Philadelphia Eagles: Dreams And Nightmares from Week 1

Nightmares

Doug Pederson

There is plenty of blame to go around from Week 1 against Washington, but I’m going to start with Doug Pederson, who developed a very incompetent gameplan. Coming into this game, the Eagles were down three of their starting five offensive linemen with Brandon Brooks, Andre Dillard, and Lane Johnson all out due to injuries. Yet the gameplan seems to of been to have Carson Wentz drop back and pass as much as he can against one of the more ferocious defensive lines in the NFL.

I expected a good dose of the run after the Birds went up 17-0 in the second quarter despite not having starting RB Miles Sanders. Instead, we saw a team reluctant to run despite Washington’s defensive line pinning their ears back to destroy Wentz. The Eagles ran the ball just 17 times total while Wentz dropped back close to 50 times to pass. The Eagles kept attempting to run play-action passes despite not even pretending to want to establish the run game. The Eagle’s head coach appeared to be too excited to use his new speedy weapons on the outside as it ended up costing the Eagles the game.

Carson Wentz

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Carson Wentz came out of the gates hot, leading Philadelphia’s offense to scores on three of their first four drives. With 1:37 left to play in the first half, momentum switched immediately as Wentz threw his first interception of the game, which led to Washington’s first score of the game, a touchdown right before halftime. After back to back punts by Washington and Philadelphia to start the half, Wentz threw his second interception, which led to another touchdown by Washington.

Wentz appeared to unravel as the pressure from Washington’s defensive line began to mount up. Wentz was sacked eight times, which is the most in his career, and finished with just a 14.2 QB rating. Wentz looked erratic most of the second half, overthrowing guys and showing a lack of focus in the crumbling pocket. Wentz also lost one of two fumbles on the day, totaling three turnovers altogether. Eagles need Wentz to be better going forward.

The Offensive Line

This group was so bad that I couldn’t just pick one player; they all stunk. While I didn’t expect much with three of the five starters missing in action, I also didn’t expect Wentz to be under the most pressure he’s ever faced in his career. Even early in the game, when the Eagles were looking good, the offensive line was bailed out by a 55-yard bomb to Jalen Reagor on a 3rd-22, on the play after, Wentz was sacked on back-to-back plays on the next two downs.

This offensive line gave up 20 QB hurries, 15 QB hits, and eight sacks. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. I will say that Doug Pederson’s gameplan did not help this group at all, as a lot of deep passes were drawn up, which requires the offensive line to hold up longer. One good thing about this group was that starting left-tackle Jason Peters played all of the offensive snaps.

There were plenty of choices for nightmares of the week, but these are my three main nightmares from the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 1 loss to Washington. Be sure to look out for next week’s “Dreams and Nightmares” from the matchup with the Rams as this will be a weekly series.