3 key riddles Philadelphia Eagles must solve to beat Washington

Why do the Eagles make every opposing quarterback look like Joe Montana?

For 13 weeks, everyone has gone back and forth about the Philadelphia Eagles defense, whether or not its leader, Jonathan Gannon, was too passive, and the visible frustration we’ve seen from some of the stars as a result of an obvious lack of production from players that we thought we’d see more from.

Everyone thought that, because this team decided to hire a former defensive backs coach that never called plays, there would be most certainly be growing pains, and there have been. Unfortunately, the low points pushed the Eagles contingent to levels of panic at times.

Gannon’s unit has also had some rather impressive showings, albeit against inferior competition. Still, watching this unit get torn apart by the likes of Derek Carr and Justin Herbert was maddening, as was the rate at which every quarterback seemed to complete passes against them.

Look at it this way. Zach Wilson, before playing Philadelphia, had only thrown two or more touchdowns twice this season (and he hadn’t thrown a touchdown in any other game that he had appeared in). You’d think that would be a blow to a rookie quarterback’s confidence. Leave it to the Birds to let the young man off of the hook.

In Week 13, Wilson completed just under 61% of his passes, his second-highest total of the season, and he threw two touchdown passes in the first half.

It’s almost maddening when you think about it. The Eagles defense has to be better versus Washington’s signal-caller, whoever that might be (Taylor Heinicke is on the Reserve/COVID-19 list).