Going into Sunday's NFC Wild-Card game Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, Carson Wentz and Josh McCown shared an uncommon bond.
Neither had played in an NFL playoff game.
Both played Sunday.
That's not the way the Eagles drew it up.
Wentz did not finish his first two seasons in the league. He was on his way to MVP status in his rookie season when he blew out his knee in Los Angeles. Enter Nick Foles. You know the rest. It was a carbon copy in Year Two, with Wentz suffering a broken bone in his back. Again Foles rallied the team to a playoff win before falling to the Saints.
McCown has played a few more seasons than Wentz. He's 40. Has played for nine different teams in a 17-year career. But he had never tasted the playoffs - before yesterday.
That is not to say there was any plan for him to play yesterday.
McCown gave it everything he had.
It wasn't enough.
None of that is what will stick in the craws of Eagles fans this morning.
Instead, they will curse the cruel fate that hangs over Wentz, and wonder what game the refs and the NBC crew that was televising the game were watching.
Eight plays into the game, Wentz had started to scramble out of the pocket - but was still behind the line of scrimmage - when he was tripped up and dove forward.
It was at this point that Seahawks defensive end Jadaveon Clowney lowered his head, speared Wentz in the back of the head with a helmet-to-helmet hit, and drove his head into the turf.
Wentz, the telltale turf still stuck in his facemask, appeared groggy when he got up, but stayed in the game.
He would eventually go into the blue medical tent, and then retreat to the locker room. He would not emerge again.
With the 40-year-old McCown at the helm, the Birds moved the ball and kept getting close, but could not close the deal. They did not put the ball in the end zone.
The game was there for the taking, but a team that had withstood an unheard of series of injuries could not survive one more, this one to the most critical player on the team - Wentz.
Wentz will be back next season. It's unlikely McCown will be. The same holds true for many of his teammates.
It will take a lot longer for the NFL to explain how no penalty was called on this play. How the crew that handled the game - which had developed a reputation for calling everything - called nothing on this play. Not spearing. Not intent to injure. Not hitting a defenseless player. Nothing.
Clowney likely will be fined by the league. It won't make any difference.
Ask yourself this: If that is Drew Brees, or Aaron Rodgers, or Tom Brady, do you think there is no call. The refs ruled the contact was "incidental." Really?
Don't blame Wentz for this.
Blame the cruel fate that seems to be following him around.
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