Carson Wentz vs Nick Foles: Debunking fan-made myths from this past season
Myth Number One:
“The Eagles would’ve only had six wins if Wentz stayed in!”
You’ve got to love the good ol’ “shoulda-coulda-woulda” game from Eagles fans. “If Alshon Jeffery catches that ball in New Orleans during the divisional round, the Eagles are right back in the NFC Championship!” Okay, so with that logic we could say “If Nick Foles doesn’t throw an interception while up 14-0, the momentum doesn’t completely shift into the Saints favor and the Eagles win!” The hypotheticals present zero factual statements, just opinions.
Who’s to say the Eagles don’t rally behind Wentz the way they did with Foles for the final three games of the season? Wentz’s record under center this season was an underwhelming 5-6. But why all of the sudden are the six losses all on Wentz? Did we forget how the outcome came about for a couple of the losses the Eagles had?
Sept 30th vs. Tennesee
Let’s take a trip down memory lane for a second when the Eagles faced the Tennesee Titans late in September. Wentz and the offense drove the ball down the field while trailing by three, and they managed to get a field goal off with 16 seconds left to go.
Then, the game went into overtime where the Eagles managed to put up another three points. Carson Wentz and the offense left the game with the lead. The Eagles defense then allowed a 75-yard walk off touchdown drive to lose the game, which included the 4th and long that everybody was ready to cut Corey Graham for.
Oct 21st vs. Carolina
This is the game that sparked up the entire “Carson Wentz isn’t clutch” conversation. The Eagles were up 17-0 by the start of the fourth quarter. By that time, Doug Pederson decided to take the conservative approach to kill the clock, as many teams would. The Eagles offense wouldn’t score again at that point, but their defense had a total collapse.
With 10 minutes left to go in the game, the Eagles defense allowed three scoring drives. One for 80 yards, another for 87 yards, and the final one was 69 yards. Somehow though, that loss got pinned on Wentz because the entire offense couldn’t ramp up a final comeback drive to come back and win the game. Well, the Eagles shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.
Dec 9th vs. Dallas
This was Wentz’s final game. Now, I know the referees were absolutely horrible, and the Eagles got the short end of the stick when it comes to calls, but we won’t make excuses. Wentz wasn’t perfect this game, but he was far from the reason why the Eagles lost. In fact, ‘Clutch Carson’ was in full effect, but once again the defense didn’t give him a shot to come away with the win.
The Eagles were down 16-9 with seven minutes left to go in the fourth. Wentz led the offense down the field for a score and was able to tie it up at 16. Eleven seconds later, the Eagles allowed a 75-yard touchdown pass. Wentz then managed to get the offense back in for seven points in order to tie it up. Unfortunately, the Dallas Cowboys offense got the ball first in overtime and scored on a 75-yard drive, never allowing the Eagles offense on the field in overtime.
There are three games right there that are tough to throw all on Wentz. So that 5-6 record that Wentz had could easily be flipped to 8-3 if the defense holds up their end of the bargain. So to automatically say that the Eagles would lose out for the final three games of the year would be utterly foolish and an unfair assumption for the franchise quarterback.