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Commentary: Wentz's poor play may have cost the Eagles their season
Written By:
Marcus Hayes / Philadelphia Daily News |
Nov 18th 2019 - 2pm.
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Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz (11) tosses
the ball in front of New England's Dont'a Hightower (54) after being
sacked during Sunday's NFL game at Lincoln Financial Field in
Philadelphia. Bill Streicher / USA TODAY Sports
Philadelphia
Head coach Doug Pederson says the Philadelphia Eagles can’t ask Carson Wentz to do it all.
Blink. Blink.
What?
The
Eagles didn’t pay Carson Wentz $128 million to be one of the guys. They
paid him $128 million to do it all, if necessary. Last winter they
chose Wentz over the most beloved athlete in the city’s history because
they believed Wentz would take them back to where Nick Foles carried
them the past two seasons: the playoffs, and to wins beyond.
That door closed Sunday. It slammed
shut when Dallas won and Minnesota won and the Eagles lost; when Nelson
Agholor’s contorted catch attempt at the back of the end zone failed, to
no one’s surprise, and cemented a 17-10 loss to a vastly overrated,
one-loss New England Patriots team.
Now
5-5, the Eagles and Carson Wentz know a thing or two about being
overrated. They were supposed to win the NFC East. Wentz, fleet of foot
and strong of arm and sound of mind and body, was supposed to make Foles
and the Philly Special look like the unsustainable gimmickry they are.
Neither of those things will happen. Not after Wentz’s regression to — to what? His junior season at North Dakota State?
“There
were opportunities to make some plays,” Pederson admitted Monday of
Wentz. Yes. Lots of opportunities, for the most significant player in
the history of the franchise.
He just failed.
In a referendum game, when his depleted team and his dominant defense needed him to be his best, he was nothing close.
The
Eagles simply cannot win without Wentz becoming the superstar he seemed
destined to be in 2016 and 2017. Not with the offense muted by injuries
to Alshon Jeffery, Jordan Howard, and Lane Johnson, whose ankle,
shoulder, and head cost them part or all of Sunday’s loss, with no
guarantee they’ll be fit in a week. Certainly, not with the Seahawks
landing next Sunday, coming off a bye and, at 8-2, headed to the
postseason.
Six games remain, but,
honestly, they feel irrelevant. The defense played better, sure, but it
still doesn’t force turnovers, and that’s the mark of dynamic defenses —
playmakers. Somebody has to make plays, somewhere, to win games.
If you employ a $128 million man, he has to make plays, no matter what the coach says.
“He
doesn’t have to feel like he has to make all the plays,” Pederson said
Monday. “Let the offense work and let the guys around you make the
plays.”
What guys? Boston Scott, the practice-squad
running back? Jordan Matthews, the three-tread receiver just signed off
the street? Halapoulavaati bleepin’ Vaitai? There’s a reason the Eagles
used their first-round draft choice this year to groom Andre Dillard
after watching Vaitai start 20 games since 2016 — the same Vaitai who
was shunted to guard and tackle in training camp. Scott replaced Howard.
Matthews replaced Jeffery. Vaitai replaced Johnson.
They scored 10 points.
At home.
Still,
it could have been more. It could have been enough to win, and to keep
the season alive, and to make the cold days of fall and early winter
warmer with excitement.
Carson Wentz could have made it so. He did not.
To be precise here: He didn’t lose the game. Not exactly. He just didn’t win it.
For $128 million, you win it.
So
exquisitely insufficiently did Wentz perform that the performance
merits more than a perfunctory panning. It demands specificity.
Wentz
overthrew running back Miles Sanders, his most dangerous ally, on the
first series. He airmailed MIA receiver Mack Hollins on the second
series. He threw behind tight end Zach Ertz on the third series, which
Ertz caught, then threw low to Agholor, then had to burn a timeout after
a 21-yard gain.
He didn’t recognize
the blitz that sacked him in the middle of the second quarter. He held
the ball and tried to escape on the next series, was sacked, and fumbled
the ball away. He took another sack just before halftime for the same
reason — he tried to channel Randall Cunningham’s talent with Rodney
Peete’s legs. A bad snap got past him on the next play, and again,
instead of throwing the ball away — or simply flinging it deep, an
effective punt — he took the sack, which is another hit, which are what
turns 15-year careers into 8-year careers.
