Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Pederson right to sit Wentz
PHILADELPHIA >> It’s tough to fault the Eagles’ for keeping Carson Wentz and the starters out of the preseason opener Thursday night against the first-string Tennessee Titans. Especially Wentz. In the final 17 seconds of the first half, in less than time it took referee Alex Kemp to growl “roughing the passer” not once but twice, backup quarterbacks Nate Sudfeld and Cody Kessler were hurt.
Sudfeld exited the 27-10 loss after jarring his left hand getting sandwiched during a sack. The left arm was in an air cast.
Kessler injured his right hand following through on a throw after linebacker Nigel Harris launched himself into the quarterback, yet Kessler played into the second half.
Even if Sudfeld misses six-to-eight weeks with a broken wrist, which was the early buzz, the Eagles need another quarterback.
Kessler isn’t the biggest guy. Rookie Clayton Thorson is struggling to learn the nuances of the position.
But, yes, that could have been Wentz with an air cast on his non-throwing arm, or maybe worse going into Week 2 of the worthless preseason.
Franchise quarterbacks and the preseason don’t mix unless you don’t care, which is kind of why the New York Giants rolled with 38-yearold relic Eli Manning Thursday night in their game against the New York Jets. It also explains why Joe Flacco got the nod for the Denver Broncos while the Seattle Seahawks made Russell Wilson watch.
Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers, Deshaun Watson, Cam Newton and Mitchell Trubisky didn’t play in their preseason games Thursday. The Cleveland Browns didn’t even play Baker Mayfield, either, for crying out loud.
The gold standard at quarterback, Tom Brady, gave way to Brian Hoyer.
The risk of injury far outweighs the reward of playing your franchise quarterback, which is what the Dallas Cowboys discovered in 2016 when Tony Romo’s career ended, for all practical purposes, in the preseason. Dak Prescott, who took Romo’s job away, almost certainly won’t play in the Cowboys’ preseason game this weekend.
Sam Bradford, remember him, tore an ACL in a 2014 preseason game with the St. Louis Rams. Eagles fans remember how often he was hurt in his fairly brief stint with the club.
And it wasn’t the preseason, but very late in training camp when a promising young quarterback by the name of Teddy Bridgewater sustained a hideous knee injury that changed his life forever.
We all know teams do very little, if any gameplanning for preseason games. Hence the terminology, vanilla. The offense runs about 10 plays over and over and the defense is basic save for a few blitzes.
Exposing Wentz with a limited package of plays to a defense of starters who know they’ve only got a series or two to make an impression is a recipe for disaster, at least in this day and age.
None of the Eagles starters played with the exceptions of running back Jordan Howard and defensive tackle Malik Jackson. And that was a good thing considering how the Lions lost wide receiver Jermaine Kearse to what could be a season-ending leg injury. Backup quarterback Tom Savage, the Cardinal O’Hara product, sustained a possible concussion, as well.
Sudfeld did a decent job working with what he had against the Titans. After a three-and-out with two incompletions, he connected with tight end Dallas Goedert for a 24-yard gain.
Sudfeld later led the Eagles to a field goal in the first quarter and in the next frame fired a 75-yard scoring pass to Marken Michel, a first-year player out of Massachusetts, for a 10-6 lead.
Meanwhile for the Titans, Marcus Mariota gave way to veteran Ryan Tannehill, who threw two TD passes and converted a two-point try with another throw, giving the Titans a 14-10 advantage at the intermission. Ultimately the Eagles You could capsulize the first half, which was supposed to be the most meaningful football of the night for the Eagles, with the first drive in which they crossed the 50-yard line.
On second-and-10 at the 29 of the Titans, Sudfeld had to use his athleticism to field Stefen Wisniewski’s snap, and promptly underthrew journeyman receiver Charles Johnson.
Bad snap, bad throw, bad play.
On third down right tackle Jordan Mailata gave up sack on a jailbreak of a blitz. On fourth down, Jake Elliott drilled a 53-yard field goal.
And with that field goal, the Eagles ended a couple of innocuous streaks, according to @ BoopStats.
It was the first time they scored in the first quarter of six straight preseason games, and the first time they shutout the opposition in seven consecutive preseason affairs.
Sudfeld threw for 177 yards and a 107.9 passer rating. For who? For what? For a backup quarterback, which is a pretty important position on a club where the franchise guy hasn’t been able to finish the past two seasons.
File that in your analytics folders.