Doug Pederson applauds Eagles’ resilience in post-game press conference

The Eagles found themselves in a 17-0 second quarter hole, and then got back in the game with a 51-yard touchdown pass from Carson Wentz to DeSean Jackson.

In his postgame press conference, Eagles coach Doug Perderson said that getting down early certainly got the Eagles’ attention. The Eagles trailed 17-0 and then 20-7 at halftime before storming back for their season-opening 32-27 win over the Washington Redskins at Lincoln Financial Field.

“I think the 17-0 kind of woke us up,” Pederson said in his post-game press conference. “We knew what we had to do. We had to stay within our game plan.”

Part of that was running the ball. The Eagles rushed for just 22 yards in the first half. They finished with 123 yards, averaging 4.0 per carry.

“I had to stay calm and had to keep calling runs,” said Pederson, who is now 4-0 in season openers as Eagles head coach. “The running game was eventually going to take over and were able to make plays in the second half that got us back in the game and eventually win the game.”

Still, even though Pederson applauded the resiliency of his team, he would rather see it tested a different way.

“You don’t ever want to see that 17-0 at home, but hats off to the guys, a resilient group, staying true and crawling themselves into it," Pederson said.

It was also a big day for Wentz, returning after missing the final three regular season and both playoff games last season with a back injury.

“It felt great to finally get out there,” said Wentz, who completed 28 of 39 passes for 313 yards, three touchdowns, non interceptions and a 121 passer rating. “It was a long offseason, a lot of things going on, so to kind of be out here in front of our fans, running out of the tunnel, it just felt awesome.”