PHILADELPHIA – Remember that time earlier in the season when former NFL general manager Mike Lombardi called Eagles coach Doug Pederson the least qualified coach he had ever seen?

Yeah, that was funny.

Pederson won't come across as polished, or particularly funny, or, well, involved on defense, during his press conferences.

Yet Pederson is proving that he's the perfect coach for this team in so many ways, and that's especially true with his play calling on offense, which is approaching brilliance.

That was evident all throughout the Eagles' 51-23 dismantling of the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

A disclaimer: Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz runs the defense, but give Pederson credit for allowing him to.

On offense, it was like Pederson was in the Broncos' defensive huddle and knew all of their signals. And that's not me talking; that's Broncos cornerback Chris Harris.

"They knew everything we were going to do today," Harris said.

On the Eagles' first touchdown, Carson Wentz faked a handoff to Jay Ajayi, knowing that would freeze Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib for a moment. In that split-second, Alshon Jeffery took off downfield.

Wentz rolled to his right and lofted a pass over Talib and into the arms of Jeffery, who sauntered into the end zone on his 32-yard TD.

"It's been in our playbook," Pederson said. "Just kind of dusted it off and worked on it all week, and executed it to perfection."

Another such play happened in the third quarter, when Wentz lined up in the pistol formation, then started running to his right before pitching the ball to running back Corey Clement, who scored from the 2 yard line.

"Take advantage of their defensive ends and those outside LBs," Pederson said. "Actually, we kind of got the idea from Kansas City on Monday night [in the Chiefs' win over the Broncos]. They did the same thing. Carson's very athletic to do it. Corey did a great job."

EAGLES: Jay Ajayi provides 3-headed monster RB attack

EAGLES: Wentz nears team records; Ajayi scores in debut

Another disclaimer: Yes, Wentz is having a magical season, with 23 touchdown passes against just 5 interceptions. He has a quarterback rating of 104.0 for the season. He's obviously a franchise quarterback and the midseason favorite to win the MVP award this season.

But a disclaimer to that disclaimer: Pederson, as a 10-year backup quarterback in the NFL, along with offensive coordinator Frank Reich, a 14-year NFL backup quarterback and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, were hired to develop a franchise quarterback.

Shouldn't Pederson get credit for that?

Wentz was asked if Pederson's play-calling keeps defenses off balance.

"You nailed it," he said. "He keeps them off balance. With the nakeds [bootleg runs and passes] that we do — the sprint-outs, the drop-backs, the quick game — we have a bunch of different running sets ... We just mix it up so well."

And here is another of Pederson's strengths: his ability to relate to the players.

Consider that the Eagles are 8-1, yet they have not had a wide receiver get 100 yards or more in a game. They have had only one game where a running back has rushed for 100 yards or more.

This is from a team that came into the game ranked sixth in total offense, at 372 yards per game.

Wentz called it "spreading the love."

The Eagles racked up 419 yards of total offense against the NFL's stingiest defense. They ran for 197 yards against the No. 2 rushing defense in the NFL. Yet Jeffery was the leading receiver with 84 yards and Ajayi was the leading rusher with 77 yards.

You won't hear Jeffery, or anyone, complain about that. And Jeffery can be a free agent at the end of the season. Yet he's not on pace for 1,000 receiving yards.

"Hey, we’ll take the Super Bowl today if that’s what it takes to get to the Super Bowl," Jeffery said. "No matter who’s out there, we all believe in one another."

Defensive end Chris Long, who played for the Super Bowl champion Patriots last season, has watched this attitude develop all season.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "Nobody is selfish. That's the cool thing. We have so many mouths to feed, but nobody is worried about who eats. It's all about the result at the end of the day. We have that on the defensive line as well ... We're all about each other."

Four running backs carried the ball on Sunday, and all had at least five carries. That included Ajayi, who had a 46-yard touchdown run, his fifth carry as an Eagle. He had 138 carries in seven games in Miami, and didn't score a single TD.

Yet running back LeGarrette Blount, who's likely to lose carries to Ajayi, couldn't have been happier for his new teammate.

"I'm excited to have him because I've been a fan of his all the way back to last year," Blount said.

Then he continued: "Our offensive line played lights out. On Jay's run, he didn't even get touched. On Corey [Clement's 15-yard] screen, I don't think he got touched by one person ... You can count a lot of plays where our offensive line did extremely well blocking those guys."

That's part of being a coach, too — making sure everyone is happy.

A final disclaimer: Forget about being unqualified, Pederson is well on his way to being the NFL's coach of the year.

Wing tips

*The Eagles are heading into their off week relatively healthy. Pederson said CB Ronald Darby, out since the season opener with a dislocated ankle injury, was an "almost full" participant in practice last week. "He's in a really good spot to possibly come back and help us in the next week or so," Pederson added. The Eagles return to face the Cowboys in Dallas on Nov. 19.

*Pederson expects TE Zach Ertz (hamstring), who sat out the game Sunday, to return against the Cowboys. He said DT Tim Jernigan (ankle) who left the game Sunday, should also be ready to play against the Cowboys.

*WR Mack Hollins played 30 snaps, one fewer than Torrey Smith. Both had one reception. Among the running backs, Corey Clement, the rookie undrafted free agent, had the most snaps with 28 (41 percent), followed by Jay Ajayi with 17 snaps (25 percent) and LeGarrette Blount at 16 (23 percent).

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.