Eagles have fallen behind Rams in rivalry between QBs and coaches
When the Eagles traded up for the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 draft, they knew at least something about what their next five to 10 years would hold. They would, they had to realize, spend it in competition with the Los Angeles Rams.
Though there would be the intermediate flows of success, the built-in NFL turnover, inevitable injuries and schedule imbalance and the eternal demand for draft-day wisdom, that move to the top of the board would set the foundation for it all.
With two quarterbacks, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, available, and with each holding the reputation as a franchise-changer, the Eagles were satisfied that they would thrive with whichever one the Rams rejected. They even said it, before the draft, the night of the draft, and right after the draft. They would have been content with either quarterback representing their franchise until their whiskers were gray. On that, they were clear.
It didn’t matter that they were in different divisions, or that if they had a great rivalry it had been mostly muffled since the 1940s. At that moment, the Eagles and the Rams were destined move into third decade of the 21st century, almost as one. The Eagles had their young coach, Doug Pederson. Within the year, the Rams would have theirs in Sean McVay. Both were developing programs. Both, in theory, could succeed. And they did. The Eagles would win the Super Bowl in 2017, Wentz having a Pro Bowl regular season. The Rams would make it there the next year. Both played the Patriots tough. One was a little luckier, but that’s how football goes, too.
So for a while, it was playing out as expected, if not scripted. The Next Great Franchises were squeezing the NFC from opposite coasts. And if the fans weren’t careful, the whole thing could have provided a decade-plus of fun. They could have been the NFC’s answer to the Colts and Patriots, a latterday version of Dallas-Washington, measuring vessels for each other in a competitive if not necessarily a friendly way.
Little if any of that was mentioned last week, as the Rams were about to whirl toward the Linc for a Week 2 game, long, long before the real conference pennant races would heat. Pederson, though, was nudged about it, basically asked to give a halftime score on the Wentz-Goff career race.
“Well, I mean, obviously both quarterbacks were at the top of list,” he said. “We had done our due diligence on both quarterbacks on both players, and we liked Goff as well, and yet looking back and kind of thinking back on some of the conversations, just felt that Carson was the fit for us here in Philadelphia, his makeup, his chemistry, the style of play kind of fit what we were doing.
“That’s nothing against Jared Goff because he’s obviously had a great career so far. It just made Carson a better fit for us at the time.”
Since the Eagles technically didn’t have the option to select Goff, Pederson was safe in that reply. But as it was bound to happen through their careers, there would be intermediate checkpoints. And after one Sunday in the Linc, one stamp on the passport would read: Rams 37, Eagles 19. Another would read: Rams 2-0, Eagles 0-2. A third would read: Goff three touchdown passes, Wentz none.
“It’s pretty simple,” Miles Sanders said. “It’s not the end of the world. We still have 14 games left.”
No. Not that. No one NFL game is that. But it wasn’t just the score that mattered Sunday, or the pitching lines of the quarterbacks, or even the Week 2 standings. No, it was the obvious discrepancy of talent between the teams in a rare game where, yes, the score was indicative of how it was played. It was the continuing rise of Goff to legendary status and the plateauing of Wentz on his way to superstardom. It was McVay having every answer for Pederson, offensively and defensively, and his continuing ability to create separation in that personal race within a race.
Mostly, it was three-plushours of evidence that the
Eagles have fallen way behind in that War of 2016. Not that any game in 60-plus-degree weather in the East will ever be of the must variety, and particularly not in the sagging NFC East, but the Eagles knew there was some urgency Sunday. Yet they could not stop the Rams from running, were unable to unload a deep passing attack and were never really in contention.
“It’s not one unit,” Pederson said. “It’s not one guy. There’s things we’ve got to do and that we’ve got to address. And we have to address them quickly.”
They were better in pass protection, allowing no sacks just seven days after Washington smothered Wentz eight times. Despite an early lost fumble, Sanders, who didn’t play in the opener, was as eye-opening as he was as a rookie, averaging 4.8 yards on 20 carries and scoring a touchdown. Zach Ertz, who has been irked by a lack of a fresh contract, was a little more himself. The Eagles were determined not to let Aaron Donald dominate, and then made sure he didn’t produce a solo tackle.
So taken in a one-week vacuum, the Eagles could convince themselves that they showed some progress, and that losing a home opener by 18 wasn’t a football catastrophe.
It’s just that it wasn’t the script five Aprils, two relatively new coaching hires and two particular Super Bowls ago.
From more Jack McCaffery follow him @JackMcCaffery on Twitter and email him at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com