Adrian Fedkiw
A week after having his head coach’s back, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz was critical of Doug Pederson’s lack of offensive balance during their 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Here’s what he had to say after the game Sunday.
Ertz isn’t wrong, this offensive imbalance can’t continue. Pederson stressed during the offseason that he wanted more balance but that hasn’t been the case so far. The running back situation and how Pederson managed it was a mess. Wentz threw the ball 46 times and ran it four, with the other 13 snaps being designed runs.
Just 13.
Darren Sproles led the team with 10 carries for 48 yards, while Wendell Smallwood toted it just three times for four yards. LeGarrette Blount technically didn’t register a carry and when he was in there, he was used as a decoy in the play-action game. This was after leading the team with 14 rushes last week in the season opener against the Washington Redskins.
CSN Philly’s Seth Joyner ripped into Pederson’s play-calling during the Eagles’ Postgame Live show.
Pederson stated that the running game is an area the Eagles need to get fixed.
It’s an area we have to fix. I wasn’t pleased with it the first two weeks. It’s not one individual. It’s a team effort. We’ve got to fix that moving forward … I mean when you play good teams, like we did, against good defenses, you have to be able to run the football. This is two weeks in a row that we’ve had trouble.
A week ago Ertz talked about loving playing for Pederson after Matt Lombardi’s hot take on Pederson went viral.
We love playing for Doug. We don’t care what outside people think. Guys love playing for him. We gave it our all for him. I love playing for Doug, that’s all I can speak for. He’s an amazing coach, he’s an amazing play-caller.
The play-calling was definitely not amazing.
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