Ryan Mathews has fumbled in the final minutes of two of the past three games, and though coach Doug Pederson is not demoting his leading running back, he acknowledged that Mathews’ fumbles are “definitely a concern.”
“We don't want to see it, especially in those situations – four-minute situations there at the end of the game,” Pederson said. “We've got to continue to either find out if he's tired, where he's at at the end of the game; if we need to put Wendell Smallwood or Darren Sproles in there – we'll find out more about that. But by no means am I down on Ryan at all. We just have to make sure that he understands that he can't obviously do that and put ourselves in a situation where we're giving the ball back to the opponent.”
Mathews leads Eagle RBs in carries and yards and TDs but is also the only RB to fumble. This is already a committee situation. The story said it doesn't sound like he's going to get more carries, averaging about 11 per game, and that may go down if the team opts to give another RB late-game chances.
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