Dunlap: Slow Down A Little With This Wentz Talk
Carson Wentz is the greatest.
He's the best; ain't no one better.
He is Unitas with a little Marino mixed about spattered with some Montana. Wentz is a smidge of Otto Graham sprinkled in topped off with a big dollop of (Peyton, not Eli or Archie) Manning.
He's the best. Ever.
Ever, ever.
Ever, ever and then some.
At least that's the impression one would get if they flicked on ESPN over the past few days or scrolled the Internet and did a cursory glance-through of the sports sites to read up on the Philadelphia Eagles' rookie quarterback.
Hey, slow down. Slow waaaaaaay down.
The kid has been good through two weeks. But the truth is, he did it against a couple tomato can defenses that couldn't stop a papercut with a thousand BAND-AIDs.
Sure, you cannot argue with the numbers, as Wentz --- the rookie from North Dakota State --- has won his first two games and gone 43 for 71 for 468 yards with no interceptions, three touchdowns and has a passer rating of 94.1.
But how about this? He did it against the Browns and the Bears, teams that rank 23rd and 24th, respectively, in points per game given up through the first two weeks.
I'm really not trying to fully diminish what Wentz has done, but you would be hard-pressed for a rookie to walk into an easier situation to start his career than the one he got to enter into against these two softies.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeff McLane wrote of Wentz: "he has the mental maturity, the arm strength, a feathery touch, pocket awareness, athleticism and toughness."
He does, I guess.
Through two games.
Two games against the Browns and the Bears.
Now we find out, on Sunday against the Steelers, what this character is all about. The Steelers --- who give up tons of yards but not a whole lot of points --- will most likely not bring many blitzes at Wentz, but rather make him make reads through that intricate zone coverage and attempt to force him into throwing errors.
On top of that, it is a Steelers' defense that has an uncanny way through a couple of games of buckling down, in a big way, in the red zone.
Can Wentz get 7s and not settle for 3s?
If Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins couldn't find many ways to get their teams into the end zone against the Steelers, forgive me if I doubt some guy in his third career game will.
And another thing; can this guy win a shootout against Ben Roethlisberger? Because the safe bet would be that the highly-potent Steelers offense is going to score some points and Wentz would have to match them. I'm not counting on that proposition.
So go ahead and live it up.
Celebrate Carson Wentz's two-game hot streak to start his career and build a damn statue for him right next to that one you have for Rocky Balboa.
Talk about how great he is, Eagles fans.
But you better do it before too long.
I have a feeling this honeymoon ends Sunday evening.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.
