A few weeks ago I compared Carson Wentz to Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from Top Gun. Longtime followers of my work know my penchant for working movie references into pieces of video breakdowns. In the wake of Wentz’s struggles against the Cleveland Browns, it is time to revisit this comparison. And not in a good way.
Those who remember the film probably can recall how Maverick struggled in the wake of the death of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, his Radar Intercept Officer. After Goose’s death, Maverick struggled in the cockpit. He did not trust his eyes. He was hesitating. Bad things were happening as a result.
That is a big part of the issues right now with the Philadelphia Eagles offense. Their quarterback is hesitating. He is not trusting his eyes, and bad things are happening as a result.
In this video breakdown, we’ll walk through three instances of hesitation from Wentz against the Browns on Sunday:
Now, full faith and credit to the Browns, because as you can see on the final two plays their defense does a good job of showing Wentz one look presnap in their response to motion, and then spinning the coverage at the start of the play. That certainly contributed to the hesitation. But as a quarterback if you think, you’re dead – to quote from Top Gun – and right now, Wentz is thinking.
Is there an easy fix? From where I sit, there is not. There are certainly other issues with the Eagles offense, but right now the biggest is in the mind of the quarterback himself. That is hard to fix on the fly.
