Eagles Need a Spark, but Two Possibilities were Eliminated by Doug Pederson
The Eagles are in need of a spark as they exit September with a nobody-saw-it-coming 0-2-1 record and into a rugged stretch against three teams that, going into the Ravens’ Monday night game against the Chiefs, are a combined 7-1.
What those sparks will be is anybody’s guess.
What they won’t be are pretty clear, after Doug Pederson shot down two possibilities on Monday while sifting through the smoldering ashes of Sunday’s 23-23 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals.
One, Carson Wentz will remain the quarterback.
Early Monday morning, on his weekly spot on sports radio 94WIP, Pederson said benching the still-struggling QB would be a knee-jerk reaction.
Two, Pederson won’t surrender play-calling responsibilities.
Asked by SI.com EagleMaven if he has considered that in his weekly noon videoconference with reporters, the coach said: “No, I haven’t. I love doing it. It’s the exciting part for me. I get to see the game obviously differently and as a quarterback see it through their eyes and through the offense’s eyes. I haven’t thought about that at all.”
Keeping Wentz is probably the right call. Jalen Hurts played another three snaps on Sunday, running for eight yards on one wildcat formation but fumbling an RPO and losing three yards on another. That is not exactly screaming, “I’m ready, put me in coach.”
As for Nate Sudfeld, he hasn’t been active for the past two games but is more of an intriguing proposition. He has been here four years now.
It’s just not going to happen. Not now, and probably not ever as long as Pederson has anything to say about it.
The play-calling is a different situation.
Maybe a fresh approach would change things.
Again, not going to happen unless it is a mandate from somebody above him in the organization, meaning, for now, sparks will likely have to come in small, barely perceptible bits.
Nothing rash, like parking Wentz on the bench for a game or even left tackle Jason Peters, who Pederson said played well overall, though he got “edged” a bit.
“Even in the run game he still plays at a high level,” said the coach. “We felt good about his performance. It wasn’t perfect but he was definitely in the right spots and doing the right things for us.”
Maybe, there was a bit of a spark in the snap counts on Sunday.
Cre’Von LeBlanc played more nickel snaps than Nickell Robey-Coleman, who has gone from looking so good in August’s training camp to looking so not-so-good in September. LeBlanc played 59 of 72 snaps (82 percent) to NRC’s 26 (36 percent).
And linebacker T.J. Edwards has moved ahead of Duke Riley, getting more and more snaps as the three games have gone along.
Riley has gone from 81 percent of the defensive snaps to 71 percent to Sunday’s seven percent. Edwards’ snap percentages have gone from 29 to 42 to 71 against the Bengals.
Or maybe it will come in a game plan that Pederson is designed to “unclutter” Wentz’s mind, a mind that, in August, senior offensive consultant and staff newcomer Rich Scangarello told us was “an elite processor pre-snap and post-snap, comparable to Matt Ryan.”
Now, the game plan could call for more up-tempo plays, a simplifying of things.
“That has been a recipe for us over the years and is something we may have to lean on a little bit more,” said Pederson. “We’ll take a look at the game plans, make sure there’s not a lot of moving parts or things that, from a quarterback perspective, he has to get us in and out of, just do more of the run-it play variety where you don’t have to think about a lot of things and just somehow help free up his mind and let him play and make the plays we know he’s capable of making.”
Finding a solution to Wentz’s struggles would certainly be the ultimate spark, but is it possible?
Stay tuned, as the Eagles head to San Francisco (2-1) Sunday night then to Pittsburgh (3-0) before returning home to meet Baltimore.
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