Under pressure, Wentz provides a lift
After one game without a victory, Carson Wentz was questioned.
After two games without a victory, Carson Wentz was criticized.
After three games without a victory, Carson Wentz was all but popularly dismissed as a quarterback in tragic decline.
Aware of all of that Sunday night, the Eagles asked their quarterback to be better than he’d been through an 0-2-1 start. And for that, all it would require was for Wentz to play better than Nick Mullens, the backup quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers making his 10th career start.
In a game that sent the Eagles into first place in the NFC East, Wentz threw a decisive, 42yard touchdown pass to Travis Fulgham with 5:50 left, ran for a touchdown, threw a two-point conversion and generally revived his legend in a 25-20 victory by the Bay.
“It’s really for all of us, espe
cially with it on Sunday Night Football like tonight,” Wentz said afterward. “Big team win. Guys just rallied around each other and played their tails off.”
Wentz had been intercepted twice in each of the first two games, had lost a fumble and was sacked 11 times. Sunday, he completed 18 of 28 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for a touchdown and tossed a two-pointer.
“Sometimes, you just sit down with the coaches and talk about what is going on and everything,” Wentz had said last week. “For me, it’s just trusting myself and not trying to do everything or do too much.
“The turnovers have been huge,” Wentz added. “Interceptions have never been a huge storyline in my career. I don’t want to over-analyze that either. But I don’t want to shy away from letting it rip and playing fast.
“It’s just a matter of continuing to be myself and not overdoing things.”
Wentz did not start out strong, being intercepted once, sacked once and being pestered by a 49ers defense able to fluster an everin-flux Eagles offensive line. Yet by halftime, he had completed 10 of 15 passes for 102 yards and the Eagles had an 8-7 lead.
Overwhelmed by an aggressive Jim Schwartz defense, Mullens was 18-for26 with two interceptions before being replaced for cause by C.J. Beathard late in the game.
Mullens, who started as Jimmy Garoppolo continued to recover from a tender ankle, was 9-for-14 in the first 30 minutes, threw an interception and was sacked twice.
Wentz was at his best in the f irst half, when he rushed for a touchdown for a third consecutive game, racing 11 yards to complete an eight-play drive with 3:51 left in the first quarter. Heavily criticized for decisions indicating a willingness last week to settle for a 23-23 tie with Cincinnati, Doug Pederson immediately went for the two-point conversion. That, Wentz ably executed, stepping to his right and connecting with a wide-open Zach Ertz, good for an 8-0 lead.
With pass-catchers DeSean Jackson, Jalen Reagor, Alshon Jeffery, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside and Dallas Goedert injured and unavailable, there was some midweek concern that Wentz would be tempted to try to do more than usual to produce points.
“It’s one of the things that we’ve just talked to him a lot about,” Pederson had said. “Not specifically this week, but really any week. It doesn’t matter if we have all our weapons available or not. It’s a matter of just letting those guys work. It’s our job as coaches to make sure that they’re prepared and ready to go with their jobs, and then Carson just handling and running the offense like he knows how.”
While Wentz had shown plenty in his first four NFL seasons, his threegame struggle, including a league-worst 63.9 quarterback rating, had thrown him into persistent national discussion about whether he was still able.
Yet much as he did late in the Cincinnati tie, Wentz showed a willingness not just to scramble, but to rush for meaningful yards, averaging 5.3 yards on seven carries.
“My confidence level is extremely high, and it hasn’t changed,” Pederson said last week. “I just know who Carson is. I know the type of worker he is. I know how he approaches the game, prepares each week.
“He and I are in this thing together. I want to put the ball in his hands. It’s a great opportunity for us when the ball is in Carson Wentz’s hands because anything and everything can happen.”
Pressured by fans to consider replacing Wentz with Jalen Hurts, Pederson did use the second-round draft pick for a few ineffective change-of-pace plays Sunday.
Wentz, though, was in no danger of any meaningful responsibility drain.
“We’ve faced adversity in some way, shape or form every year,” Wentz said. “Whether it’s a slow start, whether it’s injuries, there are just different forms of adversity that you learn from. It makes you stronger. It makes you better. So it’s no different right now.”