He nearly threw in an interception at the end of the second quarter, which Agholor, of all people, saved by winning that battle.
In
the second half, after the Patriots took that 17-10 lead on their first
possession, Wentz squeezed harder and harder. He threw low to Jordan
Matthews, then, later, high. In the middle of the third quarter he
didn’t lead Ertz enough on a 1-yard completion that could have netted 5 —
normally, no big deal, but at first-and-10 from your own 19, every inch
matters.
He spiked a ball at Sanders’ feet to end their third possession of the third quarter.
A
deflected pass intended for Agholor wasn’t thrown to the proper spot;
it would have cost Agholor a step to catch it, and that would have
limited a 25-yard chunk to a 10-yard gain.
And
then, in his Russell Wilson moment — late in the game, down by one
score, destiny at the doorstep while the G.O.A.T. looks on — he
channeled Wade Wilson. High to Ertz. Low to Ertz. He refused to check
down to Sanders for, what, the sixth time? The seventh?
“We all felt like there was a little bit of pressing going on,” Pederson said.
Pressing? Or choking?
Toe-may-toe, Toe-mah-toe?
The
locker room Sunday night held a battalion of tight-lipped, bitter men
who well knew that, if their leader had produced better, they would have
upset Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. They’d have done so with an even
better team on deck.
Pederson knew it,
too. He’s got four winnable games after next weekend, but even they are
winnable only if Wentz realizes the potential of his talents.
You know.
The way Nick Foles did.
Pederson just doesn’t know if that will ever happen for Wentz. And, so, he was terse after the game, and abrupt at Monday noon.
That mood won’t change 'till spring.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz
completed 20 of 40 passes for 214 yards in last week's 17-10 loss to New
England. Eric Hartline / USA TODAY Sports
PHILADELPHIA — As
many people who have held the position will attest, Philadelphia can be a
very difficult place to be the town quarterback.
That realization was in the forefront of Andy
Reid’s mind before the 1999 draft, when he was trying to decide among
Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith, and Daunte Culpepper.
And
it was in the forefront of Howie Roseman’s and Doug Pederson’s minds
three years ago, when they used the second pick in the 2016 draft on
Carson Wentz of North Dakota State.
“When
we sat down with him, we asked him, ‘Do you feel any pressure coming to
a big city like Philadelphia?’’’ Roseman said two years ago. “And his
answer was, ‘I play in front of a sold-out crowd every week. I played in
(FCS) national championship games. What’s the difference going to be?’
’’
Needless to say, it didn’t take
Wentz long to find out the difference. The NFL isn’t the FCS, and Philly
definitely ain’t Fargo, North Dakota.
Especially when you lose.
He
was reminded of that again Sunday, after his poor performance in the
Eagles’ 17-10 loss to the Patriots. Wentz completed just 20 of 40 passes
for 214 yards, had a costly fumble, and was sacked five times in a game
that the Eagles squandered away.
Wentz,
who just two years ago was the league’s top MVP candidate before
tearing his ACL, is 18th in the league in passing (91.4), 31st in yards
per attempt (6.6), and 27th in completion percentage (61.2) on an
underperforming 5-5 team.
Earlier this
week, head coach Doug Pederson suggested that, for whatever reason,
Wentz might be pressing a little bit and trying to do too much.
“He doesn’t have to feel like he has to make all the plays,’’ Pederson said.
Wentz pretty much agreed with that assessment on Wednesday.
“I
need to try not to do too much,’’ he said. “Just stay ahead of the
chains. Be efficient on first and second downs and trust the guys around
me. I feel like I’ve done that well at times. Sometimes, though, you
get greedy and try to make plays and force the ball.’’
After
playing 16 games as a rookie in 2016, Wentz had his last two seasons
cut short by injuries — the torn ACL in 2017 and a broken bone in his
back last year.
In both years, backup
Nick Foles came riding to the rescue. He led the Eagles to their first
Super Bowl title in ’17 and was at the offensive controls last year, as
they won their final three regular-season games to make the playoffs,
then came within 27 yards of making it to the NFC Championship Game.
