Eagles Film Breakdown: Will Isaac Seumalo be benched again? Plus reviews of Carson Wentz and Miles Sanders

Two years ago, Isaac Seumalo performed so poorly in the second game of the season, he was benched the following week. While it would be a stretch to say the Eagles won the Super Bowl because of the switch, the move did stabilize left guard, especially after Stefen Wisniewski wrestled the position full time from Chance Warmack.

Seumalo won back the job last season and performed well enough to earn a contract extension, at least an economical one that keeps him under team control through 2022. But his issues resurfaced in Sunday’s loss at the Falcons as Seumalo delivered arguably a performance as poor as the one in Kansas City in 2017.

Doug Pederson gave no indication that he has plans to sit Seumalo. His backup isn’t as experienced as Wisniewski, who was released before the season and still remains unsigned. Halapoulivaati Vaitai had been filling in for right guard Brandon Brooks in the preseason, but he’s shown little to suggest that he could be an improvement over Seumalo.

“I have the utmost trust in him,” Pederson said of Seumalo Wednesday. “He’ll make the corrections from the other night, he’ll move on. He’s a pro about it. He’s a professional at practice, and he’ll correct it, and I have no issues with him.”

Seumalo may deserve the benefit of doubt. But the Eagles can’t afford to have a turnstile inside, and quarterback Carson Wentz placed in further harm.

Here’s a closer look at the film of Seumalo, with prudence, considering how often he got beat, and segments also on Wentz, his new receivers after injuries to DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery, and rookie running back Miles Sanders:

Seumalo had a solid outing in Week 1. He allowed only one quarterback hit in 41 Wentz drops and helped pave the way for Eagles running backs to top 100 yards rushing. But he regressed significantly against a Falcons interior that had its own struggles in their season-opening loss at the Vikings.

He surrendered two sacks and six hurries in 52 drops, was ineffective in run blocking and committed three penalties. The numbers could have been far worse if not for Wentz. Seumalo was matched up mostly against defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and defensive end Adrian Clayborn when he moved inside on passing downs.

Both Falcons are established veterans, but we’re not talking about Pro Bowl-caliber linemen here. They dominated Seumalo (No. 73). On this third down, a Clayborn (No. 99) bull rush drove the guard back as if he were on skates into Wentz (No. 11). The quarterback also faced pressure on the edge, escaped and would toss an interception before getting clobbered by linebacker Deion Jones (No. 45).

Seumalo took two holding penalties and had a false start. On this third quarter run, he was called for holding after getting beat by Jarrett (No. 97).

Pederson: We know Grady Jarrett is a really good player from the standpoint of getting off the ball and increasing the gap, and a couple times we just over set. We just set too wide and they penetrated the A or B gap.

There were simply too many examples of Seumalo failing to do even the most basic of jobs to chronicle here. It would be an orgy of missed blocks. But it’s possible that Seumalo just went up against foes that were difficult stylistic matchups. Clayborn tends to rush with his head down, which officials are supposed to call.

But it was hard to find excuses for most of Seumalo’s performance, from start to Wentz’s last pass to tight end Zach Ertz (No. 86), which fell agonizingly short of a first down.

Seumalo hasn’t been available for comment thus far this week.

Eagles offensive coordinator Mike Groh: Isaac has played well here in the past and we expect that he’ll continue to do that. He probably didn’t play his best game on Sunday night and I think he’d probably say the same.

Even before he threw a pass, Wentz was without tight end Dallas Goedert, who re-injured his calf during warmups. Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was next to go with a calf injury after just six plays. And receiver DeSean Jackson was the coup de grace when he left a series later with an abdomen strain.

Losing two of his top targets, and the Eagles’ best run blocking tight end clearly factored into the Wentz’s slow start. He was off for most of the entire first half and took a number of hits. There was shot to his left leg, the Jones hit, and he left for six plays to be examined for a possible head injury.

Wentz: Physically, I felt fine. Obviously, I got hit a little bit, but nothing I was too concerned about.

But on his second drive after the Jones tackle, Wentz threw an awkward pass to Ertz that floated well short of his intended target and was intercepted.

Pederson: We ran an out and up with Ertz and he was on the linebacker and had him beat. Carson had to move to his left and just couldn’t get anything on the throw and just nothing there on it.

It also appeared as if he was hit by a glancing Falcons hand just before he released the ball.

As Wentz was being checked on by an independent neurologist, backup quarterback Josh McCown drove the Eagles to the Atlanta 13. Wentz returned and on his first throw missed open receiver Nelson Agholor (No. 13) by a smidge.

