If you watched Monday Night Football this week, you might have seen a play near the end of the first half from the Philadelphia Eagles and quarterback Carson Wentz. The Eagles offense had their first good drive of the game going, and on a first-and-10 play Wentz tried to hit rookie wide receiver Jalen Reagor along the right sideline on a curl route. The pass fell incomplete, and could have been intercepted.
Immediately, both Brian Griese and Louis Riddick broke down the play, and highlighted what went wrong. Wentz had an opportunity to throw a seam route against single-high coverage, and ignored it, opting instead to throw a curl route along the sideline.
Sound familiar? It might, as it was the kind of play highlighted here last week as one of the problem with Wentz and the Eagles offense right now.
But a deeper cause for concern is this: Perhaps we should have seen it coming. This is a seam route story starring Carson Wentz:
As you see at the end, I was one that defended that play from Wentz back in the day. Well, maybe I was wrong, and maybe we should have seen this coming.
Now, there are a lot of problems with the Eagles offense right now, beyond the quarterback. But for those wondering if regression is real, here it is, in video form. Sometimes quarterbacks either are who they are, or revert to muscle memory in hard times. That might be the story of Wentz’s 2020 season.