Broadway Joe
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- Mar 19, 2019
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The Eagles had a mini-bye coming out of last Thursday night’s win at Lambeau Field, which allowed them to finish the first fourh of the season at 2-2. Both losses could have been wins, and as the team tries to begin piling up more Ws the most important player will continue to be quarterback Carson Wentz.
On Wednesday, coach Doug Pederson was asked to explain how Wentz has improved this year.
“I think it’s a couple of things,” Pederson said. “I think, number one, probably the biggest thing is just understanding more of the offense. Knowing where everybody is. He’s getting the ball out of his hand. He’s making great decisions with the football. Getting us in and out of, maybe a bad play into a better play. We’ve used probably a little more tempo offense or no-huddle offense which allows him to see the defense, which he’s very good at doing. So there’s probably a number of things.”
The biggest thing seems to be Wentz’s maturity in the team’s overall attack.
“It’s just his understanding of the offense and how, as we game plan, as [offensive coordinator] Mike [Groh] and myself put the plays together, how we can best utilize his strength to help us win,” Pederson said.
Wentz is on pace to throw for more than 3,800 yards, which would be a career high. But he had fewer than 200 yards in the team’s biggest win of the season. And that’s fine with Pederson.
“It doesn’t have to be flashy,” Pederson said. “Are there times when we’re going to have to throw to win? Yeah, we’re going to have to do that and we’ve done that. But you also know that when you have the ability to run the ball like we did the other night, good things are going to happen also, and so it takes that pressure off of the quarterback. And Carson’s talked about it, I’ve talked about it and it’s been I think a proven recipe league-wide when you can do that.”
Pederson’s right, but as the Vikings are learning balance is important, and it’s critical to be able to throw when the running game isn’t rolling. It will become easier to throw once receiver DeSean Jackson returns to stretch the field and open up the offense. If the Eagles can win more than they lose before then with Wentz running the entire offense, Jackson’s return could help it to explode.