OK, first of all, there’s no such thing as a jinx.
If Carson Wentz does throw an interception Sunday — even if he throws five interceptions Sunday — it’s not because of this article.
Please remember this.
Jinxes ... don't ... exist.
That said … Wentz has gone three straight games without an interception and has just two this year in 174 pass attempts.
His completion percentage is 60 percent, second-lowest in the NFL.
His yards per game is a career-low 230.
NFL
His yards per attempt is down to 6.6, well below his career average of 7.1 entering the season.
But he’s been able to make up for much of it by protecting the football.
How big is it for Wentz to avoid picks? The Eagles are 16-7 when Wentz doesn’t throw one and 10-12 when he does. They’re 1-5 when he throws more than one.
The Eagles are making do right now without DeSean Jackson, their only real deep threat, and that’s changed the way the Eagles can attack. They have to run the ball and work the short game efficiently, and even though Wentz’s numbers might not jump off the page, as long as he takes care of the ball, they have a good chance to win.
Wentz has always been among the best in the league at getting the ball in the end zone and avoiding interceptions.
His career interception percentage — one every 54 attempts — is 5th-best in NFL history among official qualifiers (minimum 1,500 attempts), and his TD percentage of one every 20 attempts is 15th-best.
The only quarterbacks in history who have also thrown a TD every 20 passes and an INT fewer than once every 50 passes are Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Tom Brady.
Decent company.
Wentz said he’s not out there trying not to throw interceptions, it’s just a product of him running the offense the way he’s supposed to run it and not forcing throws when they’re not there.
“I feel confident dropping back, going through my progressions quickly, guys making plays,” he said. “I feel really confident in the guys that we have out there, that they’re going to be where they need to be and I can play on time. So it’s not something I’m sitting here thinking, ‘I’m not going to put it in harm’s way.’ That stuff’s going to happen. But at the end of the day I feel confident in what we’re doing in the passing game.”
Wentz threw 11 interceptions and 12 touchdowns in his first 11 NFL games.
In 34 games since then he’s thrown 19 interceptions and 68 touchdowns.
Wentz has thrown 127 consecutive passes without an INT since Desmond Trufant got him twice in the first half in Atlanta. His personal longest streak is 175 straight passes without a pick last year. The team record is 233 by Nick Foles in 2013, which broke a 224-pass streak by Michael Vick in 2010. Donovan McNabb had a 186-pass streak in 2006.
The Eagles are facing a brutal stretch on the road against three teams with winning records and defenses ranked among the top six in the NFL overall and top 10 in pass defense.
The Eagles are banged up on both sides of the ball, and striving to find consistency across the board.
Safe to say if Wentz can continue protecting the ball the way he has, they’ll at least have a chance to keep winning.
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