By Patrick Del Gaone, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
There are many attributes and abilities that can be taught to incoming NFL quarterbacks, but according to Doug Pederson, the patience and poise that Carson Wentz displayed within the pocket isn’t one of them.
One day after defeating the Cleveland Browns in his inaugural game as Eagles head coach, Pederson addressed the media and the inevitable questions about his rookie signal-caller’s impressive debut.
"For him to have that kind of poise in the pocket, for his first start, you just can’t teach that," Pederson said. "The patience that he had to let receivers come open. The one third-down play he hit Jordan on a backside dagger route, and I mean he just hung in there, hung in there, and it was a nice tight-window throw. Those are the things you see from a more veteran-type quarterback, where young guys tend to wanna scramble in those situations. The poise was just tremendous, and that’s just who he is."
Wentz should no lingering effects of the rib injury that sidelined him for most of the preseason. He completed 22-of-37 passes for 278 yards including two picturesque touchdown throws, the first of which was a perfectly hurled touch pass to Jordan Matthews on the opening possession, and then another on a streak route by Nelson Agholor who dusted Joe Haden down the right sideline.
Perhaps most importantly, Wentz played within himself and committed no turnovers on the afternoon.
"Two [passes] that kind of stick out, one to Jordan Matthews was a quick slant pattern to his left, just made a tight-window throw," Pederson said. “And then of course the 4th and 4 play to Zach [Ertz] was a big time throw with them rushing six guys with five to block.
"I think every quarterback in the National Football League can make those throws, it’s just the recognition and how fast you can recognize the protection and the leverage of the defender on our receiver. It’s something that we’ve worked quite a bit with those guys even against our defense through training camp. It was just a great play, great play at the time, and credit those two guys for making it."
One of the storylines heading into the opener was whether the Philadelphia defense would continue their tenacious defense after three encouraging performances in the preseason. Yesterday, Jim Schwartz’s unit stifled Robert Griffin III and the Cleveland offense in yet another dominant showing, yielding just 288 yards and only two trips into the red zone.
"It helps the back end so much when you can affect the quarterback’s eyes with four guys," Pederson said, "and make him get off of his launch point in the pocket. As the game wore on, we got better and better in the pass rush area. It forced 'RG3' to make a couple of behind the receiver type throws, of course the interception that Rodney [McLeod] got was that, Jordan Hicks got a hand on the ball. It allows your defense to really make more plays that way. And then the rotation too, you’re seeing a d-line that’s rotating every few plays so it keeps those guys fresh."
The Eagles will have an extra day to prepare for a trip to Chicago as they look to prove on a national stage that the season-opening win was a sign of things to come. Meanwhile, the Bears have some corrections to be made as they look to rebound from a 23-14 loss to the Texans over the weekend.
You can watch the full press conference from Pederson below.
