Did the Eagles Run the Dumbest Trick Play of All Time on Sunday?
Doug Pederson’s fake field goal call at the end of the half didn’t end up playing much of a role in the grand scheme of things. Thanks to the Eagles secondary being in absolute SHAMBLES, this outcome didn’t come down to a field goal attempt, not even close to it.
But, we need to at least briefly harp on how dumb of a call that was. Doug stated in his press conference he saw something on tape that made him think that could work. He gambled and they were ready, I can live with that. Sometimes teams just execute better than you do. But what makes that play so maddening is…who cares if looked like it could’ve worked or not?!
With 15-20 seconds left in the half and NO timeouts, that play would’ve allowed the offense ONE possibly TWO shots at the end zone before trotting the same field goal unit back out. They were one sack or tackle in-bounds away from that being an absolute catastrophe.
If you thought that trick play could’ve resulted in a touchdown, fooling the Vikings in the process, that’s one thing. But the play was designed for Elliot to find Goedert on a quick out to get him out of bounds with a first down. If you wanted five yards on fourth down so bad, why wouldn’t you just leave Wentz out there?!
Plus, it would have been a nice morale boost to get points off the turnover before the half after seemingly everything else had gone wrong for 30 minutes. They then came out and had a well-executed drive for a touchdown to start the 2nd half, it likely would’ve been a three-point game at that point.
Honestly, Jake Elliot actually looked somewhat athletic for a kicker on that trick play, and it still resulted in an interception. It ended up not mattering so it is a moot point, but please never try that again. It could honestly cost us a game. Doug Pederson will gamble, he will take plenty of risks. We’ve all learned to accept it and the team thrives off of it. But there’s a difference between taking a risk and being stupid.