Wentz starts slip-sliding in just the right way

PHILADELPHIA » The Eagles’ recent past, present and future bolted out of the pocket and around the right side Sunday.

A Colts defender angling toward him, quarterback Carson Wentz performed a textbook maneuver that teammates three days later were thanking him for. It was a sit-down slide right before the boundary. So what if it was five yards short of the first down? There were six minutes and change left in the first half of a tie game. Not the time to be a hero in your first game in nine months after knee surgery.

“That was the best thing he did all game,” veteran Malcolm Jenkins said Tuesday. “I mean, he’s a competitor, and we’re not going to take that away from him. But I think he does understand how much the team is relying on him to be available. Some hits are avoidable. It’s not just for him, it’s for the team, for the betterment of the team. But I think at some point he knows, as a competitor, if he needs the first down he’s going to do what he has to do to get it. We’re not going to take that away from him.”

The slide was a warmup for Wentz’s next move, also duly noted by teammates going through the game film. That would be the head-first slide out of bounds in front of the Eagles’ bench on thirdand-six. No defenders were close enough to do damage. A chunk of the Lincoln Financial Field crowd stood to salute his courage, and the first down. So what if it was one of those days when the next play was a sack?

“Those were the two plays I loved to see out of him,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “The dive was perfect. The slide was perfect. I don’t want to see him taking any shots. I thought the way he ran was great. He didn’t put himself in harm’s way and he didn’t put the team in harms way. I was proud of the way he handled himself. He knows that the team is riding with him. As he goes, we go a lot of the times. When he’s on the field we’re extremely difficult to defend.”

Wentz wasn’t completely himself in his 2018 debut. He forced a ball to Ertz that was intercepted. He had the ball slapped away, the Colts recovering while he stepped up in the pocket to throw. The mistakes led to a couple of Colts field goals.

There also were five fairly disruptive sacks. The Eagles were just 4 of 11 on third down until their final scoring drive, Wentz marching them 75 yards in 11 minutes, 18 seconds to set up a fouryard scoring run by Wendell Smallwood.

“There’s things all the time to clean up,” Wentz said. “Obviously the couple turnovers, especially when you’re in your own red zone coming out. It puts the defense in a tough position. I thought one of the most encouraging things was starting fast. That’s something that I always preach around here, coming out, the no-huddle, the kind of turbo tempo that we had, going down and scoring. I think that was really encouraging.”

For whatever reason, Wentz didn’t mention the slide, the dive and the measures he took to protect himself. Those actions were proof he’s serious about fighting his instincts to be there for his team. Proof that he’s changed, if ever so slightly. Proof that’s he’s practiced the protective measures. It’s not easy for a 6-foot-5, 245-pound guy to look comfortable sitting down.

This weekend Wentz takes on Marcus Mariota, who is dealing with a tingling feeling in his fingers aggravated by a nerve issue in his throwing elbow. An exciting runner in college, Mariota has mastered the slide, although like Wentz, he can get overloaded with testosterone and turn upfield.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel played with Tom Brady, arguably the GOAT as a slider. Long-ago linebacker Vrabel suspects the art of sliding is a combination of instinct and skill.

“These guys just have a sense of when things are getting dirty and where they need to be,” Vrabel said on a conference call Wednesday. “Marcus scrambled a few times for a first down last week. He was always able to get to that yardage marker and also get down. That’s what some of these guys do, they have the ability to scramble and then feel when things are getting cloudy and when they should kind of get down or get out of bounds.

“It’s certainly a skill. It’s probably just an instinctive skill that these guys have.”

Skill, instinct or whatever it is, Wentz’s teammates appreciate it. The season is a marathon. That’s a lot of time to be without your heart and soul.

“A lot of quarterbacks come back in that situation and you know, you can tell that they’re a little nervous or tentative about their leg or whatever,” Jenkins said. “He’s out there competing. And I think that injects excitement into the team, into the crowd and obviously makes us better.”