3 Keys to a Philadelphia Eagles win versus San Francisco in Week 4

1. The Philadelphia Eagles need Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson to step up.

Those last three games are in the past. Carson Wentz cannot let those bad performances stay in his head. There’s no time to dwell on what was, except in the film room of course so that he can improve. If the Eagles are going to win versus the 49ers, Wentz has to step up. The footwork needs to be better and the decision-making needs to be on point. This week, there is little room for error.

He needs to be on his A-game because the 49ers’ defensive coordinator Robert Saleh isn’t going to make it easy for him. Saleh likes to disguise a lot of his looks especially at the line of scrimmage with exotic blitz packages. He’ll also call a lot of ‘Cover 3’ so Wentz needs to take note of that and attack it when he sees familiar looks from his film study.

Once again, Doug Pederson also needs to make Wentz’s job easier. Rich Scangarello and Marty Mornhinweg are in the building for a reason and Pederson needs to utilize more of their ideas. Pederson said that Scangarello was playcalling in the two-minute drills in a recent press conference, and both of the Eagles touchdowns in Week 3 came in the three-minute drill.

While Doug can’t call designed rollouts on every play, he can also still call them more than once or twice. Wentz is at his best when he’s improvising, and his issues with his footwork might not be as exposed. It would also help to simplify his decision-making process. Running the ball effectively and mixing up the play calling will aid that.

Doug needs to attack the ‘Cover 3’ defense when it is called with seam routes, with four vertical routes, with a post route from the slot to take the middle safety away, in-breaking routes behind the linebackers, and with the ‘flood’ concept to overload a zone on one side of the field. No more excuses can be made for this duo. It’s time to get in the win column.