What was Doug Pederson even doing in Eagles’ loss to Seahawks?

The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a heartbreaking 24-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night. In many ways it was a statement win for the Seahawks, who snapped their home losing streak, got back in the playoff picture, and vaulted Russell Wilson into the MVP race.

However, the Eagles also committed a lot of self-inflicted wounds, which piled up in the fourth quarter as the game got away from them.

Perhaps the biggest moment happened during the most crucial drive of the game, with the Seahawks hanging on to a 17-10 lead. While scrambling on third-and-long, Wilson pitched the ball to running back Mike Davis, who picked up the first down and kept the drive alive. It was a brilliant heads-up play by both men — and it was probably an illegal forward pass:

At first glance, it looks like a lateral, but replays showed that the ball traveled about 1 yard forward. Had Doug Pederson challenged the play, it likely would’ve resulted in a penalty and forced the Seahawks to punt.

But Pederson kept the challenge flag in his pocket, and Seattle ran another play without any review. Four plays later, Wilson hit J.D. McKissic for a 15-yard touchdown, putting the Seahawks up, 24-10, and essentially icing the game.

It wasn’t just the non-challenge that hurt Philly, though. As Adam Stites pointed out, the Eagles had a bunch of little mistakes that eventually came back to bite them in the end:

You could argue that it didn’t matter and that the Seahawks would have won by one touchdown instead of two. Challenging the play and getting it overturned would have kept the game close, changing the dynamics on what the Eagles could have done offensively with seven-and-a-half minutes left in the game.

Those weren’t Pederson’s only struggles with game management on Sunday night. He opted not to go for it on fourth-and-1 in the first quarter near midfield, a situation where the Eagles have found plenty of success this season. A little later in the first half, with 18 seconds left before halftime, Pederson punted instead of going for it on fourth down. Then he did opt to go for it on fourth-and-3 in the fourth quarter when the Eagles were in field-goal range.

It’s hardly the end of the world for the Eagles — at 10-2, they’re still in play for a No. 1 seed. Carson Wentz remains an MVP candidate. Nobody will want to play this team at home in January. But Sunday night was a good reminder that this is still a young team with growing pains to get through, particularly on the road. Pederson and Co. will hopefully learn from this.

The Eagles won’t have much time to stew on the loss, because they have another road date with an NFC West team coming up: the 9-3 Los Angeles Rams. How they respond to this setback will tell us a lot about where they really stand.

That was the big coaching mistake of Week 13, but there were many more, as usual. Let’s run down the list.

Giving up only five field goals and still losing seems like an appropriately Chicago Bears way to lose.

Jimmy Garoppolo wasn’t perfect in his first start for the San Francisco 49ers, but he did drive them down to the goal line with less than two minutes left. At this point, the Bears were holding a 14-12 lead, and it would’ve made sense to let the 49ers score and give Mitchell Trubisky time to make a final drive. Instead, the Bears let San Francisco drain the clock and kick a 24-yard field goal with eight seconds left, leaving them with only a desperate lateral attempt on the kickoff.

Why didn’t Fox give his offense a chance?

Hmm. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the quarterback you traded up for to draft No. 2 overall. At any rate, the Bears are officially eliminated from playoff contention, and Fox might have to start updating his resume soon.

The Minnesota Vikings defense smothered the Atlanta Falcons all afternoon, holding them to just three field goals and making Julio Jones a non-entity. With the Falcons down, 14-9, they got as far as the Vikings’ 27-yard line before facing fourth-and-4 with 5:04 left. Dan Quinn really should’ve gone for it here, because a field goal didn’t really help his team with a five-point deficit.

He went for the field goal anyway, and Matt Bryant shanked it from 45 yards away. That was the last time Matt Ryan touched the ball, as the Vikings methodically drove down the field and killed the clock in an impressive display of ball control. Minnesota moves to 10-2 and is now in the hunt for home-field advantage, with the Eagles stumbling later that night.

Meanwhile, the Falcons fell to 7-5 and Sunday was pretty much the worst-case scenario for them. They’re now out of a playoff spot and have to play the New Orleans Saints on Thursday. It’s gut check time in ATL.

The Tennessee Titans are 8-4 and still on top of the AFC South, but they were hardly convincing in a 24-13 win over the Houston Texans. The scoreline only looks generous because Derrick Henry ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run in the final seconds — when he could have just kneeled out the game after picking up the first down, rather than making his defense go back out there for five more plays.

Otherwise, getting the win was like pulling teeth for Tennessee.

Just one example of the Titans’ uninspiring play was this sequence on a third-and-1 play. I’ll leave it to John McClain, never one to mince words:

That’s a pretty weird version of “exotic smashmouth,” Mike Mularkey.

The New York Giants finally pulled the plug, and the 2017 coaching carousel has officially started spinning. Leave the memories alone.