In Carson Wentz vs. Jonathan Gannon, the Eagles should have a big edge

The consummate Carson Wentz play can change from week to week, from snap to snap, from breathtaking to brainless in the blink of an eye. One minute he’s shedding a pass-rusher and snapping a throw 40 yards downfield to an open receiver. The next, he’s holding on to the football too long, shifting it from his right hand to his left for an ill-advised heave from the back of the end zone. The good and the bad with him are never separated by more than a split-second decision in his mind.

This was true when he was the best quarterback in the NFL through most of 2017, with the Eagles. This was true in 2020, when he was pretty much the worst. This has been true ever since, with the Indianapolis Colts and now the Washington Commanders.

And this is the reality that will serve as the latest litmus test this season for Jonathan Gannon and the Eagles defense. They were terrible against the Detroit Lions and terrific against the Minnesota Vikings, and Sunday’s game against Wentz and Washington at FedEx Field can be a tie-breaker and maybe a trendsetter for Gannon, a reassuring sign that the second-year coordinator can finally be trusted fully.

At Ford Field two weeks ago, the Eagles couldn’t hold up against the run or generate any pressure on Jared Goff. Then Gannon unfurled a completely different game plan against Kirk Cousins and the Vikings, both in strategy and in results. The Eagles blitzed 24% of the time against Cousins.

“We were talking about it throughout the week, putting in some new play calls,” linebacker Kyzir White said. “We know it’s always a possibility with JG. He’s a great coordinator, and he loves to mix things up.”

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The aggressive approach made perfect sense: Cousins is smart and an accurate passer, but his arm is closer to a slingshot than it is a rifle, and he doesn’t want to keep the ball in his hands any longer than he has to. So come after him in waves, force him either to get rid of the ball quickly or take a sack, and you’ll create some opportunities for turnovers. Sure enough, Cousins threw three interceptions in the Eagles’ 24-7 victory and would have thrown four or five, if Darius Slay could catch as well as he can cover.

Wentz is, in many respects, the anti-Cousins, relying less on timing and precision than on his size and strength, willing to wait and wait and wait and force the ball downfield in the name of making, or trying to make, a big play.

“That’s just going to give our guys more opportunities for sacks,” White said. But the Eagles shouldn’t have to blitz much against the Commanders. Washington’s offensive line is one of the weakest areas of its team, which means that Gannon can send just four men after Wentz and expect them to pressure him.

The Eagles sacked Cousins twice; Fletcher Cox and Josh Sweat got him. It would be a disappointment if they didn’t double that number against Wentz.

“We’re winning at a high rate,” Gannon said when asked how successful the four-man rush was against the Vikings. “I think if we keep winning at a high rate the production will come. You saw a couple of sacks — the strip sack by Fletch, Sweaty ended the game. A couple of those [interceptions] were four-man rushes. Some guys won. They hit the quarterback. I like where we’re at right now.”

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Really, Sunday should present the best of all worlds for Gannon and the Eagles. Because blitzing Wentz is, or should be, unnecessary, Gannon can have seven defenders drop back into coverage, threatening to either confuse Wentz or give him nowhere to go with the ball. And since Wentz is so reluctant to take what an opposing defense gives him, since his instinct is to disregard the safe, short, check-down throw for the dangerous pass, those same opportunities for interceptions that Cousins gave the Eagles should be there again against Wentz.

They should be there, too, because throughout his career, Wentz has had little trouble creating them without any help. This is a quarterback who led the NFL in interceptions in 2020 and in fumbles in 2016, who fumbled a remarkable 26 times over the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The very qualities that allow him to thrive — his physical traits and his belief that he can always make the biggest of plays — are also those that often ruin him.

“He’s big and strong,” Whte said. “A lot of times, when he’s one-on-one and a guy thinks he has him sacked, Carson can swing him off.”

And a lot of times, Carson can’t. Or Carson chucks the football into double coverage. Or Carson does something else that, once again, gets people shaking their heads and wondering what he was thinking.

The Eagles are better than the Commanders, but if Jonathan Gannon and his defense can’t coax at least a few of those moments out of Wentz, the superior team could lose Sunday, and it will deserve to.