Doug Pederson's assessment of Carson Wentz's play isn't exactly encouraging

[sports.yahoo.com]
Doug Pederson's assessment of Carson Wentz's play isn't exactly encouraging

Reuben Frank
Sun, November 15, 2020, 6:12 PM PST·3 min read
Pederson's assessment of Wentz's play isn't encouraging originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

He didn’t throw any interceptions, and he didn’t fumble, so there’s that.

Carson Wentz didn’t do much of anything to lose the game. But he didn’t do much of anything to win it, either.

Wentz struggled through another largely ineffective game Sunday in the Eagles' 27-17 loss to the Giants, and the longer his season-long slump continues, the more you wonder … What if it’s not a slump? What if this is just who he is?

He completed less than 60 percent of his passes for a fifth straight game, the first time an Eagles quarterback has done that in 14 years.

He became the first Eagles quarterback to go this late in the season without a passer rating of at least 95 in any game since Roman Gabriel in 1974.

He didn’t complete a pass longer than 22 yards and didn’t complete one to a wide receiver longer than 16 yards.

He didn’t throw a touchdown.

He was 0-for-6 with two sacks on 3rd down.

He had a passer rating of 72.8, his sixth game at 75 or lower this year. First Eagles QB in 43 years to do that through nine games.

He averaged 5.6 yards per pass, nearly two yards below the NFL average of 7.4.

He didn’t get a ton of help. He had three passes dropped, protection was poor at times, Doug Pederson’s play calling once again left a lot to be desired.

But Wentz once again did absolutely nothing to indicate that he’s on the verge of breaking out of his season-long doldrums.

Nine games in, the Eagles are 3-5-1, Wentz is the NFL’s 31st-ranked quarterback – ahead of Drew Lock and Sam Darnold – and there isn’t much reason for optimism that either of those things is about to turn around.

He hasn't played one game this year - not one - that made you think, "Maybe he's going to be OK."

Here’s Doug Pederson on Wentz:

“I thought he played OK, played good. Obviously, there were some throws that we’d like to get back from the standpoint of just accuracy. He managed the game and the run game well, put us in some really good situations, hung tough, did what he’s capable of doing.”

Standpoint of accuracy? Managed the run game well? Did what he’s capable of doing?

Talk about damning with faint praise.

Wentz has the lowest passer rating by an Eagles quarterback after nine games since Mike McMahon in 2005, the lowest completion percentage since Donovan McNabb in 2006 and the most interceptions since Randall Cunningham in 1994.

Sunday was the same old story.

Did a few good things. Made a couple nice throws.

Just not enough. Not nearly enough.

“It’s hard to put your finger on one thing as to why we were kind of inconsistent offensively,” Wentz said. “We did some decent things at times throughout the game and we struggled. They played a great game and we didn’t do enough to win.”

Wentz has never been through anything like this, and he doesn’t seem to have any idea what to do or what to say or how to turn this around.

Wentz said 10 times he’s frustrated. He spoke about how well the Giants played, about how he thought the Eagles had a good gameplan, how the Giants made more plays on defense than the Eagles did on offense.

Same old story.

Same old answers.

Same old Carson.