Pederson quiet about Wentz report

PHILADELPHIA » Doug Pederson quickly seemed to have one foot out the door at his day-after news conference Friday.

The Thursday night season-opening 18-12 victory over the Atlanta Falcons created a three-day mini-bye for coaches and players before digging in for their Week 2 opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Clad in a golf shirt, Pederson didn’t add much new spin to the remarks he’d made just a few hours previously when the game ended well past midnight.

That includes the NFL Network report saying Wentz would be out for several weeks. The coach has said all along he feels Wentz is close to returning to action. Immediately after the opener, Pederson said he’s aware of the reports about Wentz and receiver Alshon Jeffery, who could miss another game, and that he would “investigate it a little bit more.” The investigation must be ongoing.

“Obviously with Carson and Alshon and the guys that are there, I’m not going to get into a ton of that right now,” Pederson said. “And that’s something that we’ll discuss and keep talking when the players get in here next week.”

The good news on the injury front is that 36-year-old left tackle Jason Peters exited late Thursday night due to fatigue, not injury. The same was said about center Jason Kelce, who exited before the end of the first half.

“He’s fine, he had a lower body in the game and he was evaluated at halftime,” Pederson said. “I wasn’t quite sure if he was going to start the second half but he came to me and he said he was good to go and ended up playing and playing well. But he’ll be fine.”

••• It wasn’t you. It was referee John Hussey and his crew.

There were a ton of flags thrown in the season opener.

The Eagles were penalized 11 times for 101 yards. The Falcons were slammed with 15 penalties for 135 yards.

According to research by longtime football writer Rick Gosselin, only one of 256 games in the NFL last season had 24 or more penalties. That was the Tampa Bay-Miami game in Week 11 when Tony Corrente’s crew called 26 penalties for 205 yards.

The 2018 season opener between Atlanta and Philadelphia featured 26 penalties for 236 yards. Pederson only had issues with a couple of the stranger ones.

“The penalties were warranted,” Pederson said. “I think the one that was a little crazy was the punt that we had – there was some confusion on the jersey number and the actual holding call, and it’s a play we’ll send in and get a ruling on it. But the actual play call should have been on the Falcons, and it was on us. But the other ones were warranted.

Our guys are not coached that way. The holding call on (Jason) Kelce, the pre-snap lining up offsides by Derek (Barnett), those are things we can continue to fix. Even the special teams penalties we can coach and teach off of that and get our players in better position to not make those down the road.”

••• The Eagles are 16-3 at the Linc since the 2016 season, including the playoffs. It’s the best home winning percentage (.842) in the NFL in that span.

They are 12-1 in their last 13 home games, the only loss coming when they rested starters in the regular season finale last year.

••• Eagles veteran Darren Sproles collected 61 all-purpose yards Thursday to pass Steve Smith Sr. and move into sixth place on the all-time NFL list with 19,216 career all-purpose yards.

Jerry Rice (23,546 yards) is the all-time leader, with Brian Mitchell (23,330), Walter Payton (21,803), Emmitt Smith (21,564) and Tim Brown (19,682) trailing.

Sproles also passed Marshall Faulk (19,190), who is seventh on the all-time list.

••• Eagles rookie Cameron Johnston averaged 52.2 gross punting yards with a 47.0 net average n his debut.

Johnston had four punts of 50 or more yards, including a 65-yarder in the first quarter that went for a touchback.