Pederson positive despite loss of Wentz

PHILADELPHIA » Darren Sproles went one way and his ACL went another, and there were the Eagles, without their most accomplished running back for the rest of the season.

They would survive.

Jason Peters tore his knee in one spot, and then in another one too, rolling onto the injured list, gone for the year. And there were the Eagles, without their Hall of Fame-bound blind-side-protecting tackle. They would survive. Jordan Hicks thought he could make a play. His Achilles’ tendon thought otherwise. And by that night the Eagles would be without their best linebacker. They would survive. “Next man up,” Doug Pederson kept saying.

And that’s what happened. The next man and the next man and the next man would surface and play with professionalism and passion.

Nothing would matter to the Eagles of 2017, not the loss of their best special teams player, Chris Maragos, or their opening day kicker, Caleb Sturgis, or Zach Ertz, who will be in the Pro Bowl, to a concussion. Nope, not this year. Not them. They were deep and prepared and ready, it seemed, to lateral that Vince Lombardi Trophy to Jeffrey Lurie at last. That’s because they’d seen, and they’d felt, and they knew, and their record was continuing to prove that they had something special. That was him wearing No. 11.

They never said it, nor will they. But they were aware that the reason they’d soared to the top of the Las Vegas Super Bowl board, at least on the NFC side, was that Carson Wentz was having a championship-level year. But then came Sunday, in an ancient Coliseum 3,000 miles away. That’s when Wentz joined Peters and Sproles and Hicks and Maragos on the gone-for-the-season scroll, hobbling into the locker room on a damaged right knee.

“Torn ACL,” Pederson would report Monday.

The Eagles? No, they won’t survive. Not this time.

As NFC East champions, the Birds will be enjoy favorable seeding in the playoffs. And with Pederson’s refusal to project panic, they may be stable for a while. But the loss of Wentz downgrades them to ordinary. And ordinary doesn’t make it in January, when only the great quarterbacks typically are still involved and when only the great coaches are at the white board.

The Eagles will do what they can with Nick Foles, a good quarterback, prepared and willing. Since the instant Wentz said “ouch” Sunday, they have been reciting the predictable script. They signed Foles, who has been to a Pro Bowl, for a reason. They gave him $11,000,000 over two seasons to be ready when needed. They committed to him because he would be a reasonable alternative should catastrophe strike Wentz.

It is necessary to have a capable backup quarterback in the NFL, where the next injury is always just a hut-one-hut-two-hut-three away. Since so many quarterbacks miss games, the sensible teams stash a pricey understudy in the bullpen. The idea, though, is for the backup to be a strong in-season bridge, to keep a team from collapse should the No. 1 quarterback need to miss a few games. It is not designed as a cover-all, postseason insurance policy.

“Understand this: He’s a veteran player who has played and won a lot of games, not only here, but other places that he’s been,” Pederson said. “Nick is a highly intelligent football player. This is a veteran player we’re talking about.”

Foles could take the 11-2 head start and shine for three regular-season games and have some postseason success. But without Wentz, it soon will be time to pay for the loss of Peters and Hicks and the others. With his ability to remain in the pocket and make spectacular passes, and with his mobility, and with his leadership and preparedness and on-field presence, Wentz was able to make the Eagles believe in the nextman-up philosophy. In a magic act the level of which had been missing at the NewsControl Compound since Jon Dorenbos was traded, he even was able to make it seem like the Birds were just as capable with Halapoulivaati Vaitai as they were with Peters.

By Monday, Pederson was into pep-rally mode, insisting that his team could overcome the loss of the NFL’s best player.

“It sure can,” he said. “Heck, yeah. We overcame a Pro Bow left tackle. We overcame our middle linebacker. We’ve overcome our running back. We’ve overcome a core special teams player this year, and our kicker. This is no different. Yeah, he is the quarterback of our football team. Each one of these guys that I mentioned is tough to replace.”

No different? If it was no different, the Eagles shouldn’t have traded all those draft choices for his draft rights.

No, it’s different. It’s possible to beat the NFL game for a while. With Wentz, the Eagles were able to do that into mid-December, ignoring one key injury, then another, then another, then even more. But one injury too many will magnify them all. And the 2017 Eagles have had one injury too many for their championship hopes to survive.