By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Being a new head coach isn't always an easy task to handle. It's not always going to go the way you hope or planned for.
But sometimes the experience you get as a head coach from your previous team will help you better plan your game and path to overcome obstacles that might come up.
For Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, season two has begun in what he hopes will be a successful season after a 7-9 season in his first year as a head coach in the NFL. Last season, in my opinion, was neither disappointing nor impressive. But given the talent pool Pederson was given in year one, there really isn't enough sample size to write him off yet, as Sports Talk Philly's Jesse Larch wrote.
But being an offensive coordinator in the NFL does a lot of good for a coach that takes it to the next level.
On Sunday, Pederson will have the opportunity to return to Kansas City for the first time in two seasons, after being the offensive coordinator from 2013 to 2015.
Not only will Pederson play against his mentor and former coach Andy Reid for the first time, but he will have a chance to coach his defense against his former Chiefs QB, Alex Smith.
For the Birds, the team will have a tough outing defending the pass, especially without top corner Ronald Darby defending the speedy Tyreek Hill. But the fact that Doug Pederson spent enough time with the Chiefs to know the inside and outs of Alex Smith's game, and how to truly understand Andy Reid's game plan, will help him succeed, and hopefully be the X-Factor needed to take down the team that upset the defending Super Bowl champs just one week ago.
Offensive coordinators turned head coaches, more often than not, have very good success coaching against their former team in either year one or year two, depending on when their team has that particular team on their schedule.
Looking at history, this is unequivocally true.
To prove that the success that former OC's, now HC, had success against their former team, I took a look at a few head coaches.
Josh McDaniels, now current OC and QB coach of the New England Patriots, was the OC and QB of the Patriots one time prior from 2006 to 2008. McDaniels had major success with Tom Brady, and then coaching Matt Cassel to take over when Brady went d0wn in Week 1 of the 2008 season with a torn ACL injury.
The success in New England under Bill Belichick allowed many teams to covet McDaniels as head coach of the team headed into the 2009 season, and rightfully so, he deserved it.
McDaniels' time as the Denver Broncos head coach was short-lived, but for this analysis, we're just looking at the Broncos/Patriots matchup in his first season as coach.
The Broncos headed into the Week 6 matchup with the Pats with a 5-0 record. McDaniels had a lot of success in his first several weeks of the season, but his Week 6 date with his former team and protege, was a thrill.
McDaniels coached his team well enough to limit the Patriots to just 215 yards passing from Tom Brady, who only threw two touchdown passes. The Broncos at the time were quarterbacked by Kyle Orton, and he threw for 330 yards and two TD passes, so another example of how good McDaniels was at coaching QB's in big situations.
The Broncos, at home, drove 58 yards down the field on the first series of the overtime period tied at 17. Matt Prater eventually kicked a 41-yard field goal to earn the victory for Denver.
While McDaniels lacked the success to lead the Broncs any further than just two seasons, he showed enough in one game against the team he had been a pretty large contributor to, and won the game. After that game, the team lacked consistency, and McDaniels ended up leading Denver to only a .500 record that season.
You'd think at this point, that my point may be flawed, or that McDaniels beating the Patriots in overtime that one season was only a fluke, however, McDaniels isn't the only former OC to defeat their old team in a following season.
Researching this was interesting, because I looked at a ton of offensive coordinators that became head coaches, and a bunch of names stood out to me.
One was Sean Payton, now head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Payton, of course, has been the head coach of the Saints since the 2006 season. Most notably leading them to their first Super Bowl title in the 2009 season.
But most people don't know that Payton was the assistant head coach and QB coach of the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2005. While in Dallas, Payton helped Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde, and Drew Bledsoe achieve 3,000 yard passing seasons.
So naturally, Payton, like McDaniels, ultimately deserved a head coaching position, and since that big promotion, Payton has succeeded in New Orleans, where he joined quarterback Drew Brees, helping him become one of the most prolific passers in league history.
But when Payton became head coach of the Saints, he inherited a ton of talent. So much talent, in fact, that the team headed to the playoffs as a wild card team with a 10-6 record in his first season at the helm.
One of those games, you guessed it, was against the Dallas Cowboys.
However, this was no close game. This was no overtime, crazy finish kind of game that Payton and the Saints just barely squeaked away with a win.
This was as well coached game as you could imagine in the NFL, the Saints poured on the points and came away with the victory. A 42-17 kind of win. In Jerry World nonetheless.
Julius Jones got the Cowboys out in front early in the first quarter, but the Brees and the Saints continued to score, leading at halftime, 21-7.
A well coached Payton team helped the defense contain Romo as well as you could've dreamed of, holding Romo to 16-of-33 passing, with 249 yards, a TD, and two interceptions.
Another prime example of the offensive coordinator knowing their former quarterback and sticking to the plan to a T. Payton sticked to what he knew best, and that was his offense. Of course, I would be foolish to not mention that Tony Romo's first season what that year, and Payton worked more with Drew Bledsoe in his tenure, but from Payton's start with the franchise in 2003, Romo came into the organization in the same year. Romo worked hand-in-hand with Payton in his first couple seasons, hence the knowledge of Romo that Payton possessed.
Heading into Sunday, whenever the Eagles have the privilege to play against their old head coach, it amps up the meaning of the game for me.
For a lot of Eagles fans, Andy Reid doesn't mean a whole lot to people. But what about those NFC Championship appearances, and the nine seasons of winning out of 14? Doesn't that count for something?
Before Andy Reid became the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, he had a chance to be part of the Green Bay Packers' coaching staff under Mike Holmgren.
From 1992 to 1998, Reid served the Packers under a multitude of positions. First as an offensive assistant, then as an offensive line coach, and finally the QB coach and assistant head coach from 1997 to 1998.
After an 11-5 season with Green Bay in 1998, Holmgren found himself out of a job, Reggie White retired, and Reid made his way to the east coast to be the head coach of one of the most storied football teams in history.
Just a side note, Reid's backup QB for the Packers in the 1998 season? Yeah, Dougie P.
When Reid took over as Eagles head coach in 1999, like Pederson will do on Sunday, he didn't play against his former team in his first season.
However, in the 2000 season, Reid got a chance to play his old team, and matchup with his former QB in Week 3.
Unlike McDaniels and Payton's examples explained above, this game didn't turn out in Reid's favor, as the Packers ended up winning the game.
But the point here is this: The Eagles actually played the Packers tougher than most teams played against them back then.
The Birds ended up losing 6-3. 6-3. That's all it took.
Huh.
This was a complete defensive game in which there were only nine total points between the two teams, and three field goals.
While the Eagles weren't able to eek out the win, and yes, Reid didn't do a whole lot with offensive efficiency, this was another prime example of a former QB coach/OC that completely game planned against their old quarterback and took them out of the game.
What did Hall-of-Famer Brett Favre do in that game? At Lambeau? Nothing. 189 yards and three interceptions actually.
Not a very hall-of-fame like performance that day.
I honestly don't think that any of this factual information is a fluke, I actually think that the information presented is very telling in the trend that happens when former coaches who work very close to a QB on another team become a head coach and have to play against them in a future game.
Josh McDaniels? Overtime win vs. the Patriots, and success against Tom Brady.
Sean Payton? Completely blew out the Cowboys, and halted the streaky Tony Romo from claiming a victory.
Andy Reid? Coached a game to perfection, only allowing two field goals and forcing Brett Favre to throw three interceptions against an up-and-coming Eagles team.
I find that all of these instances are not coincidental, in fact, they show that it really does pay off to have insider knowledge on a particular team when you have to prepare to face them in a regular season game scenario.
Doug Pederson heads into Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday with more than a pocketful of knowledge on what to expect when he faces the Chiefs for the first time since his departure.
Knowing Andy Reid personally, from his playing days, to his Eagles coaching days, and to his offensive coordinator days is obviously the thing that will help him the most when figuring out how to stop the team that knocked off the defending World Champions last Thursday.
Again,without Ronald Darby, stopping Tyreek Hill will be difficult, but not impossible. Jim Schwartz is this team's defensive coordinator, but the knowledge Pederson has of Alex Smith is worth more than most people think.
Pederson has the chance to continue the trend, to continue this path of history.
While the chances of winning this game looks very bleak for the Eagles, Doug Pederson does have one thing going for him.
He does have history on his side.