Foles signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in March. But in many ways, what he accomplished here still is haunting Wentz.
“He’s going to carry around the fact that he
wasn’t the starting quarterback in that Super Bowl run until he makes
his own Super Bowl run,’’ said Fox Sports analyst Charles Davis, who,
with partner Kevin Burkhardt, will call Sunday’s Eagles-Seahawks game.
“To
me, that’s part of the pressing. He wants to prove that he’s that guy,"
Davis said. "It’s always going to linger there. Because you have all of
these people saying, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s great. But Foles won the Super
Bowl.’ I don’t care who you are. Being human, that’s going to affect
you.
“This is a kid who cares. This is
a kid who wants to be great. But he’s dealing with a lot of stuff. To
me, it’s like the baseball player that wants to hit the five-run homer.
You can’t do it. It’s just not possible. You’ve got to hit the ones in
front of you, though. And he missed a few of those on Sunday.’’
Wentz
is a mentally strong individual. But two major injuries in two years is
a lot to deal with. So is watching from the sideline as someone else
leads your team to the Super Bowl.
"I’m
no psychologist and don’t pretend to be one,'' Davis said. "But if you
just lay it all out and you go back to that time, the guy was going to
be the league MVP. He gets hurt. The other guy
comes in. It doesn’t look great in the beginning, but they right the ship, and they win the Super Bowl, and Nick is the MVP.
"You’re
happy for your team, but you’re eating your heart out because it wasn’t
you. You come back the next year. You work, you fight, you scratch, you
claw. You take your job back. And then you get hurt again. And here
comes that same backup, and they have a great run in the playoffs with a
team that had to struggle to get there.''
This
was supposed to be the season that changed things. This was supposed to
be the year that Wentz played the role of the hero. Still could happen.
But the odds are against it.
The
Eagles opened this season with one idea of how their offense was going
to work. Then DeSean Jackson got hurt. Then Alshon Jeffery got hurt.
Then Nelson Agholor started playing like it was 2015 again. So much for
explosiveness and lighting up the scoreboard.
Now,
the Eagles have morphed into a slow-moving tight end-centric offense
that wants to ground and pound and control the football and win 21-10.
Except they didn’t have their best grounder and pounder, Jordan Howard,
last week (stinger), and they lost Pro Bowl right tackle Lane Johnson in
the second quarter, and the Patriots took away tight end Zach Ertz on
third down, and Wentz pressed, and the Eagles scored one touchdown. And
they needed a replay reversal to get that one.
Wentz
has thrown just two interceptions in the last eight games and has the
league’s seventh best interception percentage. That’s good, but not
throwing a lot of interceptions isn’t why the Eagles made him one of the
league’s highest-paid quarterbacks.
In
2017, before he shredded his knee, he threw a league-high 33 touchdown
passes. Averaged one every 13.3 attempts. Through 10 games this season
he has just 16. He’s 17th in touchdown percentage (1 per 21.8 attempts).
“I
think he’s played well for the most part,’’ Davis said. “But if it’s
not translating into a lot of victories you’re not going to get credit
for it. And then a game like New England, which is there for the taking,
they don’t get it done.’’
“We have a
lot of trust, a lot of confidence, that we can get it done,’’ Wentz said
Wednesday. “We’ve got six games left. Hopefully, we can go on a run. I
have confidence that guys are going to learn from their mistakes and
grow.’’
The injuries are taking a toll and they don't have a lot of weapons making plays. Kudos on getting that contract though.
Injuries and no DeSean are really killing him.
No Frank Reich is what's wrong. Kinda like Kirk is a whole lot better under Stef than he was under Flip.
Bortles, Manziel, Mariota, Winston, Goff, Wentz, Lynch, Trubisky...it's clear the NFL still has no idea what it's doing.
Quote: @MaroonBells said:
Bortles, Manziel, Mariota, Winston, Goff, Wentz, Lynch, Trubisky...it's clear the NFL still has no idea what it's doing.
Other than Brady, Brees, and Rodgers, are there any other QBs with a long track record of consistent good play?
It had to be really hard for Wentz to watch Foles win that Super Bowl.
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