Carson Wentz needed fewer than 15 minutes Sunday to set a career high with three touchdown passes, becoming the first quarterback in franchise history to accomplish the feat in the first quarter of a game.
He added one more as he completed 21 of 30 pass attempts for 304 yards with the four touchdowns against an interception for a career-best 128.3 rating in the 34-7 demolition of the Arizona Cardinals.
The Eagles are 4-1 and have scored at least 20 points in nine consecutive games, the longest streak in the league. No team has posted more 20-point games since the start of Wentz's career than the Eagles with 18 and only two others - Atlanta and New England - have matched that mark.
On the game's opening drive, Wentz converted not one, but two third-and-11 situations with throws to tight end Zach Ertz and wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, respectively, before capping off the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Trey Burton, who beat safety Deone Buccannon off the line of scrimmage, in the left corner of the end zone.
After a 76-yard punt return by Kenjon Barner to set up the Eagles' second offensive drive, Wentz put another six points on the board with an 11-yard touchdown over the middle to Ertz on, you guessed it, third down.
Wentz capped off the historic quarter with a 59-yard catch-and-run touchdown by wide receiver Torrey Smith, his first as an Eagle. And, of course, it was also on a third-down play.
Wentz's fourth and final scoring throw of the afternoon came in a very difficult third-and-19 scenario from the Eagles' 28-yard line. There aren't too many calls in the playbook for that predicament.
The Cardinals rushed seven defenders leaving only four players in man-to-man coverage. Wentz stood tall in the teeth of the blitz as wide receiver Nelson Agholor beat his man, safety Budda Baker. The quarterback put enough air under the ball allowing the speedster to get it near the left sideline at the Arizona 30-yard line. Agholor spun on a dime at the 15, delivered a couple of stiff-arms, and freed himself of Baker to get to the 1-yard line before turning around and falling down backward in the end zone for the 72-yard score.
Wentz wouldn't say whether or not Sunday was the best performance of his career. It was another milestone in the development of the young quarterback with a critical Thursday night matchup against a Carolina Panthers team that is also 4-1.
Design by Christine Dorn