Philadelphia – The Eagles got utterly embarrassed on Sunday as the team lost 32-14 against the Cincinnati Bengals as it looked like the team forgot they had a game to play for most of the day it seemed. The Bengals entered the game without their two best weapons in, AJ Green and Giovani Bernard, but that would not stop Andy Dalton, who completed 23/31 of his passes for a total of 332 yards and two scores with no turnovers. Brandon LaFell was the leading receiver in the game with five receptions for 95 yards and one touchdown.
The lone bright side of the game for the Eagles was Paul Turner. Turner was an undrafted free agent who the Eagles were high on enough to make him the highest paid practice squad player in the league this year before signing him to the active roster prior to last week’s game. Turner saw no targets last week after making his highly anticipated debut for the struggling Eagles. Turner, however, bounce back with six receptions for 80 yards on eight targets in the game. Look for the Eagles to continue get Turner involved in the game plan as he was the only contributor for Wentz it seemed. Wentz has said in the past that he “loves” the connection he has with Turner.
Reason For Concern?
Eagles fans are starting to become restless with the Eagles over the last few weeks and the head of the anger is at head coach, Doug Pederson, questioning his play calling, and ability to lead a NFL franchise. Eagles fans need to remember that we asked for this after we saw what happened to Chip Kelly at the end of the year last year. Remember that the Eagles have an entire new coaching staff that includes a first time head coach and a rookie quarterback. Firing Coach Pederson makes no sense for the Eagles at this stage even if you think he isn’t the right man for the job. You can’t keep changing coaches, that’s not how to run and organization. This will take time and you will hit bumps and right now it seems like the Eagles have hit a mountain.
Is Carson Wentz Regressing?
The biggest fear that Eagles fans have right now is Carson Wentz’s performance as of late. Is he regressing? There’s facts that state that he is considering he has one of the worst Quarterback Ratings in the league since week 5 with a 74.48 rating. Since Week 5 Wentz has also thrown just 7 touchdowns as to 11 interceptions. Lastly, Wentz in the first three games was averaging 7.54 yards per attempt, but in his last nine games he’s averaging just 6.29 yards. As a result the Eagles have been struggling on offense to move the ball and pick up first downs. With those few stats you can see the Carson Wentz is not the same guy that he was in the beginning of the year and you can blame it on inexperience and you can say he doesn’t have talent at his exposure, but not every quarterback in the league has elite talent surrounding him. Franchise quarterbacks are supposed to make their teammates better and right now you don’t see that with Wentz. That doesn’t mean he’s a bust and we should worry about getting another quarterback, but just let the kid work it out. Wentz is a gym rat and is a perfectionist the only thing that causes worry is the guidance he will receive from; Pederson, Reich and DeFilippo. Will they be able to fix the problem? That’s to be determined.
-Sean Brennan
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