Carson Wentz needs to be a “Two-Handed Monster”

A few days away from an uber-important showdown with the Dallas Cowboys, we still have time to look back at the Philadelphia Eagles 37-27 win over Washington and gauge where the team is at from a schematic and execution standpoint.

After grinding the film into a fine power, that’s exactly what we did on The Kist & Solak Show #161! The good news is we got another comeback performance from Carson Wentz and the younger players like Miles Sanders and Greg Ward Jr. continued to step up in their expanded roles. The bad news is an old problem continues to pop up for Wentz. That would be ball security, as he is now tied for 2nd in the league with 14 on the year.

Here’s a reel of fumbles I deemed the product of poor ball-handling and/or trying to keep a dead play alive.

His numbers now stand exactly as they were during his rookie year, with half (7) of those fumbles being lost. Considering he didn’t put the ball on the turf until Week 6, he’s had a concerning stretch of play in that area. There’s a lot of noise in those fumble snaps, like poor “aborted” snaps and botched hand-offs, but the film above shows too many examples where it’s solely on Wentz.

Those are the costly turnovers that the Eagles can ill afford against the Cowboys. How do you fix it? Jon Gruden had some advice for Wentz during the pre-draft process during his Gruden QB Camp, and it was all about being a “Two-Handed Monster”.

Wentz’s play-style is often considered a “double-edged sword” and that’s not wrong. Quarterbacks like him, Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, and so on all tend to have moments sprinkled throughout games where they tend to take bad sacks but they also have the propensity for pulling out highlight reel magic. For instance, Wentz’s 15-yard touchdown to Miles Sanders is an example of the upside of keeping every play alive.

But bad sacks are one thing, turning the ball over is another. As Wentz said his North Dakota State coaches preached to him, he wants to “end every drive with a kick”. Whether that’s a punt, field goal or extra point, the goal is not to be charitable with the ball.

Wentz does great at this in terms of limiting his interceptions but reckless ball handling has put the Eagles in some needless danger. That comes down to fundamentals, which is all coachable, but needs to be fixed fast. He need to be a “Two-Handed Monster”. It also comes down to his mentality; some plays just aren’t worth keeping alive.

We cover this in more detail and dig into a bevy of other topics and performances from Eagles win over Washington on The Kist & Solak Show #161! Listen on the media player below or click here if the player doesn’t load. New to podcasts?! Check out our guide on how to listen and subscribe to BGN! FLY EAGLES FLY!