Wentz’s poise, maturity on display in rout
PHILADELPHIA >> Count Doug Pederson among the many who only dreamed the Eagles would hit the bye with a perfect record, much less be one of just two NFC teams to ace their first three games.
It’s real, and if you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s terrible to be humbled, 34-3, in front of a national audience by a team led by a rookie head coach with a rookie quarterback making just his third start.
“Am I surprised?” Pederson said after the dust settled Sunday. “A little. But at the same time I know that locker room, I know those guys and I know what they’re building.”
Pederson also knows how important it is to have a problem-solving quarterback, as opposed to a quarterback who causes problems. By the way, Sam “Trade me or play me” Bradford and the Minnesota Vikings are the other NFC outfit to win their first three games.
Carson Wentz threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns, through a third straight game with no turnovers.
Ben Roethlisberger was sacked four times and had two turnovers, including a pass intercepted by Rodney McLeod. On this day Big Ben had a lot more fun watching Wentz.
“He won the game,” Roethlisberger said. “He managed the game. He makes throws. He does the checks and the audibles. I’m not sure how much freedom he has but just look at the score.”
Wentz tried not to check the scoreboard as he eyeballed a Steelers defense geared to stop the run. The Eagles couldn’t get much going on the ground yet took a 13-3 lead into the intermission.
What the Steelers didn’t realize is how much better Wentz is after making halftime adjustments. They did after the third quarter.
Wentz’s 73-yard touchdown pass to Darren Sproles two minutes into the second half was the piece de resistance. The rookie rolled to his right, drew the defender covering Sproles and lobbed the ball over his head to the running back around the 47yard line of the Eagles.
Four or five moves later, including a couple of changes in direction, and Sproles was in the end zone. The game essentially was over, considering the way the Eagles were playing defense. It gave the Eagles a 20-3 lead.
“I was reading the other side of the field, somebody stepped across my face from the Steelers and I just stepped up and turned into scramble mode. I came out and saw Sproles and he just turned up the field. Any time that you can put it in the hands of 43, something special can happen on any play.”
Not coincidentally, the run game switched gears. Rookie fifth-round Wendell Smallwood ran through the big, bad Steelers for 79 yards and his first NFL touchdown, all but 12 of the yards in the second half.
The Steelers weren’t playing well before they lost two defensive starters, one of them Lawrence Timmons.
Wentz owned them as he completed 23 of 31 attempts for a 125.9 passer rating. Wentz wasn’t sacked. In fact he was only hit hard once. And you wondered if he’d ever be able to protect himself.
Wentz brought a smile to Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich with the schoolyard throw to Sproles. Reich, as a former quarterback, knows that you cannot defend those plays.
“I think we all knew that’s what we were expecting from Carson,” Reich said. “That didn’t really show up in the first couple of games but it didn’t have to. Everything was from the pocket and clean. That was a side of him that I think there’s a lot more of that in there. And I like how it’s unfolding.”
The Eagles are 3-0 for the first time in three years. The last time they started 4-0, they went to the Super Bowl on the heels of the 2004 season. Speaking of that season, the Linc seemed to shake during every big play.
Bill Belichick and his first-string quarterback, the guy who’s suspended, wouldn’t want to play the Eagles right now.
When the game began, Pederson and Steelers counterpart Mike Tomlin were the only NFL head coaches to win their first two games by 15 or more points. That makes Pederson the only dude to prevail by 15 or more points in his first three games.
The Steelers were 19-2 against rookie quarterbacks since 2004. Guess what?
Did we mention the Steelers now are 0-9 in Philly in the Super Bowl era?
What was that about Big Ben saying not once, but twice that Wentz had only played two games?
Wentz is the first NFL rookie quarterback with 100-plus attempts, 60-plus completions, 5-plus TDs and no interceptions in his first three games.
Wentz joins Mark Sanchez as the only rookie quarterbacks to win their first three games since the 1970 merger.
Wentz has performed so well the biggest thing the Eagles were concerned about was making sure he wasn’t satisfied just being good.
“Sometimes the hardest thing to handle is success,” Reich said. “And he’s had really two good performances coming in here and a lot of things being said. Just trying to keep a level head, that young, it’s hard to do. It’s hard for a team to do let alone a young rookie quarterback. “But the thing that (Pederson) and we all talked about was just get involved in the process, get absorbed in the process and let that drown out all the noise.”