(Photo by USA Today Sports)
Horrible start to the season. Eagles fall to 0-1 after a 27-17 loss to The Washington Football Team. The first opening day loss of the Doug Pederson-Carson Wentz era.
The game couldn't have started any better for the Eagles, getting out to a 17-0 lead, it appeared everything was clicking on all cylinders. Then, it all fell apart and Washington scored 27 consecutive points.
Here are my instant reactions to the ugly loss.
Offensive line: Eagles were without 3 projected starters. Rookie Jack Driscoll filled in for Lane Johnson at RT and Nate Herbig started at RG. Driscoll left the game in the third quarter and Jordan Mailata replaced him. Carson Wentz was sacked 8 times, the most in a single game in his career.
The O-Line looked decent to start the game. Wentz lead the Eagles to an opening drive TD on a throw to Zach Ertz.
The rest of the game, the line struggled mightily. Wentz looked like he was running for his life most of the game.
The 8 sacks were not completely on the O Line, some of them were on Wentz. At times, he held on to the ball for too long instead of getting the ball out quick or throwing it away. In the third quarter, he tries to escape the pass rush, instead of throwing it away, and it turned into a 13 yard sack on third down. Making an easy field goal turn into a 53 yard attempt that was missed by K Jake Elliot.
Doug Pederson: Doug got too pass happy in the second half and moved completely away from the run. This was a huge error. The play calling did nothing to help Carson or the offensive line. There were no adjustments In the play calls made in the second half when the offensive line was clearly struggling. He kept calling plays that had Carson drop back into the pocket when he had lineman in his face on every play. There needed to be more play calls that allowed Carson to roll out of the pocket to buy time for receivers to get open. Poor coaching in the second half.
Carson Wentz: A tale of two halves. Carson looked great in the first half throwing for 2 TD and he looked poised in the pocket. Poor decision making plagued him from that point on. It started with an interception down the sideline at the end of the first half. He threw a costly pick to start the second half and fumbled with 3 minutes left in the game.
Carson has struggled with holding onto the ball too long in the past. There were sacks in the game that could be attributed to this. There were open throws that he missed as well.
Carson’s struggles were most related to a decimated offensive line. But, he did nothing to uplift the performance on the field and bring some momentum back to the Eagles in the second half.
Jalen Reagor and Dallas Goedert: Jalen Reagor has one of the highlights of the game for the Eagles when he caught a 55 yard bomb in the first half. Showcasing his speed as he blew by former Eagles CB Ronald Darby and his ability to track the ball down the field. Dallas Goedert was very impressive. He caught 8 passes for 101 yards and a TD.