Baltimore Ravens 30, Philadelphia Eagles 28
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?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, again great opportunity right there to score, tie the football game. You know, 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?
DOUG PEDERSON: My decision to go with the play call, so that's on me.
Q. How about the execution of the play?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, like I said, I can put our team in a better situation.
Q. What can you say about the job Carson was able to do really in that second half, considering all these injuries that you guys sustained on offense?
DOUG PEDERSON: Carson played a heck of a football game. He played tough. Played smart. You know, resilient guy, resilient group. Rallied his troops. Made some tough throws against a really, really good defense. Proud of him for hanging in there and amidst, again, some of the injuries we had, losing Driscoll there late in the game and Miles came out for a little while. I thought Carson played tough today and played a great football game.
Q. What were the analytics behind going for the two-point conversion at 17-6?
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 plan; 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 Jalen Hurts more in the second quarter of the game today?
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, 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 Toth today. Did you have a plan to hide him?
DOUG PEDERSON: Toth battled his tail off. Driscoll battled his fail off. We have to evaluate quickly obviously the injury situation and see where we're at this week on a short week. You know, it's just something that again, we are getting kind of thin at the position, and you know, 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, 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 don't think he got one more snap after that long Sanders run?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, again, I guess I could have put him in there one or two more times. You know, he gave us a spark at times and that was good to see, and we'll just continue to, you know, keep him involved.
Q. You finished the game with two healthy starters on offense, in Carson and 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?
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. You know, my message to the football team is basically, you know, there's all the shoulda, wouldas, couldas 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, and 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's 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 difference in games, and those are things that we're going to learn from and we're going to get better from, and you know, so I'm proud of the guys for the way they battled today.
Q. Did you kind of -- talk more if you can about the way Carson stepped up his game towards the end, especially with him going to Travis and everything?
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 Hightower came back and made some plays and we had the nice run by miles. There's 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?
DOUG PEDERSON: (Pausing) let me take a deep breath on that one.
Did you see the game?
Q. Yeah, I did. That's why I'm asking.
DOUG PEDERSON: We dropped -- we dropped a big third down, you know, 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 you know, that's what happened.
There's enough things in this game, too, to point at from decisions I made to, you know, execution on the field. Again, and we didn't get the job done.
Q. You've been talking to us about the way the team had comeback and fought. You're 1-4-1. How do you view the record in the context of everything going on?
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 how -- I don't know what the injury is, but how big of a loss would that be if he can't play Thursday night?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, Miles the last couple weeks has really done an outstanding job. He's been on a lot of our first, second and third down plays. Obviously 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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