Carson Wentz is back and gets a win vs the Colts, penalties are still a major issue, and the Flyers unveil their new mascot Gritty.
Introduction
I will be recapping the Eagles vs Colts game this past Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, analyzing Carson Wentz’s return to the playing field, the penalty trouble the Eagles keep getting themselves into, and at the end I’m going to talk about the Philadelphia Flyer’s new mascot Gritty who has become an internet meme immediately.
Eagles vs Colts
The Eagles and Colts battled it out at the Linc on Sunday around 1:00PM est. The Eagles were looking for Carson to come back and have a good game and the defense was looking for some redemption from their lackluster game down in Tampa last weekend where they gave up a whopping 400+ yards passing. The Eagles had 2 touchdowns and 2 field goals on the day and the Colts had 1 touchdown and 3 field goals the Eagles ended up having a pretty balanced game between running the ball and passing even though they were missing Jay Ajayi and Darren Sproles. The Eagles had 26 total first downs compared to the Colts 14. One of the big things that influenced the game was the Eagles third down efficiency compared to the Colts. The Eagles had a 42% and the Colts had a measly 16%. The Eagles had the ball for most of the game with possession time of 40:20 which was a little more than doubled the time of the Colts who had 19:40. The biggest drive of the game was the Eagles 11 min touchdown drive in the 4th Quarter that put them ahead 20-16, which ended up as the final result after the Eagles defense came up and provided two stops. Eagles moved to 2-1 and are heading down to Tennessee next weekend for a game vs the Titans, and for the Colts and former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich they move to 1-2 and have a game vs the struggling Houston Texans.
The return of Carson Wentz
The moment Philadelphia Eagles fans have waited for 9 months, that itch we have had just wanting to see our franchise QB play again after his season ending ACL injury last December in LA. The king of the NFC East returned in fashion and opened his first drive of the game with a touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert. Carson’s first drive stat line was 5/7 completions, 55 yards, and the touchdown. After that it wasn’t all too smooth sailing as the Colts started to counter Wentz who favored his tight ends as his first 7 completions were all to his tight ends. The biggest thing most people were looking for in Wentz is to see if his mobility and elusiveness in the pocket was going to be affected after the ACL injury and having the brace on his leg. For the most part Wentz looked like the same old same old from last season using his feet and awareness to get out of tough situations in the pocket and turn zero into nothing. There was a couple of times where Wentz tried to do too much though with the ball and was sacked for holding on to the ball to long. Wentz was sacked 5 times which was definitely not ideal for someone coming back from such a bad injury and having to play on a wet and muddy field didn’t help calm the nerves of Philly fans. Carson did show some rust though which is understandable when you don’t play any game action for over 9 months, he had some throws that were not too accurate, he threw a pretty bad interception which came in a crucial spot during the game giving the Colts excellent field position to try to capitalize on the mistake with a touchdown and swing the momentum of the game. Carson also had a fumble giving the Colts again great field position. Carson Wentz is back though and Philly fans can rejoice because once he gets that rust off of him the NFL will be put on notice. Carson’s returning stat line was 25-37, 255 yards, 1 touchdown.
Laundry was flying everywhere
The Eagles once again had themselves in penalty trouble this past weekend with 10 penalties for 110 yards and most of the issues came from the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles defense bounced back this weekend with a good game especially the secondary… Well for the most part, but once again Jalen Mills hurt the Eagles a lot with pass interference calls on two under thrown passes from Andrew Luck. These PI calls were also poorly timed as well because the first one gave the Colts the ability to put a touchdown drive together in the first half to tie the Eagles at 7-7 when all the momentum was on the Eagles side. The following one was near the end of the game where the Colts were trying to march down the field in the 4th and put a game winning drive together by Andrew Luck. Luckily the Birds defense showed up and shutdown the Colts in the red zone. The Eagles held the Colts to a 1-5 red zone success rate on Sunday. The penalties though were a key reason why this game was even close because it was giving the Colts the ability to keep drives alive and giving them good field position through the day. The Colts though had penalty problems as well which in the end gave the Eagles ability to win the game, by keeping their 11 minute drive alive and it being capped off with a running touchdown by Smallwood. The most crucial play of that drive was a defensive holding call on a 4th and 5 by the Eagles which was incomplete but it gave the Eagles an automatic first down and lead the game into a 20-16 scoreline. Colts ended the game with 11 penalties for 77 yards.
Hello, Flyers marketing team are you okay?
So, on Monday morning the Flyers announced their new mascot Gritty. Gritty looks like the long-lost orange cousin of Oscar the Grouch. So this move was supposed to cater towards kids, but this mascot just looks creepy and will haunt children. Talk about clowns as a fear, looks like the Philadelphia Flyers decided to give the clown a run for their money in a creepy and uncomfortable looking figure. Gritty with his odd looks and characteristics made him an internet meme instantly. Personally I don’t think the Flyers need a mascot and this definitely doesn’t match with “Flyers.” So, looks like we are going to have more comedy relief and nightmares of Gritty for days to come. Welcome to Philly Gritty.
Sources
https://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018092308/2018/REG3/colts@eagles
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