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- Mar 18, 2019
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The Eagles faced a decision with 19 seconds left in overtime of Sunday’s game against the Bengals.
It was fourth-and-12 yards from the Bengals’ 46-yard-line after a false start wiped out what would have been a 59-yard field goal try. The Eagles could have gone for it, tried a 64-yard field goal or punted the ball away. The last of those options offered the lowest odds of winning the game, but it was the one that head coach Doug Pederson chose.
“We tried to go for the game-winner with the kick, felt comfortable with Jake, had the wind,” Pederson said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “The false start backed us up, so we just said ‘Let’s just punt the football here.’ We didn’t want to give them the ball near midfield. Even a chance to go for it on fourth-and-long, an incomplete pass — something like that, they get the ball on a short field, can kick a field goal and win the game. Just made that decision, hopefully something positive might’ve come out of the punt.”
Nothing positive came out of the punt and the Eagles are now 0-2-1. Quarterback Carson Wentz said he understood the decision during his own press conference, but there will likely be others in Philly who see things a different way as the Eagles season continues to unfold in unhappy directions.