Pederson must put Carson Wentz in a better position to succeed
After a phenomenal start, Carson Wentz struggled mightily against Washington’s defense on Sunday. Wentz is at fault for a lot of his mistakes, but Doug Pederson didn’t do him any favors with his lackluster play-calling. Wentz was sacked for a record 8 times in his career, threw 2 INTs (a 3rd was nullified with a penalty), and fumbled twice, losing one of them. Pederson showed no indication of adjusting the gameplan to keep his (injury-prone?) franchise QB from getting slaughtered.
Perhaps the Eagles thought Washington would be a cake-walk, hence why they didn’t dress Miles Sanders or play their receivers half the time. Whatever the scenario, a similar performance against Aaron Donald and the Rams won’t bode well for Wentz.
Carson Wentz stripped sacked.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 13, 2020
Took 8 sacks on the daypic.twitter.com/Nwh1hZvWoA
Yes, Wentz needs to learn how to throw the ball away. Yes, he needs to improve his ball security (50 career fumbles). Yes, he should be aware that his team needs him and he has to live to play another down. Wentz’s home-run mentality can be a detriment to the team at times. In the same notion, when your OL only provides you with 2.5 seconds in the pocket on average, it’s difficult to make anything happen.
You’d figure that the sensible solution would be to move the pocket and let Carson use his mobility that has been so effective in the past. According to Doug Pederson today, their inability to pick up yards on first down was the reason for not moving Wentz around. Why they couldn’t draw something up for him on first down is beyond my knowledge.
It’s no secret that Wentz makes better decisions as a whole on the run. He led the NFL in QBR outside the pocket last season:
- Carson Wentz: 94.4
- Russell Wilson: 92.8
- Jimmy Garoppolo: 87.5
- Deshaun Watson: 84.7
- Dak Prescott: 81.1
- Pat Mahomes: 75.2
When Carson was left to throw in the pocket, however, he only had a 57.9 QB rating. During Carson’s MVP campaign in 2017, Pederson got the most out of him with RPO’s and designed rollouts. He didn’t help out his quarterback much against Chase Young, Ryan Kerrigan, etc.
You can try and chalk up the coaching regression to Carson’s injury history or the departure of Reich & DeFilippo. At the end of the day, Pederson has to adapt and play Wentz to his strengths. This Sunday would be a good time to start.
For the love of all that is holy, get Carson outside the pocket v. the Rams. pic.twitter.com/KQQjwhGi9G
— Victor Williams (@ThePhillyPod) September 16, 2020
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Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
[…] for Carson Wentz. He’s been inaccurate and has made some poor decisions with the ball, but a lot of the issues fall on Doug Pederson as well. Jared Goff isn’t nimble by any means, but Sean McVay had him out the pocket more than […]