Knee-Jerk Reactions: Merry Wentzmas!
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – First thing is first. It's the NFL so you must not overreact. Things change so quickly from play-to-play, to game-to-game, to season-to-season.
And, it was against the Browns. And they're TERRIBLE.
Having said all that, we saw a lot to be optimistic about when it comes to the Philadelphia Eagles.
READ: Eagles Beat Browns In Carson Wentz's NFL Debut
* Carson Wentz and Jordan Matthews lit it up.
* Wentz had four particularly throws that stood out: The touchdown on his first drive to J-Matt, a seed toward the sideline to Nelson Agholor in the second quarter,a bullet to J-Matt on a deep cross on the Eagles' first drive of the second half, and the bread basket third quarter sideline TD to Nelson (who?) Agholor!
* But most impressively? Wentz only made good decisions. 22-37, 278, 2 TD's, 0 INT's.
* Jordan Matthews was the vocal point of the Eagles' offense today. He had a bad drop on Wentz's first career pass and dropped a would-have-been first down in the third quarter on a 3rd-and-4, and then he was excellent.
* Other than that, J-Matt controlled the middle of the field, a soft spot for a bad Browns defense, and made some really great catches. He's an underrated talent at WR.
* Ryan Mathews needs to get fed in this offense.
* 22 carries for 77 yards is nothing spectacular, but the big runs will come.
* Having said that, Kenjon Barner looked pretty, pretty good. 42 yards on just four carries!
* Questionable PI call on Malcolm Jenkins in 2Q on pass intended for Duke Johnson. Crowd and Twitter hated the call. I didn't think it was that egregious. Could have went either way.
* Isaiah Crowell scored on a TD run the next play to cut the Eagles' lead to 10-7.
* Doug Pederson called a decent game. A little bit more first half throwing than I expected.
* However, 2-and-goal half back toss on the Browns' six yard line early in second quarter was so 1997. And then an incomplete fade to DGB Jordan Matthews forced a FG. That was a bad sequence.
* Doug made up for it with a GUTSY 4th-and-4 call, in which Wentz hit Ertz for a first down which set up the beautiful Wentz-to-Agholor touchdown.
* Beau Allen played fullback for few goal-line snaps in the fourth quarter. The first three plays didn't work, but after a CLE penalty, Mathews scored behind Allen.
* Eagles D played a lot of nickle early in the game and we didn't see much Mychal Kendricks
* RG3 made Kendricks look silly in open field in 2Q and Nolan Carroll allowed a key third down conversion…
* ...But Rodney McLeod saved the day with a tipped ball interception, deflected by Jordan Hicks.
* D-line didn't create much pressure on RG3 throughout the game, surprisingly.
* Fletcher Cox did get his though, with a third quarter sack and Connor Barwin had an excellent one-arm sack vs. Joe Thomas in the fourth.
* Brandon Graham had a sneaky solid game too with a tackle for a loss and a forced fumble.
* Eagles' CB's – Carroll, Ron Brooks, and Leodis McKelvin – did not have good games. All were getting beat rather frequently. Have to worry about them against elite wide receivers throughout the season. Like Alshon Jeffrey next week, who had 100 yards receiving today against the Texans.
* Jalen Mills came in for an injured Leodis McKelvin and tackled the crap out of people, including a monster hit on RG3.
* RG3 and the Browns were horrendous, so I'm taking the defensive performance with a grain of salt.
* A great day from Donnie "Long Ball" Jones, of course. He's a tremendous punter.
* Darren Sproles had a vintage Sproles 40-yard punt return in the first half, but also had a few bad drops. Struggled with drops last year a bit, too.
