This is Sam Hinkie’s legacy.
2-0! Through two games, the Eagles have taken care of business against inferior teams and shown flashes of the future in the process. It’s been a fun, magical start to the season, which is already a success since the only thing that mattered after trading Sam Bradford was finding out if Carson Wentz is the franchise quarterback the Eagles hoped when drafting him. He is exactly that, and we’re in the infancy of a long run of competitive, relevant football in Philadelphia.
THE GOOD
Carson Wentz
Wentz shined in front of a national audience under the bright lights of Monday Night Football. His superficial numbers weren’t exactly impressive: 21-34, 190 yards, 1 touchdown, but factoring the over 80 yards in drops bumps Wentz’s YPA from a meager 5.6 to a robust 8.0+ (and would’ve resulted in another two touchdowns). He was better than the numbers last night and, yet again, didn’t even come close to throwing an interception or otherwise turning the ball over (only quarterback since the 1970 merger to achieve this feat in his first two games). In fact the offense still has no turnovers, period! As is going to be a weekly occurrence, Wentz made some absolutely absurd throws that had you jumping out of your seat, with three standing out in particular: Continue Reading
It’s been two months since LeSean McCoy was officially cleared of wrongdoing in a bar fight with off-duty police by field-pass holder Seth Williams. No one was charged in the incident.
Though the fight was in February, a civil suit was just filed against McCoy, two other men, and Recess Lounge (and their owner, The Manayunk Club) claiming “assault, battery, and negligence.” Here’s some excerpts from the civil filing:
The defendants are asking for $50,000 plus interest in each of the five counts (though two are solely against Recess and The Manayunk Club) for a total of over $250,000. The final count in the filing is that Recess violated the Dram Shop Act, sometimes seen in DUI cases, which finds liable the establishment that serves drinks to intoxicated people for the damage they cause.
You may have missed this yesterday (I did) in the lead up to the game last night, but the Eagles released video of Doug Pederson mic’d up from Week 1. I can’t get over how much Doug Pederson is like the complete opposite of what we expected. The highlights:
Dusting the arm off convo with Frank Reich, and obsessing over this hair coming out of the visor.
Shockingly poised and confident meeting the Vice President– not what I was expecting.
Chase Daniel with the kiss ass “nice going” like it’s going to get him in the game.
“Gash their ass.”
“We’re gonna kick their ass right here.”
“Got him. Got him. Got him!”
“He’s holding him the entire way, he’s pulling his jersey, he’s undressing him the entire way… do they really? They want more than that to call that.”
Carson Wentz’s unyielding love for Hoss.
Liking empty-back sets.
“TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN!”
“When in doubt run towards Peters.”
“Honey Beau Beau, report, report!”
Connor Barwin bro hug.
Hugging loser Hue.
I love Greg Cosell’s All-22 breakdown, specifically when he gets into that beautiful completion to a wide-open Jordan Matthews on the sail concept. Watch it here.
Huge win.
To the Droppings! Continue Reading
Redditor uncoolaidman turned Carson Wentz’s touchdown pass to Trey Burton into a #GARBShot that young Carson could be proud of. But it’s not just this one that’s amazing, it’s also this week 1 highlight reel from wentzoro:
These guys to keep this up all season long. They’ve already committed too much to Can’t Miss Carson.
Kyle: I wonder if there’s one where the trash can falls over and spills all of its contents for Jordan Matthews.
We’ll have the full Bird Droppings coming shortly, but just a few quick thoughts on the impressive 29-14 win.
Carson Wentz is incredible. He looked like Peyton Manning on the first drive, with all of its obvious passing plays and no-back sets. How many other rookie quarterbacks are directing their blockers and receivers – going so far as to walk over to the slot receiver – at all like that during their rookie year, let alone their first drive on the road on Monday Night Football? It doesn’t happen. Hell, most veteran quarterbacks aren’t capable of that sort of thing. For a moment, you wondered who was calling the plays– Wentz or Crusher Doug.
It only got better from there.
I can’t recall more than one bad throw. Everything is on the money. Wentz doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t force things. Take that first drive, for example– he easily could’ve tried to force something on third and goal – say, a backhand shovel scoop to Trey Burton? – but he didn’t and calmy scampered out of bounds and took the easy three points. I’d wager that most rookies, and many vets – especially that chain-smoking goof Jay Cutler, who was out there like a quarterback in NFL Street just mashing buttons trying to make something happen – would try to force a throw there or do something foolish and try to break for the end zone.
The only negative from Wentz last night was his reverting back to his preseason self and putting his human vessel in danger, twice taking scary blows outside the pocket. He’s big enough to withstand them – Sam Bradford would’ve needed both medical doctors and a mental health professional had he taken the one hit – but it’s unsustainable. He didn’t do this in the Browns game. He’ll learn how to protect himself, but it needs to happen before he breaks into pieces of me, Ashlee Simpson.
His stats were muted because Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor continue to have hands made of stone. Matthews dropped a beautiful touchdown pass– the type of pass top wide receivers in the NFL never drop. The ball was just floated in there, in the end zone, and Matthews straight-up dropped it:
And then there’s Nelson Agholor, a high-end athlete who is deceptively a puss when it comes to making tough catches. Twice Wentz got him the ball in tight spots (one a touchdown) and twice Agholor didn’t have the strength to hold on. Those attempts were a higher degree of difficulty than Matthews’ dropped touchdown, but they were still highly catchable.
I’d argue that a third touchdown – Wentz’s pass to a Celek on the first drive – was nullified only because of an outstanding defensive play.
If two of those would-be touchdowns find their way into receivers’ hands, we’re looking at a 250 yards passing, three touchdown, no interception performance from Wentz last night. It just doesn’t make sense how he can make the jump from I-AA whatever it’s called to the NFL and be that poised… while the rest of us lose our minds at his potential.