Decision of the Week by Pro Football Focus for that play call.
Maybe all these coaches and personnel around the NFL should be following Pederson's footsteps instead of Sean McVay's, but if they want to continue to fail and let the Eagles still be the smartest team in the league, then that's fine by me.