Pederson had called a solid red zone play vs. zone, and Wentz might have even had Ertz (No. 86) open over the middle had he looked to his second read. He would turn it around in the second half, however. After a brutal start and a 6.1 first half passer rating, Wentz completed 19 of 27 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown.

His third down completion to receiver Mack Hollins (No. 16) on the Eagles’ go-ahead, fourth quarter drive was a memory maker. With Falcons end Vic Beasley (No. 44) draped on his back, Wentz somehow mustered a throw to Hollins for 17 yards.

Wentz: Third down. Got to stay on the field.

Pederson: The throw to Mack in the fourth quarter was unbelievable. For him to escape the pocket like he did a couple times was unbelievable. And those are things you can’t really coach. You don’t really teach those things. That’s just natural, God-given instinct.

Groh called it heroic.

Groh: It’s just a testament to his strength, not only his arm strength but just his overall play strength and being able to absorb something like that and still deliver a ball.

While Wentz at least had some history with Hollins, he had never thrown a pass to rookie receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in a game. With Jeffery and Jackson out, Arcega-Whiteside played 75 of 81 snaps against the Falcons.

But he was targeted only four times and caught only one pass for four yards. Not only had Arcega-Whiteside had little time to work on chemistry with Wentz, but he didn’t take many practice snaps in the Falcons game plan.

On this pass, Wentz walked over to Arcega-Whiteside (No. 19) pre-snap and basically gave him the heads up that a back-shoulder pass was coming his direction. But for whatever the reason, the receiver didn’t look back at the right time and the pass floated incomplete.

Arcega-Whiteside: It was just timing. That, just like any other route, is going to be different from week to week depending on how the defense plays. … It’s not like I ran the wrong route or he threw it somewhere crazy. It’s just a little bit here and there.

A play later, Arcega-Whiteside ran a short out and Wentz’s pass sailed wide. Groh said that it was the perfect example of a play that would normally be successful if given the proper amount of practice repetitions.

Groh: I don’t know how many reps he’s gotten on that. He wouldn’t have been the primary guy that we would have repped it with, and he finds himself in that position. So he hasn’t gotten a lot of time on that route. Certainly, Carson hasn’t gotten him a lot of time throwing him that route, so we’re a little bit off there. Can we make that play? Sure, we can make that play.

With Jeffery and Jackson sidelined this week at practice this week and unlikely to play Sunday against the Lions, Wentz and his young receiving replacements should have enough time to get on the same page.

Arcega-Whiteside: It doesn’t take long. We’ve been getting reps together since the spring, but now these are game plan reps.

Sanders rushed for just 25 yards on 11 carries (2.3 average) in Week 1, but there were glimmers of promise in several runs. His numbers against the Falcons – 10 carries for 28 yards (2.8 avg.) -- were essentially a reflection of his performance.

It was tough sledding against Atlanta’s front, with Goedert missing, and Seumalo all but absent, but Sanders hardly helped himself. The rookie tried to bounce runs outside too often, when getting north and mustering as much as he could would have sufficed.

On the Eagles’ first possession, they faced second down and 2. Sanders (No. 26) needed only a few yards to pick up a first down, but he went lateral was dropped for no gain.

Groh: There were some moments in there where you’d like him to stick his foot in the ground and get north, and he can’t outrun everybody in this league like he might have been able to do in the past. … It’s been pointed out and he’ll be better for it.

Sanders had the same habit early in his high school and college careers. He could often beat defenders to the corner, because of his superior athleticism, but even at those levels it had to be coached out of him.

Sanders: After watching film I thought there were one or two plays where I felt like I could have just put my foot in the ground and went north. But I’m trying to read the defenders, I’m trying to set up blocks for the o-line, trying to make it as easy as possible.

Sanders will sometimes wait for lanes to develop, but not every running back has Le’Veon Bell’s vision. He has that ability, but sometimes when there’s nothing there, you just have to hit it.

On this inside zone run, tackles Jason Peters (No. 71) and Lane Johnson (No. 65) pulled and sealed off a lane, but Sanders bumped outside, causing both linemen to commit holding penalties.

Pederson: He tried to bounce outside and we got a couple holding calls which are going to happen. There are some things that he can get better, but our confidence in him is really high, extremely high and we are going to continue to play him and get him the reps.

Sanders: I think every rookie struggles with that. That’s what [running backs coach] Duce [Staley] was telling me. Without a doubt, I still think I have the ability to take it outside if I need to and beat anybody with speed. I do have the confidence.