Doug Pederson

Q. Can you explain the play call on the two-point conversion, and did it get in in time? It looked like they broke the huddle sort of close to the end of the play clock. (Bo Wulf)

DOUG PEDERSON: Again, great opportunity right there to score, tie the football game. I can do better as far as getting the play in and giving our guys a better opportunity play-call-wise in that situation. But credit them; made the stop and just a little bit short.

Q. On that play, why go with that play call, and then as far as the execution, what happened there? (Dave Zangaro)

DOUG PEDERSON: My decision to go with the play call, so that’s on me.

Q. How about the execution of the play? (Dave Zangaro)

DOUG PEDERSON: Like I said, I can put our team in a better situation.

Q. What can you say about the job QB Carson Wentz was able to do really in that second half, considering all those injuries that you guys sustained on offense? (Kristen Rodgers)

DOUG PEDERSON: Carson played a heck of a football game. He played tough. Played smart. Resilient guy, resilient group. Rallied his troops. Made some tough throws against a really, really good defense. Proud of him for hanging in there amidst, again, some of the injuries we had, losing [T Jack] Driscoll there late in the game and then [RB] Miles [Sanders] came out for a little while. I thought Carson played really tough today and played a good football game.

Q. What were the analytics behind going for the two-point conversion at 17-6? (Jeff McLane)

DOUG PEDERSON: At that time, it just gives you the best probability to win the game. In that situation, you go for two and then you’re down a touchdown and a field goal wins the game; obviously if things stay status quo.

Just gave us the best probability at that point to win.

Q. What went into the decision behind using QB Jalen Hurts more in the second quarter of the game today? (Chris Franklin)

DOUG PEDERSON: He’s part of the game plan every week. Just felt it was the right time to get him in the game. At the time we had been struggling a little bit offensively, especially running the football and gave us an opportunity to do that with him. It kind of calmed the defense down a little bit, too. There wasn’t as much pressure when he was in the game at quarterback. Just had to find a spark and got him in the football game.

Q. I wanted to ask about the offensive line. Have you ever been a part of anything like this before, just overall with the line and with so many injuries, and who is next on the list? You were down to T Brett Toth today. Did you have a plan behind him? Have you thought that far? (Nick Fierro)

DOUG PEDERSON: Toth battled his tail off. [Jack] Driscoll battled his tail off. We have to evaluate quickly obviously the injury situation and see where we’re at this week on a short week. It’s just something that again, we are getting kind of thin at the position, and I’m hopeful that a couple of these offensive line guys that have been hurt, that we can maybe get them back this week. But we’ve got to wait and see tomorrow and Tuesday, and put the pieces together.

Q. Given the amount of success the offense was having with Jalen Hurts in there, why not use him more in this game? I think he got one more snap after that long RB Miles Sanders run. (Tim McManus)

DOUG PEDERSON: Again, I guess I could have put him in there one or two more times. He gave us a spark at times and that was good to see, and we’ll just continue to keep him involved.

Q. You finished the game with two healthy starters on offense, in Carson and C Jason Kelce; given that, and it took a two-point conversion at the end for Baltimore to win this game, can you draw on some positive things and take some encouragement out of this, even though you never want to lose a football game? (Rob Maaddi)

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, and I would even say that Kelce and Carson were banged up, too. It was a physical football game against a really good opponent. My message to the football team is basically there’s all the should of, would of, could of’s out there, plays that we missed in the first half, turnovers, whatever it might be.

But this group, every healthy body that we had played in this football game. I’m going to tell you, it’s tough to win in the National Football League, okay. You guys know exactly where we’re at health-wise and these guys battled their tails off today, and still had a chance to tie this football game, really had a chance to win this football game against a healthy, healthy football team.

So as the head coach, I can stand here and I’m proud of those guys in the locker room. And I know they are going to get beat down this week and that’s your job. But my job is to encourage them and say, hey, you know — and I get it, there are no moral victories in the NFL. There are no moral victories at all and we are all graded on wins and losses. But for this team to hang together on the sideline, to not point fingers, to battle, to be in this position with all the mistakes that were made in the first half, really offensively and then we missed the kick, the field goal at the end of the half, those are the differences in games. Those are things that we’re going to learn from and we’re going to get better from. So I’m proud of the guys for the way they battled today.

Q. Can you talk more if you can about the way Carson stepped up his game towards the end, especially with him going to WR Travis Fulgham and everything? (Martin Frank)

DOUG PEDERSON: I mean, Carson is the type of guy that’s going to put the team on his back, and especially when we are faced with adversity. He wants the ball in his hands all the time and those two guys, second half, really stepped up and made some plays. But I think of [WR John] Hightower, he came back and made some plays, [TE] Richard Rodgers made some plays and we had the nice run by [RB] Miles [Sanders]. There are a lot of guys that had contributions in this football game. But yeah, Carson, playing as tough as he did, really kind of kept us in this game.

Q. Certainly it was an amazing fourth quarter, but before that, what do you think was up with your offense just not being able to get even a first down? Was it just the guys that were missing or were the Ravens doing something quite different from what you expected? (Les Bowen)

DOUG PEDERSON: We dropped a big third down, turnover. We dropped a touchdown. We missed a field goal. It’s self-inflicted wounds. It’s things I’ve been talking to our team all week about, right? And when you’re playing good football teams, like the Ravens are, you can’t make those mistakes. Can’t do it and with the amount of injuries that we do have — look, I’m going to stand here and tell that you we are not going to make excuses. The guys in the locker room are not going to make excuses. And so that’s what happened.

There are enough things in this game, too, to point at from decisions I made to execution on the field. We didn’t get the job done.

Q. You’ve been talking to us about the way the team has comeback and fought. The flipside to that is you’re 1-4-1. How do you view the record in the context of everything going on? (Zach Berman)

DOUG PEDERSON: That’s right where we should be, 1-4-1.

Q. Miles Sanders, a second straight game with a 74-yard run, 118 yards. Just talk about his play these last two weeks and I don’t know what the injury is, but how big of a loss would that be if he can’t play Thursday night? (Ed Kracz)

DOUG PEDERSON: Miles the last couple weeks has really done an outstanding job. He’s been in on a lot of our first, second and third down plays. Obviously, a big run last week in Pittsburgh. Another big run tonight against another good defense.

He’s a spark that you need. He’s got great energy, great enthusiasm. Obviously, we’ll check out his injury tonight, tomorrow, and see where he’s at and if he’s available for Thursday.

 

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