Why Doug Pederson broke the tank rules: Everyone wearing a shirt or headphone is supposed to give it all

We know tank is not fun for gamers, but for sports enthusiasts it provides an enjoyable intellectual workout. Speaking heads can fill hours of radio on an idea. Fans can consume those hours of content. Rational people can end up on opposite sides of the debate and that’s okay.

As long as teams are given higher draw slots to lose more games – or better odds to „win“ a higher draft choice – there will be an incentive for tanks. And what we understand about tanks is that the management gives coaches a frivolous cabinet of players and says good luck. Everyone who wears a shirt or headphone is supposed to give their all.

That’s what made the Dog Pederson’s Sunday Night so disturbing. He broke the rules we all agreed on. This is the reason for the discomfort.

No, the league does not need to interfere with what Pederson did on Sunday night. Nobody needs to speak to the manager here. And no, I don’t care that she messed up in the end Giants Off postseason trip. They didn’t have to start 1-7 just to end up relying on a divided opponent to defeat another opponent.

Pederson made his team worse in the second half of a competitive match. Although he has dropped hints throughout the week of his plans, like telling Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels during a production meeting that he wants to see what Nate Sudfield He didn’t have to go down like that.

The first clear sign was not taking points at the end of the third quarter. The the Eagles It was fourth and goal of 4, down 17-14. Washington’s attack was stagnant after the end of the first half, scoring two goals three times and intercepting first play in the third round in the second half. After failing to reach the finish zone in five attempts from inside the 10-yard line, the play here was to kick the field goal in a shot and draw in a match that still had 17 minutes to play. even in Analytics say so!

I tremble as I think of the depths Pederson had gone Galen Horts Already complete the fourth touchdown pass. The Sudfield Show was after that, however, and it showed a level of play worthy of the Arena Football League.

„Yes, I was training to win, yes that was just my decision,“ Pederson said after the match. „Obviously Nate has been here for four years and I felt he deserved a chance to get some shots. Listen, if there’s anything he thinks I wasn’t trying to win the match, you know, (Zach Court Finals) Go Out (Defensive End)) Brandon Graham It’s over there, (back corner) Darius was slaughtered There is. All the big players are still on the field at the end, so we were going to win the match.

„Very simple, the plan this week was to get Nate on for some time and I felt it was time to get him involved in the game.“

Sudfeld made two transformations during his first five plays on the field. He finished game 5-to-12 for 32 yards while being sent off by two other teams. Sudfield has been with the Eagles and Pedersons since 2017. He is a 27-year-old midfielder. He must know what to offer the team at this point.

And because he had to be known, I think Pederson knew. And what he understood was that Sudfield gave the Eagles their best chance at losing. Coaches aren’t supposed to be putting tanks so much as they make in-game decisions, so pulling out a more capable midfielder in the fourth quarter of a single-score ball game is as stark as it gets.

No, this is not the same as resting the main players before a match. The Heads They didn’t intentionally try to lose the match against Chargers quietly Patrick MahomesAnd the Sami Watkins And the Terek Hill. Were they trying their best to win the match? Of course not, but we as football fans understand, they weighed the risk of injury in what amounts to a pointless game for iteration purposes as Super Bowl champions and decided that some players earn 0% risk and others can go there and play.

Act Steelers Try throwing their game against Brown? After all, it was a split match where Pittsburgh could have built a comeback win in Week 16 against Indianapolis, potentially taking the No. 2 seed in the Asian Qualifiers and knocking the hated Brown out of competition in the play-offs.

Once again, Mike Tomlin did not play his most competitive team. However, he made decisions about his team composition based on competitive reasons. He prefers to win next week (by accident against Brown) a healthy list than winning Week 17 with a list that might be messed up by the weekend.

The truth is that the decisions of Reid, Tomlin and any other coach in their right mind in late-season matches for decades were rooted in competition. He lives to fight another day. Don’t shoot all of your bullets. Choose your intuition.

The closest thing that comes to mind of tanks inside the game is the 2014 game Week 17 between 2-13 Pirates And 6-9 The saints. Bucs built a 20-7 lead at halftime and then Lovie Smith pulled the receiver Mike Evans, Full-back Lafonte David And others in the second half. The Bucs‘ team kept that leading into the fourth quarter before the Saints returned.

They advanced 20-14 with 5:33 left to play in the match, in the third and fifth places near midfield, midfield Josh McCown He tried to pass it for the first time in the second half and was intercepted. (We see! Even they were still trying to win at this pointThis gave the Saints short room to score the go-ahead and ultimately win the match. At 2–14, Bucs held the tiebreaker in No. 1 overall picking on Titans And ended up choosing James Winston.

I want to avoid phrases like Protect the integrity of the game. I am not that man. But Pederson engaged in a coaching behavior that made his team worse in moments when we learn from an early age that it is time for Go Time.

I don’t think Pederson got into the match trying to lose. I think his position shifted in the second half to become more than OK with losing. He achieved a certain amount of comfort with losing while running a game that should be obnoxious to anyone who appreciates competition. And he did so without equipping his players like a coach by announcing that he was resting at the start of the week.

Pederson’s tank method is unique. It is clear that he entered the match with an assurance that he will return next season. Since he’s a smart guy, he has realized that there is a difference between Pick # 9 in general and # # 6 in the 2021 draft. And if he and Howie Roseman want to come forward, it is better to deal with Choice # 6 than # 9.

Perhaps the Eagles will secure a player who changes the franchise with a venue of their choice in April. Perhaps this will be the organization’s greatest move since Philly Philly. But that was at Pederson’s account.

His players know what he’s done. We all know what he did. And you can use any pretzel logic you want to explain away, but a deliberate in-game tank mission happened Sunday night. And I hope no other coach has any ideas.