3 Philadelphia Eagles wrinkles that can cure those Carson Wentz concerns

2. The Philadelphia Eagles’ coaches need to make better in-game adjustments.

Everything starts with Doug Pederson. When things are breaking down for Wentz, it’s Pederson’s job to reel him in. Wentz’s over-aggressiveness caused him to narrow his vision and make some bad decisions.

So, here we are, days later, and Doug Pederson is being criticized for not running the ball more, but if we’re being honest, that might not have solved the problem. Doug definitely became predictable in his play-calling. There’s no denying that. he could have run a few drag routes over the middle and maybe a few crossing routes at the intermediate level. Both of those ideas utilize the speed of these receivers and allow Wentz to get the ball out quickly to avoid the pass rush.

The Birds ran some hitch routes to attack zone coverage in the middle of the field at times, but they needed more crossing and drag routes for situations like when Washington went with man coverage. Even when they were in zone coverage, Philly could’ve attacked with those routes.

At the same time, while the run game wasn’t there, Doug could’ve gotten creative to open it up. Only five of the 16 designed run plays went for more than five yards. Two of those were draws on third and long with no one in the box. Take those two runs away and the Eagles had 14 carries for 29 yards (just over two yards per rush), and a big part of that was the type of run plays they called.