Wentz believes offense is coming around
Quarterback cautiously optimistic as team prepares to face Dallas on Sunday.
“All I know is that we and myself, personally, have a lot of respect for that team.” — Carson Wentz on the Dallas Cowboys
PHILADELPHIA — No way have his Philadelphia Eagles “arrived,” but Carson Wentz feels they are a lot closer than they were a few weeks ago.
Coming off their second-highest point total of the season in a 28-13 thrashing of Washington and first back-to-back wins of the season, they are at the very least feeling more confident and more equipped for their second meeting with the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday than they were the first time.
That’s when wide receiver Golden Tate made his Eagles debut, and they didn’t have right tackle Lane Johnson or running back Darren Sproles.
Now Tate is coming off his best game, Johnson’s torn/ sprained MCL is doing much better and Sproles is back in the mix and productive again, running for a 14-yard TD against the Redskins.
All of this has Wentz fired up. “I thought we were finally really kind of playing together and really executing in the run game, the play-action,” he said of the win over Washington. “The things we always talk about, we were finally able to do that.
“And we also started fast. That’s something we talk about all the time, I feel like I talked about that in here a thousand times, and we were finally able to do it.”
With room for improvement. “Without a doubt we left some plays out there,” he said, “… but as a whole, there’s a lot of positive signs and trending in the right direction as to where we want to be.”
Wentz’s mood Thursday was much like the one many of his teammates projected the day before: cautiously optimistic.
Wentz also was careful not to pile on the Cowboys following teammate Kamu Grugier-Hill’s remarks on Wednesday about how their opponents always seem to choke when it matters most.
“I don’t want to dive into that at all,” Wentz said. “All I know is that we and myself, personally, have a lot of respect for that team … and what they’re doing this year. Obviously, we watch a ton of their defense and game-plan for their defense and, like I mentioned, they do a lot of things well. They fly around and they make it tough on an offense.”
Sunday’s game means everything to the Eagles, who trail the Cowboys by one game. A loss would put them two games back with three to go.
“I try not to make any game bigger than another game,” Wentz said. “I know that’s kind of the approach we all have, so with that being said, you really don’t treat it any differently. You just try to do what you do and then realize who you’re up against and go make plays.”