In early December, while the Eagles were encamped for a week in Southern California, defensive lineman Chris Long described what he felt to be Doug Pederson’s best attribute as a head coach.
“Very even-keeled,” Long said then. “He doesn’t panic. He keeps things very short-term, as far as we need to handle X, Y and Z, and don’t worry about anything else. I think that’s a really good approach to take. His mood kind of permeates through the team; let’s just go handle our business, and whatever happened last week, good or bad, doesn’t matter.”
Back then, the team’s biggest bump in the road was overcoming a tough loss on the road in Seattle.