PHILADELPHIA _ This wasn't the first marquee quarterback matchup of Carson Wentz's young career. He had taken the field this season against Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, and Russell Wilson, all of whom have done what Wentz hopes to do himself one day _ win a Super Bowl.
Going up against Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, also a Super Bowl winner, wasn't just another day at the office, however, even in a season in which the Packers have struggled more than expected.
The Eagles had the misfortune to get Rodgers in one of those games in which he can lift a team all by himself. That's what he did, and, acknowledging all the asterisks provided by the Eagles' depleted offense, that's what Wentz was unable to do. At least not yet.
Green Bay is missing players, too, including two starters on the offensive line, and the Packers came in having lost four straight games. That didn't matter when the Eagles' defense couldn't solve Rodgers, and the Packers' defense did much better against Wentz.
Throughout most of the first half Monday night, the Eagles and Wentz didn't just flirt with disaster. They winked at disaster, bought it a drink, and offered to give it a ride home.
The Eagles, mostly unable to stop Rodgers and the Green Bay offense, were in danger of falling out of the game almost from the start, and Wentz, as he tried to keep them in it, narrowly avoided a number of big hits behind a crumbling offensive line.
Again and again, a Packers defender would break free of a block while Wentz looked for a defender and come within inches of swatting the rookie to the ground, only to see him escape. Wentz scrambled across the line of scrimmage three times for a team-leading total of 26 yards in the opening half, once for a first down and once for a touchdown after his protection broke down.
Despite all that was happening around him, Wentz completed 13 of 17 passes in the half to a collection of receivers that wasn't atop any of the preseason depth charts. Disaster was out there waiting, but Wentz kept dodging it. What looked ominous at the very start turned out to be just a 14-10 deficit at the half and while Wentz wasn't matching Rodgers pass for pass, he was coming closer than a rookie has a right to do.
After posting a quarterback rating over 90 only once in the previous six games _ and that in a loss to Dallas _ Wentz came into Monday night needing a confidence builder of a game. Wentz has said the right things about keeping his poise and his belief in both himself and the offense, but a little positive reinforcement never hurt anyone.
Rodgers and Wentz were each dealing from the same deck for most of the game, drawing on old-school West Coast playbooks that emphasized a healthy mix of runs and passes, low-risk underneath routes, and checkdown options. Rodgers' longest completion in the first half was a 20-yard laser to Davante Adams for a touchdown. His 17 completions averaged 8.4 yards. Wentz completed a 24-yarder to Dorial Green-Beckham and averaged 11.3 yards per completion, but both quarterbacks were usually content to take what the opposing soft-zone coverages were allowing.
Two passes changed almost everything about the nature of the game once the second half began, however. Wentz was leading the Eagles on the opening drive, working his way downfield with a combination of short passes and runs from Wendell Smallwood when he sailed a pass well over the head of Zach Ertz and it was intercepted. On the very next play, Rodgers lofted a perfect 50-yard strike to Adams. The Packers ended up with just a field goal on that drive, but the bomb forced the Eagles to back off on their coverage, giving Rodgers even more underneath room.
The Packers exploited that on their next drive which went 75 yards and put the Eagles behind 24-13 with just under 14 minutes left to play. Rodgers picked them apart, converting four third-down attempts on that drive alone, which made Green Bay 9 of 11 on third down for the game. If the Eagles couldn't get off the field, Wentz couldn't get on it. The interception, combined with the fact the deficit made the play-calling more predictable, sent Wentz's rating tumbling again. When the Eagles had to punt on their ensuing series, time was running out and the Packers weren't going to do anything to slow it down.
Green Bay methodically stomped down the field after getting the ball with just over 10 minutes to play, with help from a couple of Eagles penalties. Rodgers completed a fourth-down pass for 21 yards to Jordy Nelson that pretty much sealed the outcome. One field goal later, the Packers had put away a 27-13 win.
There will probably be thrilling comebacks in the future for Carson Wentz, but this wasn't going to be one of them. It was a game in which the other guy was better. In fact, a lot better. The other guy had more to work with, no question about that, but when the game began no one was as sure of that as they were afterward.
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