Darrell Henderson's run up the middle for 40 yards in the 4th Quarter is what put the game out of reach. But that's not the reason the Eagles lost..
The offensive design wasn't necessarily what lost the game.
The offensive line definitely didn't lose this one.
Carson Wentz takes the blame for this one. And its time to stop babying this guy.
Jim Schwartz takes some of the blame too. His linebackers are just plainly reprehensible.
The Wheels are falling off the Wagon
Carson is not a bad quarterback, so let's start there.
He got 240+ yards through the air. And he made some phenomenal passes. He spread the ball around and got the ball, except for two INTs, where he needed to.
The problem with his game, is his confidence and his dependency for coaching.
The best quarterbacks don't get coached and just execute what the coach asks. They use the coaching to add to their arsenal of knowledge and skill. Then apply it situationally in the game.
Carson takes what was coached to him and uses only that.
For example, last week he was unable to throw the ball away, he was trying to hit the home run every play and held the ball too long. That contributed partially to the 8 sacks. This was because he was told to use DeSean and Jalen to beat the Washington Football Team with the deep ball.
That didn't work, so they flipped the script. This week Doug and co. told him that he should not hold on to the ball and should get the ball out early in his progressions, if he doesn't have someone throw the ball away. So, that's what he did. He threw the ball quickly and got it out. He squeezed a ball to JJ in the end zone and rushed the throw to get it picked off. He was doing exactly what the coaches told him to, get rid of it.
He needs to take this to the next level instead. He needs to know he can get rid of the ball, he needs to have the mental clock of how long he can hold on to the ball but he doesn't need to only get rid of the ball immediately or hold on to the ball until his deep routes open up. He needs to read the defense. Project where the defense is going and use his coaching to determine the best choice. Instead what ever the lesson of the week was he seems to only be holding onto.
Last week they went deep too much. This week they didn't go deep enough.
His decision to try to thread the ball past a defender to JJ in the end zone lost the game, that was the point where all hope was lost. But all hope in the season is not lost.
Carson needs to grow up a bit in the next couple weeks though, and take the experience he's had and utilize it. He seems to need a coach to depend on for his decisions, which is making him overthink. Look back to 2017 when the Wentz Wagon started rolling, he made snap decisions and he made great decisions. It might have been because Frank Reich could point things out and he was on the same wave length as Carson, but he needs to pull from that experience and find what Frank taught him.
He needs to start thinking for himself and making his decisions. In those games in 2017 it was so natural, but today you can see him stuttering and overthinking everything. It's as if the wagon is rolling with a broken wheel.
Carson still has the skills, as fan's we shouldn't move on from him yet, we have invested heavily in him, but we need to start holding him accountable too. Most fans fall into two groups, the Foles Folks or the Wentz Worshipers.
The Foles Folks criticize every little thing Wentz does. They criticize him for things that happen naturally in football seasons. They play Monday Morning quarterback with him and say well he shouldn't have thrown to Reagor, he should have thrown to Ertz instead. All of those people have been partially right this entire time, what they're wrong about those is that Hurts should be replacing Wentz right now or that Foles should still be the starter on this team.
On the other hand, the Wentz Worshipers, which this podcast falls in, let Wentz get away with everything. He throws a ball that is a bit high, and they say "well it was still catchable". He gets sacked and it's "well he runs for his life every play". He overthrows a streaking Reagor, and "well he slowed up running". Time to end all of that. Wentz is in his 5th season. He needs to start being the star we all know he is, the elite quarterback he can be. From this day forward we need to honestly evaluate him, and expect more from him.
Now, that doesn't mean join the Foles Folks in expecting flawless, perfection every play and if he isn't perfect start calling for a back up to come in. But it does mean, stop worshiping. He has potential but he's not achieving it. No more digging for statistics that make him look good, because no stat matters other than winning.
It's time to trade our worshipping in for honest evaluation. It's time for him to step up and lead this team. It's time to let him figure out how to fix the broken wheel on the wagon.
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