Head Coach Doug Pederson
Doug, can you first start by giving us detail on what the locker room was like and the celebration post-game, please.
"It's everything you kind of pictured. After a hard fought game and a two-point conversion to win, it was exciting, electric. Guys were kind of beside themselves. Besides the excitement, the guys believe, right? I think that's the thing that I see is they believe in themselves. They believe in this team. And amongst all the excitement, that's what it means more to me with these guys. Very excited, electric. These guys really deserve this one."
What went into the decision to go for it for the two-pointer? And then can you describe sort of how Trevor and Zay executed that?
"What have we got to lose? This is something I told the staff during the -- during that last five or six minutes of the game, it's like we've got to think players, not plays, and trust our guys. That's what this game -- our guys believe. They believe. Once we scored that touchdown at the end, they wanted to go for two. It wasn't my decision. The players were like, let's go. I got a lot of faith and trust in them, and just a well-executed play. It's a play we've had in our game plan pretty much every week, and we were able to pull it out. Trevor today was lights out. He played extremely well. That throw, that catch for the two-point was a thing of beauty. I think as a football team too, a win like this just kind of heads us in the right direction."
A little bit earlier in that drive, Doug, 3rd and 22, 4th and 5, I believe it was. It feels like around here typically there would have been a lot of panic. Trevor looked like a veteran quarterback, and you didn't really sense any of that happening. What was your view of those two plays in particular?
"I mean, you're exactly right. I think that's what you're seeing with our team is just now the growth and maturity. Again, there's no panic with these guys. They believe in themselves. They understand that, yeah, we've put ourselves in a bit of a pickle there in those situations, but we also knew we had four downs, and the guys just, they made plays. That's kind of been the difference between, say, the first ten (games) and this one here is just -- really in all three phases, guys making plays on the field, and that's what it takes. Was it a perfect game? No, by no means. That's a good football team that we played, playoff-caliber team. My hat's off to them. But our guys just kept fighting and believing."
What's it say for your defense to stop them, keep them out of the end zone on 4 of 6 red zone possessions today?
"It speaks volumes. I thought our defense really stepped up in the red zone today, did a nice job there holding them to kicks. Obviously, they're a team that is electric running the football. Lamar is a tremendous guy, you know. I just think our defense really did a nice job when they got down in there really just holding them to those field goals. I think it could have been a different football game. If they score on one or two of those possessions, it could be different. But defense did a nice job down there."
QB Trevor Lawrence
Trevor, can you talk about digging out of the third and 21 to start that game-winning drive? Then obviously the exclamation point at the end.
"Yeah, rough start to that drive, incompletion on first down, kind of waste that two-minute warning. It's 2:02, three-second play, incomplete, you're second and ten, kind of a waste of a stop clock, basically a timeout. Then the next play, held the ball, tried to throw it away. Sack fumble could have been bad. Our guys got on it. We're sitting there at third and 21, not really where you want to be to start a two-minute drive to win the game, but just guys in the huddle never lost faith, didn't flinch. Right back to the huddle, next play. It didn't really matter what happened. That belief that we have in one another, we've been on the wrong side of these a lot, and it's cool to see, even though that's happened a lot, we still have never lost faith, always trusted one another. It felt good to be on the other side of this one."
When he threw the final touchdown, did you think Marvin Jones was going to come down with it in bounds?
"I knew I put it in a spot where he'd have a chance at it. Obviously Marcus Peters is a great corner. He's a great player. Just put it up where Marvin can go make a play, that's a guy we've made throws and catches like that for the past two years countless times, whether it's in the games, in practice. Never to win the game like that, but it's the same thing. So just put it up where he has a chance to go get it, and he made a great play."
Trevor, talk about the last 14 seconds after you make that happen and take the lead. Of course you know Tucker is maybe one of the most reliable players in all of the NFL. What's the emotion like as you're watching that kick go through the air?
"Not the guy you want kicking a last second field goal on you, that's for sure. I thought obviously our defense did a good job getting the guy down as early as we could. That's a tough situation. You can't give up a chunk play, but you also don't want to come up too many yards to give him a chance. I thought we did a good job executing that. Thankfully, there wasn't enough time for them to run another play to possibly call a timeout and get more yards. That turn before the kick, I didn't think it was going to make it, but when it was up in the air, it was going. It just kept carrying and carrying. I was watching the goal post to see which one crossed first. I don't know how short it was, but it was close. Little nervous there."
With all the stops your defense was making in the red zone today, talk about their performance and how much it makes you want to have to win this more because of that.
"That's just what good teams do, what great defenses do. I mean, they kept us in the game. You go back and watch the game, and they kept us in it. We had a couple, I think we had three or four three and outs, weren't playing well in the third quarter, and they just kept holding. Holding them to field goals, holding them to field goals, and keeping us in the game. We finally put a successful drive together early in the fourth quarter, went down and scored and got us back in it. I think right after that they had the fumble. So fumble, we kick the field goal, take the lead. Then from there, it's just, all right, we've got the lead. We're going to do whatever we have to go do to win this thing. Obviously they had that drive and went and scored. We knew as an offense, defense had our back all day, and we've got to go and respond, and we've got to be the ones to go win the game. It was a good feeling to be able to go do it."
Did you have a favorite throw today, one that stood out to you? It seemed like you had seven or eight that were –
"I mean, that one on fourth down, I think, on the second to last drive to Zay on their sideline, that's a play that we've worked and weren't sure exactly what they were going to do coverage-wise. It's kind of a nuanced route. We were just on the same page, put it over the top of the corner, and he made a great play, ran a great route, and put it in the right spot. So that was a cool one."
