Birds aim to leave winless 49ers with another rainy day feeling
PHILADELPHIA » If you wondered how inclement weather might impact Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, tune in Sunday when the Eagles host the San Francisco 49ers (1 p.m., Fox 29, WIP 94.1FM) at what promises to be a soggy Lincoln Financial Field.
The forecast of rain and the issues it causes adds a splash of drama to a game considered a done deal.
The Eagles are 6-1 with a five-game win streak, the Niners 0-7. According to Stats LLC., only once has a team with a record of 0-7 or worse beaten an opponent with one or fewer losses this far into the season. That was in 1975 when Greg Pruitt scored two touchdowns, one on a throw from Mike Phipps to lift the 0-9 Cleveland Browns to a 35-23 win over the 8-1 Cincinnati Bengals. Oh, and it was dry that day. Bone chilling but dry.
“I think he’ll be fine,” Doug Pederson said of Wentz. “I mean, we’ve just got to make sure we secure the snap, No. 1. And then ball security on handoffs and things of that nature just become a little more point of emphasis. He hasn’t played in a ton of bad weather games because he played in a dome in college. He’s lived it. He’s had to live in the cold or the snow, the wet and the rain. He should be fine.”
Just the same, Pederson concedes rain is trickier to play in than snow.
That said, all four of the Niners’ road losses have been by three points or less, the outcomes largely with Brian Hoyer playing quarterback.
The Dallas Cowboys drilled the Niners, 40-10, last week with rookie second-round pick C.J. Beathard making his first start at quarterback. And no, there aren’t a lot of Iowa passers around to compare pedigree.
“It’s a young quarterback so the biggest thing for us is going to be stopping the run, especially if there’s weather,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “They’ve got weapons all over the field and it’s just a matter of time before they get that together. And we don’t want that to be on us. You look at them on tape and they’ve been in all their games, or the majority of their games. And you don’t see their record when you’re watching them on tape.”
The 49ers have injuries everywhere but at quarterback, which has turned Kyle Shanahan’s already toughlooking rookie year as head coach into a colossal rebuilding project. General manager John Lynch is having a rough time, too. Recently the 49ers delivered a survey asking how important winning was to their stadium experience. Lynch was infuriated.
Shanahan and Lynch cannot be happy about the fundamental issues the Niners are grappling with. Catching the ball has been an adventure, the 49ers leading the league with 16 drops. Eagles fans should cheer every time the ball heads toward tight end George Kittle, who has four drops or Aldrick Robinson with three.
The Eagles have eight dropped passes, tied for 17th in the NFL. Torrey Smith leads the Birds with two drops.
All of this made the Eagles open as 13-point favorites.
The Niners’ go-to guys are Pierre Garcon, the Redskins import who leads them in receptions, and running back Eric Hyde, who leads the club with four touchdowns.
“I see that they’ve got a lot of talent,” Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham said. “Speed over the top. They use Marquise Goodwin to get speed over the top. Pierre Garcon, great receiver. The running back, Hyde, he’s been running the ball pretty well. The quarterback is playing pretty decent, too, and he’s a young guy. He’s starting to understand the game. So we’ve pretty much just got to make sure we’re hitting on all cylinders from the front to the back end. And everybody’s communicating and being able to withhold what they throw against us.”
The challenge for the Eagles is shaking off the short work week while turning the page on left offensive tackle Jason Peters and middle linebacker Jordan Hicks, who suffered season-ending injuries in the Monday night win over the Washington Redskins.
Joe Walker will play the early downs at middle linebacker. Hal Vaitai starts at left tackle.
“Losing Peters is a tough loss,” Wentz said. “A guy like that, we spoke on it after the game. Love that guy. We’ve been praying for him like crazy. But we just have a mentality around here that’s kind of infectious. It’s just the next guy up. We have a ton of confidence in Big V to step up. Everybody else will keep contributing and keep getting better as well. It’s a tough loss but we have a ton of confidence that Big V will get the job done and we’ll just keep this train rolling.”
Rain, sleet or snow, the Eagles are on a roll. Wentz leads the league with 17 touchdown passes.
In their winning streak the Eagles are averaging 29.8 points and allowing an average of 20.4 points.
“I think we’ve got to stick to what we do best and that’s making plays and stay on the field and convert in those key situations,” Wentz said. “We definitely can’t sleep on those guys. They’re a good football team.”