MIAMI — Carson Wentz did enough for the Eagles to win on Sunday against the Dolphins.
The fact that the Eagles didn’t win is obviously a problem. And it’s a hallmark of bad teams. They’re finding different ways to lose.
In the previous two losses, the Eagles scored just 19 total points, while the defense held two Hall of Fame quarterbacks to 17 points each.
And then on Sunday, the Eagles’ offense was able to explode (it’s all relative) for 31 points! But on the same day, their defense gave up 37 to an offense that was ranked 30th in the NFL, scoring fewer than 15 points per game, and led by a 37-year-old journeyman quarterback.
It was a total role reversal in the Eagles’ 37-31 loss at Hard Rock Stadium. But the result was the same. Another loss.
Wentz noticed it too — that the Eagles’ offense and defense can’t seem to play well at the same time.
“Obviously we had a couple really bad showing offensively and we came out here and put up points,” Wentz said. “But I believe in this defense. I believe in the offense. I think we’re going to get this thing going in the right direction.
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“Obviously, it’s tough to lose the way we did, the circumstances, like I said earlier. But a lot of faith we’re going to get this thing going.”
I understand that Wentz has to have faith things are going to turn around, but it’s hard to imagine that in Week 14, all of a sudden, things are just going to click. We have to face the facts here: This is a bad football team. Sunday was their third straight loss, the first time they’ve done that since Doug Pederson’s first season as head coach.
I thought Wentz actually played pretty well on Sunday. Sure, he made a few big mistakes. The 10-yard sack in the third quarter just can’t happen; it probably cost the Eagles three points. And he missed a deep ball to Alshon Jeffery.
But, overall, Wentz wasn’t the problem on Sunday. He threw for 310 yards with three touchdowns. And his passer rating before that intercepted Hail Mary — which was a good throw, by the way — was 104.9.
And let’s not forget that Wentz hit Zach Ertz inside the red zone in the third quarter up 28-20 and the tight end just dropped an easy ball.
Some of this probably sounds like more excuses for Wentz, but it was hard to watch that game and not walk away thinking the rest of the team let him down. Wentz didn’t give up 37 points, he didn’t commit 10 penalties for 91 yards, he didn’t drop passes.
At the same time, he knows he can still be better.
“Every game is different, but at the end of the day, we’re not making enough plays in critical situations to win ballgames,” Wentz said. “We’ve been close in a lot of these, and just collectively as a team, we’re just coming up short in those critical situations and it starts with me. I’ve got to be better in a lot of those big-time situations too.”
The Eagles have four games left in the 2019 season. Technically, they can still win out and win the NFC East.
But after losing to the Dolphins, it’s hard to imagine that happening … no matter how the team tries to spin it.
“That’s good football team,” Pederson said of the Dolphins, who entered Sunday with two wins and an NFL-low point differential of minus-183.
The Dolphins, of course, are not a good football team. They’re one of the worst teams in the league.
So what does that make the Eagles?
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