Wentz: Can He Provide Some Foles Magic For The Eagles in January?

Eagles quarterback iCarson Wentz is playing his first January game in pro career and after what former backup Nick Foles did last two years, he has a lot to live up to

PHILADELPHIA – It’s January and Carson Wentz is still playing football.

These are unchartered waters for the Eagles quarterback, who will play in the first playoff game of his four-year NFL career on Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks visit Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday in the wild-card round.

Wentz isn’t making a big deal out of it.

“As far as how we prepare, how we approach the game, nothing changes,” Wentz said. “It’s another game. Obviously, we know what’s on the line. To some extent, we’ve kind of felt that way the last few weeks. We’ve kind of had our backs against the wall. It’s a one-game season, and we’re excited about it.”

Nick Foles was the quarterback and the man for the Eagles in the playoffs in 2017 and 2018. He was magic two years ago, taking the Eagles to the Super Bowl and earning Super Bowl MVP against the Patriots. He stepped in after Wentz suffered a torn ACL late in the regular season. 

Wentz was sidelined again for the playoffs last year after suffering a back injury. That gave Foles a chance to recreate his post-season magic. He led a comeback victory in Chicago in the wild-card round and came within an Alshon Jeffery dropped pass of beating the Saints in New Orleans.

Philly became a Foles town  the last two years. Until Wentz at least wins a playoff game, he will have that hanging over his head. He and Foles were close friends and he was happy for his success, but at the same time, how could there not be a feeling that he was missing out on something special and perhaps could have done the same thing? It's all on Wentz now with Foles in Jacksonville.

The Eagles have a long list of injuries and only the Cowboys collapse down the stretch allowed Philadelphia to win the NFC East with a 9-7 record. They are slight underdogs in their own stadium against the Seahawks, who literally came within an inch of winning the NFC West and earning a first-round bye. Seattle beat the Eagles 17-9 in Philadelphia on Nov. 24. The Eagles did not get into the end zone until there was 20 seconds left in the game.

Wentz must outplay Seattle's Russell Wilson, who is in very familiar with playing this time of the year. He will be making his 14th playoff start and is 8-5 in the postseason.

The case could be made for Wentz, however, is that he has played in four straight playoff games, because the Eagles have been in playoff mode since leaving Miami on the short end of a 37-31 score on Dec. 1. The Eagles were 5-7 and another loss could have ended any postseason hopes they harbored.

Wentz saw to it that didn’t happen. Since that defeat, he hasn’t thrown an interception and tossed seven touchdowns passes as the Eagles rattled off four wins in a row.

“I think everyone kind of feels the sense of urgency, you could say,” Wentz said.  "But I don’t think anyone presses, or feels they need to do anything differently. I wouldn’t say anything changes going into this one. We know what we have to do.”

The final three in that string came against teams who fired their coaches – if, that is, the direction the Dallas Cowboys go with Jason Garrett in the next few days – so the disarray those teams were in was legit. 

Backup quarterback Josh McCown is in his 17th season and has been to the playoffs only once despite being on eight teams prior to signing with the Eagles. He has seen adversity in spades, has seen it swallow teams whole.

“I’ve been in so many of these moments where you look at the rest of the schedule, six games left, five games, whatever is and you go, ‘Oh, if we can just run the table we’ll get in,’ and for whatever reason, you don’t,” McCown said. “For whatever reason that group, in that moment, blinks and they lose belief and they lose trust and they don’t get it done.

“For us, our group has gone the opposite. A guy gets hurt, a guy gets injured, the next guy steps up and the belief grows even more, the trust grows even more. Those things are carrying us. Everybody just has to go out and do their job and that’s what Carson has done.”

While Wentz believes that the experience of playing in four straight must-win games will benefit him, coach Doug Pederson will continue to sound his message of keeping emotions at bay because they tend to run higher than a regular-season game, even those of the must-win variety.

“The atmosphere is different, right?” Pederson said. “You have pre-season, regular season, post-season, and everything gets sort of magnified now. Just keeping the emotions in check and just calming your nerves a little bit, especially early in the game.

“I think in games like this, especially in Carson's case, being able to get him to settle into the game and try keep the emotions the best we can. Everybody is going to be excited. Seattle is going to be excited. It's a great opportunity for both teams. But how we handle that I think during the week helps us, especially in games like this.”