Carson Wentz May Have Been "Pressing" Against Patriots

Eagles quarterback may have tried to do too much, according to coach Doug Pederson, and maybe that's because his receivers have been inconsistent

USA Today

There were some dropped passes, yes. At least Eagles receivers have been consistent on that front.

There were also some throws that sailed high and others that were zipped wide. By all accounts, Sunday’s 17-10 loss to the New England Patriots wasn’t the best game played by quarterback Carson Wentz.

Wentz completed just 50 percent of his passes, going 20-for-40.

There weren’t 20 drops, that’s for sure.

Perhaps Wentz’s most egregious misses were a deep throw to Mack Hollins, who had green space in front of him if Wentz could have only put the ball there instead of throwing it six yards out of bounds, and a overthrow to Zach Ertz on the drive that ended with a dropped pass by Nelson Agholor on a fourth-down throw into the end zone with 1:05 left in the game.

“When he looks at this game, and I'm sure he already has, there were opportunities in the passing game to make some plays,” said coach Doug Pederson on Monday. “I think that he would agree with that, and just really, he doesn't have to feel like he has to make all the plays.

“Even though he touches the ball and he is the quarterback and we ask him to do a lot, just let the offense kind of work and let the guys around you make the plays.”

The Eagles just don’t have enough playmakers at the moment, and watching what Wentz has to work with in the pass-catching department doesn’t inspire much confidence.

“We have to do a better job of coaching our skill guys versus man-to-man, bump-and-run, things like that, keep working that in practice and keep presenting that picture properly in practice and that's really the only way you can continue to get better,” said Pederson. “If you do more of that, then you'll be better off in games.”

Perhaps the lack of trustworthy receivers has finally pushed Wentz to the point where he is tried to do more than he should to win against the defending Super Bowl champions.

“I think maybe as the game progressed, we all maybe felt like there was a little bit of a pressing going on,” said Pederson. “We were trying to make ‘that’ play against that great defense, and you really don't have to do that. Just let things unfold.

“I can do a better job as far as maybe being a little more patient in the run game and helping him out that way and that's a takeaway that obviously each week I look at for myself.”

Pederson admittedly abandoned the run in the second half. As he searched for what he called “explosive plays” despite an offense hamstrung by the absences of DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery and Jordan Howard, Pederson dialed up just nine runs over the final two quarters.

Wentz has made more plays than not this season, but the Eagles are still just a .500 team at 5-5.

There are plenty of reasons for that, and one of those has to include the quarterback as well as a receiving group that simply has been far from good enough.

“It's on everybody,” said Pederson. “It's not just the quarterback position. Even though, again, it seems like the quarterback always either gets the credit or the blame, but it still takes the protection.

“If you look at the backs, we missed some protection there, right? Or got edged just a little bit with some of the games and things like that. That all disrupts the timing of the quarterback. There is enough to go around and coming out of this game, things that didn't show up, maybe in the last two games or last three games but showed up in this game that we can get better moving forward.”