Carson Wentz followed his exceptional Week 1 performance in Philadelphia’s win over the Cleveland Browns with another solid showing as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Bears with a final score of 29-14 on Monday Night Football.
Carson Wentz did enough to beat the Bears 29-14 and get the Eagles to 2-0
It was a strong showing for Philadelphia’s rookie quarterback on “Monday Night Football.”
Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
Since 2012, each rookie quarterback who started an NFL game in Week 1 regressed at least somewhat in their Week 2 performance. The same was true for Wentz, but he still played well enough to help the Eagles secure the victory.
Wentz completed 21 of 34 passes for 190 yards and one touchdown, which was a statistical decline from his Week 1 effort of 278 yards and two touchdowns. Still, Wentz’s performance was enough to get the job done despite taking a couple of big hits from Chicago’s defense.
Part of the reason for the Eagles’ success was the way Wentz took care of the football. He didn’t throw any interceptions, and he didn’t fumble the ball at all. He did fumble twice against the Browns, but the Eagles recovered both times.
Philadelphia converted 3 of 3 fourth-down attempts, demonstrating Wentz’s poise under pressure. The Eagles also had the edge in time of possession in this game with 36:05, which was interesting considering that Philadelphia wasn’t able to get much going on the ground against the Bears.
Ryan Mathews had just 32 yards on nine carries, and Darren Sproles added 40 yards on the ground. Mathews had two rushing touchdowns, though, which certainly helped the Eagles maintain control of the game.
The Bears, on the other hand, had difficulty getting anything going offensively. This can partly be attributed to quarterback Jay Cutler leaving the game with an injury to his throwing hand, but Chicago’s offense wasn’t faring all that well before Cutler was injured.
The Eagles’ defense was aggressive, landing three sacks, forcing two fumbles, and intercepting Cutler once. Before leaving the game, Cutler completed just 12 of 17 passes for 157 yards and no touchdowns. Brian Hoyer, Cutler's backup, didn't fare much better. Hoyer was 9 of 12 for 78 yards.
A late-game punt return touchdown by Eddie Royal breathed some life into the Bears, but it wasn't enough to change the outcome.
Wentz, helped by the Eagles’ defense, did enough to get the job done and get Philadelphia to 2-0.
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