Washington Football Team: Studs and duds from Week 17 win over Eagles

Dud: Eagles HC Doug Pederson

Look, we usually focus on the Washington Football Team here, but Doug Pederson’s performance in this game was downright terrible, so much so, that he has earned a place in the “dud” column here.

Here’s what I said about Pederson’s performance during this contest in my immediate postgame reaction to the game.

"Pederson coached an atrocious game and at times, it looked like Philly was tanking. Down 17-14, Pederson went for it on fourth-and-goal from about five yards out. The pass play predictably failed. As if that decision wasn’t bad enough, Pederson pulled Jalen Hurts from the game in the fourth quarter to give former Washington Football Team quarterback Nate Sudfeld a chance to play. On his first five snaps, Sudfeld turned the ball over twice. He gave the Eagles no chance to win even though Washington gave them every opportunity to do so."

Those were two of the more bizarre coaching decisions you’ll ever see. The fourth-down play is somewhat forgivable — Pederson’s decision there appeared to be analytically-driven, though common sense would indicate that going for the points given Washington’s offensive struggles would be more sensible — but the decision to put Sudfeld in? That was certainly a losing move.

The Washington Football Team won’t mind, as it did gift-wrap them the win. That said, Washington fans can’t be happy that they have to hear that the win wasn’t legitimate because of Pederson’s strange late-game decisions.

It’s the NFL. A win’s a win regardless of how badly-coached a game is. Some teams got to beat up on the Jets and Jaguars twice this year. Washington just happened to luck into a chance to take on a checked-out Doug Pederson in Week 17.