This is uncharted water for Carson Wentz.
Meaningful late-December football.
Wentz on Sunday leads the Eagles into what literally is a must-win game against the Cowboys, and it’s not hyperbole to say it’s the biggest game of his life.
The Eagles were sputtering along in last place in December of 2016, Wentz’s rookie year. He missed the stretch runs in 2017 and 2018 with injuries.
Now there’s a huge Week 16 game for the division lead against the hated Cowboys, and Wentz is healthy, playing well and ready to go.
And it’s fair to say without Wentz at the top of his game Sunday, the Eagles have little chance of sending 70,000 fans home happy at 7:30 p.m.
I’m excited about it,” Wentz said. “The last couple years didn’t end the way I wanted them to personally, obviously being hurt and everything, so I’m excited just to be playing here in December and with what’s at stake and to be out there with my guys.
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A loss eliminates the Eagles from playoff contention and delivers the Cowboys their second straight NFC East title and third in the last four years. A win means the Eagles will win the division and reach the playoffs if they manage to beat the Giants next weekend in East Rutherford, New Jersey (or if the Cowboys lose to the Redskins).
Wentz has come under a tremendous amount of scrutiny, but he goes into the Cowboys game on a roll. He’s got eight touchdowns and one interception — on a last-second Hail Mary in Miami — in his last three games and has completed 66 percent of his passes and thrown for 300 yards per game during that stretch.
It’s his best stretch since October of last year, before his back injury began affecting him, and if he keeps it up the Eagles will at least have a chance to topple the favored Cowboys at the Linc for only the second time in the last eight years.
He's doing some really nice things for us,” Doug Pederson said. “One of the things is just that he's understanding the offense and where everybody is and spreading the ball around. Of course, our running attack has helped that. The screen game has helped that, and that just comes from me calling more of those plays for him and helping him be successful there.
Although his accuracy and consistency haven’t always been where he wants them and the fumbles have been an issue, Wentz has 25 TDs and seven interceptions this year.
If he throws fewer than four interceptions in the Eagles’ last two games, he’ll join Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers as the sixth player in NFL history with three straight seasons of 20 or more touchdowns and 10 or fewer interceptions.
Wentz has played well against the Cowboys. Among QBs with 100 or more attempts against Dallas, his 97.7 passer rating is fifth best all-time.
And he’s played well at home. His career passer rating at the Linc — that same 97.7 figure — is 12th highest by a quarterback in his home stadium. He’s 19-8 with 48 TDs and 13 interceptions at the Linc.
The Eagles need every bit of that.
They need Wentz at the top of his game to beat a Dallas team that like the Eagles is 7-7 but has won 14 of the last 22 against the Eagles.
The last two weeks Wentz became the first quarterback to lead the Eagles to back-to-back late comeback wins — last two minutes of the fourth quarter — since Michael Vick against the Browns and Ravens the first two weeks of 2012.
This would be a statement win for Wentz. A defining win for Wentz. Or a devastating loss.
“He’s just maturing that way and it's really good to see,” Pederson said. “He's understanding the game, and it takes time. With young quarterbacks and young players in this league, it takes time, and that's where he's headed and it really has been good to see the last couple weeks, especially the overtime win there with New York and then this week to really put the team on his shoulders and say, 'Hey, let's go win the game.’"
Wentz spoke this week about how the concerted effort he made this past offseason to bond more closely with his teammates is paying off.
With DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor all out, Wentz is throwing to some young receivers that he has terrific relationships with, and he said there’s a connection between the trust they developed during the offseason and what we’ve seen on the field.
I think that’s just how it should be, honestly,” he said. “Spending time with your teammates, your brothers, getting to know them on and off the field. So you could say the fruits of that labor are coming to fruition here. But at the same time, that’s how it should always be, it should never change. That should always be my mindset, to just really get to know both sides of the ball. Get to know your teammates. That’s something I love and something a lot of these guys love, just the whole locker room environment, getting to know your teammates and guys from all over the place and the brotherhood and the bond that you share.
"Having the guys down for summer workouts and not just working out on the field but hanging out and playing games and just chilling. I think that goes a long way with just building that trust in our relationship that really comes to life late in games when guys have to rely on each other.
How Wentz plays Sunday against the Cowboys will go a long way toward defining his season and really his career up to this point.
It’s that big for the Eagles’ 2016 first-round pick.
It’s definitely a big game,” he said. “We know the situation. We know what’s going on. We’re treating it like another game, but we’re aware of everything.
By the end of his fourth season, Donovan McNabb had already been to the playoffs three times, won five postseason games and reached two NFC Championship Games.
If the Eagles lose Sunday, Wentz will turn 27 next week without ever having taken a snap in a playoff game. It means he would play his first postseason game at 28 at the earliest.
Wentz can go a long way toward shutting people up with a big-time performance Sunday. If not? Let the offseason and all the questions and doubts begin.
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