4 reasons why the Pittsburgh Steelers will win in their week 5 match up vs. the Eagles

Carson Wentz was once a heralded talent in 2017. He doesn’t look the same.

Carson Wentz is clearly far removed from his remarkable 2017 season. Through 4 games in 2020, he has already tied his total interception mark from 2017 which is 7. He is making a consistent amount of bad decisions.

Take this play during their Week 3 match up with the Bengals. It was a quick 3rd down throw in which Wentz went to force the ball towards his favorite target, Zach Ertz. I understand the desire to want to throw to your best talent on a 3rd and 7 late in the 3rd quarter when you are losing. But he telegraphed where this ball was going. On top of that, he either missed entirely or was too overconfident in Ertz’s ability to fight for the ball and he doesn’t throw it to the back shoulder. He gave LeShaun Sims way to much of a chance on this throw.

Wentz likes to move around and try to make big plays, or throw it right after the snap based on his reads. But he has been forcing the ball and just flat out not making good choices. If he lets the play develop he might see have seen #16, Deontay Burnett, currently on the practice squad, beating his man for position on a slant that likely would have led to a first down.

The Bengals had 7 near the line of scrimmage which is more than likely why Wentz got the ball out so early. However, Sims dropped back defending Ertz while another defensive back played the RB coming out of the backfield. It meant a 5 man pass rush vs his 5 offensive linemen. If he takes one extra second, as the protection held up fairly well on this play, he converts a first down to a practice squad wide receiver who ran his route perfectly.

He has been very rough when reading defenses pre-snap so far in 2020. With Pittsburgh liking to keep a lot of movement around the line of scrimmage, and mixing up their blitzing schemes it looks like Wentz’s head is going to be spinning in this match up. Another factor is that the Eagles picked Jalen Hurts with a second-round pick in 2020.

Jalen Hurts reportedly performed very well throughout training camp. I read several reports saying that he did especially well in red-zone situations. I think that Hurts performing so well in this tumultuous preseason, with Wentz having mixed reviews, has only added to the pressure on Wentz to be able to deliver. It is rough when your back up QB leads your team on a story-book playoff run to win the super bowl against the greatest QB/head coach duo of all time. Furthermore, as the talent around Wentz has changed, and in some areas aged, it is looking like Wentz is not as good as we thought.

I really believe that Wentz is going to struggle mightily against this Steelers’ defense and if his interception woes persist at this capacity, he is not giving his team much of a chance in this game. The Pittsburgh Steelers should be able to force multiple interceptions out of Wentz.