With Carson Wentz coming off a career-high four touchdown passes, the 4-1 Philadelphia Eagles feel confident as they prepare to visit the 4-1 Carolina Panthers.
During the Philadelphia Eagles rout of the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Wentz also passed for over 300 yards and finished with a passer rating of almost 150 on throws of over 30 yards.
For the Panthers, Cam Newton reaches this NFC pivotal matchup as the highest rated passer of the last two weeks as he has passed for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns in each of his last two games.
This clash of divisional leaders in the NFL features arguably the best two teams in the NFC. Both team boast quarterbacks that are in the top 10 in passing touchdowns this season with Wentz 6th (10) and Newton 9th (8).
Carson Wentz on third down ranks first in passing yards (574), passer rating (137.8) and conversion percentage (55.9).
Now that Wentz has a better offensive line that gives him improved pocket protection he’s managed to use urgency in the red zone, patience to find open receivers against zone coverage and anticipation, to improve his numbers.
With more time to study the field before the pass Wentz can now anticipate where his receivers are going and find them as they are getting open.
Wentz improvement has allowed the Eagles to score points early in the game and that will be something that the Panthers have to plan against.
To try to contain Wentz the Panthers are probably going to mix it up and use both man-to-man coverage and zone coverage as they pressure him with an aggressive pass rush.
Against a balanced attacked such as the one the Eagles have; the Panthers can load the box with nine people and use the big bodies up front to get backfield penetration and allow linebacker Luke Kuechly to attack the run.
The Panthers are optimistic about their chances because it has been doing a great job winning the battle inside the trenches to control the line of scrimmage and allow just 274 total yards per game, which ranks third in the NFL.
Meanwhile, Newton will try to feast on the Eagles poor secondary as Philadelphia boasts the 29th-ranked pass defense in the NFL. Whether Newton will be able to score on them is another matter because the Eagles allow just 19.8 points per game this season (13th in the NFL).
