Wentz has had help getting to bottom of QB rankings
Carson Wentz’s season-long slump? That’s on the Eagles, not him.
Head coach Doug Pederson is leaning toward running the up-tempo offense with set plays to reduce the decisions Wentz makes. He has a league-low 59.8 completion percentage, a league-high six interceptions and a league-worst 63.9 passer rating.
“I think one of the ways that we do that and really to kind of maybe unclutter his mind some is to play fast and play up-tempo where players don’t have to think, they just react,” Pederson said Monday. “That has been a recipe for us over the years and that’s something we may have to lean on a little bit more. We’ll take a look at the game plans and make sure there’s not a lot of moving parts or things that ... from a quarterback’s perspective, he has to get us in and out of it.”
Not every team dumbs down the offense after signing its quarterback to a four-year,
$128 million contract extension as the Eagles did with Wentz.
Not every team drafts the successor to their franchise quarterback the year after making that financial commitment, as the Eagles did when they selected Jalen Hurts in the second round of the lottery.
But these are your 0-2-1, 2020 Eagles, off to their worst start in 21 years and dysfunctional as the day is long.
You would think with all the new coaches on the payroll this year, and all the analytics models the team uses to form game plans somebody would have known if it’s better to punt on
fourth-and-12 at the 46-yard line of the opponent with the clock running out in overtime or go for the end zone.
Pederson made the call, took the heat and never will be the same for it.
Second-guessing the decision to punt late in overtime Sunday in the 23-23 stalemate with the Cincinnati Bengals was a waste of Pederson’s time. But somebody made him do it.
The original plan was for Jake Elliott to win the game with a 59-yard field goal with
19 seconds left. Matt Pryor wrecked it by committing the
10th of 11 Eagles penalties on the day. That left everyone looking at Pederson.
“Thinking about it, fourthand-seven, 19 seconds on the clock, looking at the decision there’s a couple of things,” Pederson said. “Yeah, you go for it, right? Nineteen seconds, you got a chance for a big play, a (defensive pass interference). We didn’t have any timeouts so if the ball was completed in-bounds it would be hard to hustle up there and kick the field goal. If there were five, six, seven seconds left on the clock the decision to go for it would be a little bit easier to make in that situation. Either way you slice it, my decision, looking back I probably would have elected to go for it in that situation and try a ball down the field.”
Unfortunately for Pederson, there isn’t a hurry-up tempo head coaches can shift to as an aid in making critical decisions. It would have been great to get a little help from the guys.
Wentz could have stepped up before the field goal and said, “I’ve got this Coach.” Nick Foles basically did that by suggesting Pederson call “Philly-Philly” with the Eagles facing a major fourth down near the end of the first half in Super Bowl LII against the New England Patriots. The ensuing touchdown turned into an iconic play.
This wasn’t the Super Bowl. Tom Brady wasn’t standing on
the other sideline. No, this was Joe Burrow and the Bengals.
Wentz, for whatever reason, wasn’t much of a help.
“We were all kind of unsure as to what was going on, even, because we had a field goal lined up and ready to go,” Wentz said. “I mean, I get it. Those are tough decisions to make and I trust coach fully.”
The Eagles are a reflection of their quarterback right now. All kinds of unsure. And unless he can give his teammates a spark, the Eagles could find themselves
0-5-1 and counting the days until Hurts plays regularly because the schedule suddenly gets murderous. The Eagles play at San Francisco (2-1) and Pittsburgh
(3-0) before hosting Baltimore
(2-0) over the next three weeks. “I don’t want to feel like Carson has to put the weight on his shoulder and carry the entire football team,” Pederson said. “We’ve got to do a better job as a whole unit.”
It starts with Wentz. And until he realizes it, there won’t be any happy endings.