Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz didn’t play at all in the preseason, so he had not taken a hit since his knee injury late last season when he got hit for the first time in Sunday’s 20-16 win over the Colts.
Wentz said it “felt great” to get that out of the way and that he was happy with the way he started the game overall. Wentz led a touchdown drive that ended with a toss to rookie tight end Dallas Goedert in the end zone to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead.
“It felt good,” Wentz said in his postgame press conference. “It felt good to finally be out there. It’s kind of a long time coming. Obviously a lot of excitement, a lot of emotions. But coming out the way we did with that hot start going right down the field, going some no-huddle tempo, it felt good.”
The rest of the day would feature more negatives than that opening drive, including an interceptions and a lost fumble as the Eagles had a hard time putting more points on the board. Wentz attributed those turnovers to poor decision-making rather than rust and credited the Colts defense for making things difficult over the course of the afternoon.
They were able to drive for the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter after falling behind 16-13, however, and Wentz said his message to the team at that point was to “just stay together” to get the job done. They did and they’ll head to Tennessee with a 2-1 record as a result.