Donnellon: Eagles' rookie coach not helping rookie QB

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The assumed advantage of having Doug Pederson as your head coach and Frank Reich as your offensive coordinator is that your rookie franchise quarterback has two gurus expediting his education.

But if the head guru is making his own set of rookie mistakes - and arguably the more toxic ones - then isn't the opposite also true?

Namely, that Pederson's learning curve is impeding Carson Wentz's learning curve. And it's threatening to erode his early confidence, and the confidence of a team that surprised even itself with that 3-0 start, a team that in the six weeks since has left us with a recurring impression that other teams have learned more about the Eagles than they have about themselves.

That's the lesson I've learned over the last five weeks of football, four of which have ended with losses. Three times those losses hinged on a couple of plays, and on more occasions than not, awful beginnings haunted potentially happy endings.

That was one story line to the Eagles' 28-23 loss to the Giants at MetLife Stadium Sunday, one clearly preferred by a coach who helped that narrative in bucking the conventional NFL wisdom of taking your points on the road where you can find them, a staple employed by teams with even more experienced offensive skill players than this team possesses.

Twice in the first half the Eagles tried and failed to convert on fourth-and-short. Twice they were stopped by Steve Spagnuolo's defense, which played much of the game as if it knew the Eagles' plays better than the Eagles did. Eight years under Jim Johnson, eight years of Andy Reid coaches meetings might have something to do with that.

Pederson said repeatedly afterward that he might have taken the points had the Eagles not fallen behind by two touchdowns via two early Wentz interceptions.

"There's a fine line between being crazy, being borderline crazy and doing the right thing," he said.

Well, no, there's not. It's a big chasm, one that separates coaches who instill confidence with their decision-making from those who breed doubt via it; one that separates long-term head coaches from overmatched ones.

"I felt like at the time it was the right thing to do," Pederson said. "It's a momentum thing, it's an opportunity the way we were playing to really show confidence in our offense."

Well then, do this: Allow your offense to punch it through on that fourth-and-2, not start your quarterback in the shotgun and ask him to gain it from there. Or have your quarterback dive into the line that later in the half for that 1 yard instead of handing it off to 5-6 Darren Sproles.

You want to roll the dice? Throw them against the wall, don't try to finesse them.

Pederson had other head scratchers. He burned a second-half timeout on an extremely unlikely challenge. A long pass after the first of two fourth-quarter interceptions of Eli Manning - being aggressive - caught no one by surprise and led to a momentum-snuffing three-and-out.

And when the Eagles' defense gave its head coach one last chance to salvage the day with a second interception inside of the final two minutes? Five consecutive pass attempts amid blitzes placed a final punctuation mark and left Wentz in an all-too-familiar pose, helmet lifted above his head on the sideline as the opposing quarterback took a knee.

Wentz had a hand in this, of course, as he has with the other near-misses. The two early picks were awful. Simply, he is not the same quarterback that began the season 3-0, began with such touch on his passes, handled blitzes as if a 10-year pro, took care of the football, balanced his risks against his rewards.

What's changed? Working behind an offensive line that now includes a rookie and a journeyman, Wentz is not nearly as comfortable as he was at the start. Balls sail high off his back foot, his feet shift often, throws are hurried and forced.

Pederson acknowledged this. I asked him if his aggressive approach, perhaps, was operating in reverse of its intent, siphoning confidence instead of strengthening it.

No, said the coach. "You've got to know his makeup and chemistry, how he's built and how he's wired. We're going to learn from this as a team."

What they learn - that's the fine line part between the right thing and crazy. Pederson vowed Sunday night to "stay aggressive."

"I think I have to," he said. " . . . This is part of our growth process on offense. Rookie quarterback, new receivers, got a veteran offensive line . . . we're trying to build this thing and try to do it right. By putting them in these situations, they're going to be better for this down the stretch. Somewhere it's going to pay off for us. It's going to pay off for all of us."

It would be good - for both of these under-the-microscope rookies - if that somewhere happens someday soon. Because with Atlanta, Seattle and Green Bay on the immediate horizon, the lessons aren't getting any easier.

@samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon