By Patrick Del Gaone, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
With the Philadelphia Eagles in the midst of four road games in five weeks, head coach Doug Pederson highlighted his four keys to emerging victorious on the road this morning.
“No. 1 you’ve got to stay healthy,” Pederson said. “No. 2 you’ve gotta protect the football, and I think No. 3 you’ve gotta handle the crowd noise, and I guess No. 4 is these are divisional games, and you’ve got to handle them one at a time. We’re focused on this one, let’s try to get this one first, and then we move on. But obviously in the back of your mind, you do know you’ve got a nice little stretch coming up.”
Philadelphia will look to bounce back from last Sunday’s heartbreaking 24-23 loss when they travel to the nation’s capital this weekend, a place where they haven’t won since 2013. The Redskins swept the Eagles last season, including a decisive victory in a week 16 winner-take-all game at the Linc for the NFC East crown.
Jordan Reed is considered a game-time decision after suffering his sixth concussion in the last five years, including two concussions in a three week span during 2013. With conventional wisdom pointing toward the star tight end being sidelined, Pederson was asked whether or not game-time decisions affect how his staff prepares for an opponent.
“It doesn’t,” Pederson said. “We have guys that may or may not go, and you just have to prepare for everybody. Our mentality is just that, and our focus is to get our guys ready to go for Sunday.”
Reed hauled in nine catches for 129 yards and two touchdowns in Washington’s 38-24 win the last time these teams squared off.
With Leodis McKelvin (hamstring) returning to practice today, Philadelphia expects to have all hands on deck for Sunday’s divisional bout. But considering how the injury has lingered for over a month, Pederson was asked if they’ve thought about holding the team’s top cornerback out until he’s fully healthy.
“We’ve gotta try to get a hold of it, kinda get on top of it,” Pederson said. “Hamstrings can be different for everybody. The good thing is he’s feeling good right now, therefore, [we’ll] give him an opportunity to play today.”
“Well obviously that is the benefit, to rest him [until he’s 100 percent]. That’s why we wanna try it today in practice and see where he’s at. If he can go and contribute, [it would] definitely help us on defense. If he can’t, then we’ll go as what we’ve done in the past and get him ready to go next week.”
You can watch the full press conference from Pederson below.
