It’s QB Wentz back under center for Eagles
This was going to be a nice little storyline: Frank Reich returns to the city where helped deliver a Super Bowl title.
It still is a pretty cool angle. Reich was the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator for the first two years Doug Pederson was the head coach and was integral in helping the Eagles win the first Super Bowl in franchise history last February. He was and still is very well respected among the Eagles coaches and inside their training facility.
“I think it’s not uncommon to go against friends, and I will go on the record with Frank – I think Frank is one of the best guys I’ve ever met in this business,” said defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. “I don’t know if you guys (Philly media) share that same opinion, but just an absolute gem of a man. I really admire him, and he did a great job for us here.
“He would always bounce ideas off of me, I’d always bounce ideas off of him, ask, ‘Hey, what are you thinking in this situation.’ I would ask him to look at plays that we would run against the scout team and say, ‘Hey, is this a legitimate bluff or a legitimate — did you believe that this was a blitz, or did this blitz fool you or whatever?'”
Nevertheless, this is a storyline that is a distant second to the return of Carson Wentz behind center.
It was just over ninth months ago when Wentz lay on an operating table having his left knee reconstructed after two ligaments snapped in a Dec. 10 game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Wentz was probably going to be the league’s MVP – and you could argue that maybe he still should have been – when he suffered the devastating injury. He tore his knee and then a play later threw his 33rd touchdown pass of the season, which broke the team’s record held by Sonny Jurgensen in 1961 when Jurgensen threw 32 in 14 games. Wentz did it in 13.
Wentz had just seven interceptions as well while leading the team to an 11-2 record while healthy. It was a record that set the Eagles up for home-field advantage through the playoffs.
Enough of the recent history lesson, though.
Wentz is back, and now the issue could become how he shakes off the first time he gets hit and how to prevent him from containing his emotions and trying not to do too much.
“I hope it’s not a hard one,” said Pederson about the hit.
As for the emotions, the coach added: “It’s a home game, his first start, there’s going to be emotions regardless. I can talk to him until Sunday, kickoff, and there’s always going to be that high emotion and anticipation taking the field. You kind of want him to experience that and what that feels like. It’s kind of like his first start again a couple years ago. It’ll be a good feeling. It’ll be good for our city, it’ll be good four our team, obviously.”
SERIES HISTORY: 19th regular season meeting. Colts leads series, 10-9. The two teams have never met in the postseason. The Eagles have won the last two games in the series. The most recent victory came in 2014, with the Eagles winning 30-27. The Eagles won the last game the two played at Lincoln Financial Field, on Nov. 7, 2010, by a 26-24 score.
