‘Nine sacks — that’s crazy’: Eagles defense pummels Carson Wentz in a win over the Commanders

LANDOVER, Md. — Jason Kelce held up the grass-stained No. 11 jersey that Carson Wentz exchanged with him, but it might have been better served going to one of the Eagles defensive players who pummeled the Commanders quarterback on Sunday.

“I love Carson,” Kelce said of his former teammate. “I do not feel bad at all that he took seven sacks.”

Apparently, even Kelce lost count of the Eagles’ nine sacks during their resounding 24-8 win over Washington. But it wasn’t just sacks that told the story of the defense’s dominance and of Wentz’s woeful showing in his first game against his old team.

The Eagles hit him 17 times, forced him to fumble twice — one of which he lost — and had the quarterback seeing ghosts in the secondary. Wentz’s final passing numbers don’t look egregious, but his first-half statistics were truly indicative of how much he and the Commanders struggled vs. defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s unit.

He completed just 3 of 10 passes for 24 yards and was sacked six times to give Washington a net total of minus-16 yards through the air before the break. Wentz was sacked three times on his first five drops, and coughed up the football in the second quarter when Brandon Graham karate-chopped his arm, setting up the Eagles’ first touchdown.

And the 29-year-old, seemingly rattled, never recovered.

“Not good enough. Definitely not good enough,” Wentz said of his performance. “Hats off to them. That is a good defense. That’s a good team. They got after us and I did not play to my standards, especially early.”

» READ MORE: Carson Wentz chokes, Jalen Hurts dominates in Eagles revenge game

The Eagles want to pressure any quarterback early, but with Wentz, they knew that if Washington got behind, he would hold the ball longer and likely revert to his Superman complex. In his defense, he had very little time in the pocket on the first several sacks.

The quality of Washington’s offensive line isn’t quite what it once was, especially in the interior without injured center Chase Roullier, and defensive tackles Fletcher Cox (1½ sacks) and Javon Hargrave (1 sack) were able to win early with inside rushes.

But the key to the pressure as the game wore on was in the Eagles’ coverages and taking away Wentz’s first reads. Gannon mixed up his calls and used disguise to keep him from getting a pre-snap bead on where to go at the snap. The coordinator hasn’t been as reliant on deep zones and has been allowing his corners to play more man defense.

“We’ve been around him,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said of Wentz. “We know he’s a guy that likes to make plays. We just tried to take away his first read as quickly as possible as we can and make him make another decision fast.

“And by that time the D-line [can finish].”

The Eagles’ front four struggled to get home in the first two games. They recorded only three sacks total and in last Monday’s victory over the Vikings, Gannon called more blitzes than he is normally accustomed to.

But he hardly ever had to send more than four against the Commanders. When you can drop seven, especially on obvious passing downs, and not have to worry about the D-line doing its job, even the best throwers will have trouble finding windows.

Graham had arguably his best game in years. The 13-year veteran notched 2½ sacks, five hits, six tackles, and one apiece of a forced fumble and a pass breakup. Outside linebacker Haason Reddick got off the schneid and tallied 1½ sacks, as did defensive end Josh Sweat. And inside linebacker T.J. Edwards had the Eagles’ last Wentz takedown.

“They did some things,” Washington coach Ron Rivera said, “that we should have been able to handle and we didn’t.”

Rivera said he didn’t consider benching Wentz, which would have been an ignominious irony considering the last game he played for the Eagles, but the coach wasn’t exactly defending his quarterback either.

“I think he could have played better,” he said. “I mean, that’s the truth.”

After the game, Wentz sounded very much like he did during the 2020 season with the Eagles. He said he needed to check down more when deeper routes were taken away. He said he needed to hold the ball with two hands when he scrambled.

But he missed layups, as well, and wasn’t accurate enough on downfield throws.

Wentz said that pregame warmups, as he greeted and hugged many former teammates and Eagles staffers, were “surreal.” He embraced both Graham and Cox before they would return the favor after kickoff, but he said the emotion of the moment didn’t get to him.

“He was just like, ‘Now I’ll know what it feels like to hear BG on the other side,’” Graham said of his pregame conversation with Wentz. “I just told him I hope he has a great year, but just not today.”

FedEx Field was split almost evenly between Eagles and Commanders fans judging by team colors worn. Washington opted not to introduce its offensive starters, likely to avoid Wentz getting booed. But there were plenty of howls once he took the field for his first snap.

“I don’t think our performance was affected by that,” Wentz said. “I’ve obviously been on that side of the ball. I know the Eagles fans travel well and they showed out and they had a lot to cheer for today.”

As did Wentz’s counterpart, Jalen Hurts, the quarterback who replaced him. Hurts threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, with wide receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown catching nearly every pass he threw in their direction.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ DeVonta Smith glides like Batman as his acrobatic catches on a career day sink the Commanders

Wentz never had receivers as talented in his five seasons with the Eagles. He did have an offensive line as good as the one that kept Hurts clean for most of Sunday. The O-line was often injured, but he was never sacked as much despite his habit, one he seemingly hasn’t fixed, of holding the ball too long.

“Nine sacks,” Hurts said of his defense’s performance. “That’s crazy.”