Carson Wentz has been great. Boston Scott, Greg Ward, Josh Perkins and all those guys deserve a ton of credit too.
Just don’t forget the coaching staff.
Because over the last month of the season, Doug Pederson, Mike Groh and the rest of the Eagles’ offensive coaches have completely transformed their offense on the fly out of necessity.
And they’ve become more productive.
This answer from Doug Pederson on Monday when asked about the lack of turnovers from Carson Wentz over the last few games was interesting:
I think we’ve changed offensively. I think we understand as a staff who we are, quite frankly, the personnel that we have, and using those strengths to our advantage.
At one point on Sunday, the Eagles had just four of 11 opening day starters remaining: Wentz, Jason Peters, Isaac Seumalo and Jason Kelce.
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And they still managed to put up 400 yards of offense.
In fact, over the last month, the Eagles are getting some of the best production they’ve ever gotten out of their offense and they’re doing it with a bunch of guys who were on the practice squad earlier this season.
The Eagles’ have gone over 400 yards of offense in each of their four games during this current winning streak. That’s the longest streak of 400-yard games in the Pederson Era and is tied for the third-longest streak in Eagles history.
On Monday, when asked what he’s most proud of about his team, Pederson first mentioned his coaching staff. That’s fair. Because injuries have forced inexperienced players into the lineup and the coaching staff has needed to get them ready.
No position has been hit harder this season than receiver, where it seems like a new practice squad player is coming up every week and making plays. So give credit to position coach Carson Walch for getting those guys ready.
But give even more credit to Pederson and Groh for putting together offensive game plans that can be productive with a lack of talent at the receiver position. Wentz is averaging 7.9 air yards per attempt this season, ranking him 18th in the NFL. But he’s making it work.
Earlier this season, Pederson kept saying that Wentz needed to let the offense come to him and just take what the defense was giving him. In a way, the limited personnel has kind of aided that.
I asked Pederson about this last week.
“I think about this question a lot because it's kind of who we are as an offense right now, right, with the personnel that we have,” Pederson said. “One of the things I think that you're seeing with some of the young players, some of the new faces, is that they are just so eager and energetic to be out there and play and they want to play well and they want to do the right thing.
“I think from a game-plan perspective, we try to keep it as simple as we can. We're not moving a lot of pieces around, so those guys can just line up and play fast and I think from a quarterback standpoint, knowing where they are going to be and then aiding with communication throughout the game, and then obviously during the week. But these guys, they are busting their tail for Carson and Carson is trusting them and giving them every opportunity to make plays.”
There are a lot of reasons the Eagles are in the playoffs right now. Wentz is playing great. Their defense has made stops recently. And this team just keeps fighting no matter how many injuries they sustain.
But one of the most impressive things about this team right now is how much the offense is getting out of what it has. This wasn’t what the offense was supposed to look like this season … and that’s what it’s so impressive.
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