5 reasons Carson Wentz’s Week 1 performance wasn’t a fluke
By John Buhler
4. Ray Horton’s defense isn’t good, but not vanilla
Don’t down play Wentz’s Week 1 performance because of a porous Browns defense. Cleveland’s roster is one-third rookies. The Browns have good coaches, but even defensive coordinator Ray Horton needs time to get his personnel in ideal positions to win ball games.
This was not a vanilla defensive scheme that Wentz went up against on Sunday. Cleveland might have been outmanned on Sunday, but the Browns defense wasn’t deplorable. It was offensive ineptitude that did them in. Holding Philadelphia to 29 points with bad personnel is commendable.
Wentz didn’t go up against a pre-season defense on Sunday. He had to make second and third reads from the pocket to deliver strikes down field. Wentz didn’t scramble from the Eagles pocket, as he only had two rushing attempts for a yard. He played from the pocket like a seasoned, veteran NFL quarterback would do.
It was impressive to see Wentz work the field pre-snap. Keep in mind he played in a run-first offense at the FCS level in college. How many blitz packages and cover schemes did he have the deconstruct at the line of scrimmage in Fargo?
Wentz will still have to work very hard at slowing the game down pre-snap, but did a solid job of that against a weak Browns defense in Week 1. He won’t be great at this in year one, but at least Wentz has shown an interest in playing above the shoulders football.
Next: 3. Wentz realizes Jim Schwartz's defense can be relied on