The Chicken or the Egg

One of the things that struck me last night is how much I liked the play-calling in the second half. There were toss plays to Boston Scott, designed to take advantage of his speed. There were quick passes to Josh Perkins. The Greg Ward dropped TD was a beautiful play and well-executed, right up until the drop. Doug Pederson and Mike Groh looked like smart, creative offensive minds.

Players made plays. You saw Scott making cuts in the open field and getting an extra 10 yards. There was Ward making some tough grabs. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside made an incredibly impressive over-the-shoulder catch. Perkins caught a short pass and fought his way upfield for a first down. Miles Sanders had a key third down run to set up first and goal.

Were the players suddenly making plays because of better play-calling or did the coaches look smart because the players made plays?

There really isn’t a firm answer. It’s really a bit of both.

And think about how Carson Wentz looked. He was throwing the ball with confidence to Ward and Perkins, guys who were on the practice squad a month ago. Wentz had to trust the new guys. He couldn’t throw to Zach Ertz on every play. He had to give the newbies a chance to show what they could do. Ward did have a frustrating drop, but Wentz came back to him and that paid off. You have to give players a chance to make up for their mistakes.

We do have to keep in mind that all of this came against a bad Giants defense, but this wasn’t Dak, Zeke and Amari lighting them up. This was Carson and the Kids slicing and dicing them.

If the Eagles can bottle up the energy and the “it” the offense had in the second half, they will win the NFC East. I just don’t know if that will happen.

Sometimes you see games like this and get inspired, only to find out it was a major anomaly. I think it can be repeated because no one did anything special. This wasn’t Kevin Curtis posting 221 yards and several TD catches. This wasn’t Bryce Brown running for 150 yards.

The coaches saw plays that worked. They can now build gameplans around the skills the players showed. Wentz should have more confidence in the guys around him. He didn’t have to make any Hall of Fame plays to win on Monday night. He got his guys the ball on time and let them make plays.

The players have to be feeling really good about themselves. They came through in a huge situation. These weren’t hollow numbers in a blowout. The players were getting the job done with the team trailing in the fourth quarter and the season on the line.

Washington will be a tougher test because they have a better defense and they have tape to study. They won’t be caught off-guard by Scott, Ward and the others. They’ll be ready.

I’m very encouraged by what we saw in the second half on Monday night. The Eagles found some key answers and may have just saved their season.

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