Wentz Weekly: Carson shines for the Eagles prior to leaving with injury

The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the LA Rams 43-35 to move to 11-2 on the season, but it came at the cost of quarterback Carson Wentz.

It was a bittersweet Sunday for the Philadelphia Eagles as they finished their west coast trip with a 43-35 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon. While the win and moving to 11-2 is great, the Eagles lost Carson Wentz to what looks to be a significant knee injury.

Before we get to Wentz’s injury, let’s take a look at the stellar play from the young signal caller on Sunday.

Prior to exiting the game, Wentz finished with a stat line of 23-41 for 291 yards, four touchdown passes, and one interception. The fourth touchdown pass of the game broke Sonny Jurgensen‘s franchise record of 32 touchdown passes.

The game could not have started out any worse for Wentz and the Eagles offense. On the third play of the game, a Wentz pass hit right off of Nelson Agholor and was intercepted by the Rams. Los Angeles made the Eagles pay, as three plays later Todd Gurley found the end zone to give the Rams a 7-0 lead.

Related Story: Is the Eagles season over if Carson Wentz tore his ACL?

After that opening drive though, the Eagles offense was nearly lights out.

The Eagles followed the interception with three straight touchdown drives, with all three touchdowns going to his tight ends. Wentz found Brent Celek, and then Trey Burton on back to back drives to put the Eagles up 21-7. It was nice to see the two tight ends step up given the absence of Zach Ertz with a concussion.

Going into the half, the Eagles led 24-14, but two straight touchdowns after the break put the Rams up 28-24.

Down by four, Wentz led the Eagles downfield and all the way down to inside the five-yard line. On first and goal at the Rams two-yard line, Wentz scrambled right and dove into the end zone, for it only to be nullified by a holding penalty. It was also on that play, that the Wentz injury occurred.

Supposedly playing on a hurt knee, Wentz stayed in and after overthrowing Alshon Jeffery on third down, the Eagles elected to go for the touchdown on fourth down. It became evident something was wrong with Wentz on that play as he stood in the pocket very gingerly on that fourth down play.

But on that play, Wentz found Jeffery, who made a terrific catch, for the record-setting touchdown which also put the Eagles ahead 31-28. That record-setting touchdown pass though may have been Wentz’s last throw of the season.

After that play, Wentz made his way into the medical tent, and then into the locker room for further examining. This was the Eagles and their fans nightmare in losing Wentz, especially in what looked like a season that could end in early February.

Nick Foles came in and helped the Eagles finish off the Rams to move to 11-2, and it looks like Foles could be leading the charge for the foreseeable future.

The Eagles have confirmed that Wentz has a torn ACL, which will shut him down for the season, and he probably won’t see much action until training camp next year. MRI results confirmed today.

With Wentz being done, this is now Foles’ team; and when the Eagles signed Foles they were giving themselves one of the best backup situations in the NFL. Foles has proved to be able to win games and has experience playing in December games and in the playoffs.

Obviously, a team never wants to lose their starting quarterback, but if they do, they must be prepared. The Eagles are prepared, and if the surrounding pieces can excel, then this team should still be able to make a push for an NFC Championship.

Getting home field will be key in reaching that goal, but if Foles is the guy, with the defense and skill guys around him, he can do enough to lead this team throughout the playoffs.

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Wentz is the franchise and possibly the most important player on this team, but Foles must be ready and has shown to be ready to take the reigns if the need comes for him to.