Carson Wentz was sacked five times during the Eagles 20-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts Sunday at the Linc. Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

Carson Wentz shook off two brutal turnovers, five sacks and some of the expected rust from from being on the sidelines for over nine months, to lead the Eagles on a 17-play, 75-yard game-winning touchdown drive against the visiting Indianapolis Colts with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The final score was 20-16 improving the Birds to 2-1 on the young season.

At one point during that drive the Eagles were facing a 2nd-and-26 from their own 20. The Birds were trailing by four and running out of time and opportunities. Wentz was asked if he talked to the team during the drive.

“Just in the middle of the drive, especially in that situation – we had the sack and then the holding I think it was – it was all of a sudden second-and-30 or something like that,” Wentz said. “I just told the guys, ‘Let’s get half of this. Let’s get at least half of this. Get us in third-and-manageable. Just stay together.’ Everyone was kind of all up in arms over the holding or whatever it was. And I said, ‘Just stay together. Stay on track.’ And the next play we had the defensive holding, picked up the first down and then we were rolling.”

The Eagles defense once again stopped an opponent that was on the doorstep with seconds left in the game.

In game one it was league MVP Matt Ryan, this time it was Pro Bowl quarterback Andrew Luck. With 1:19 left in the fourth, and the Colts facing a fourth and three from the Eagles four-yard line, second-year defensive end Derek Barnett sacked Luck for a 16-yard, effectively ending the game. Barnett was asked about the play.

“Just everybody playing together up-front, guys that are doing their job, and guys in the back-end locking things up,” Barnett said. “Tough game, it came down today to the wire, but we just stayed calm and executed when we needed to.”

Linebacker Nigel Bradham talked about Wentz throwing the interception and his fumble, both occurring in the third quarter, and the mindset he and his teammates have when there is a turnover by the offense.

“The first thing we think is to do is get him the ball right back!” Bradham said at his locker after the game. “We got his back at all times. For what he does for us, his ability and what he can do for us at any time, to make plays at any time, he’s unbelievable. Any time he turns the ball over, or anything like that, we just think ‘let’s get him the ball right back because he’s going to go score with it. We’ve got a great quarterback, and that’s all that matters.”

Statistically, the Eagles offense didn’t look much different than it did last week against Tampa Bay or in the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons.

The Birds scored just 20 points for the second week in a row, after putting up a pedestrian 18 points against the Falcons.

The difference this week against a physical and talented Indianapolis Colts team was the Eagles level of resiliency.

No matter what happened or who made the mistake (Cornerback Jalen Mills was called for two pass interference penalties totaling 51 yards) they never got down or down on their teammates.

Head coach Doug Pederson was asked what he said to the team after the game.

“I just congratulated Carson just on the win,” Pederson said. “Nothing further than that really. Just we found a way to make it work, and we won, and that is something to be proud of. For the team, it’s a matter of we’ve just got to learn from our mistakes. I really feel like good football teams find ways to win, and we’ve been able to do that. In tight, close ball games, we’ve been able to figure it out and win, and that’s a tribute to the guys in the locker room. So that was kind of my thoughts after the game to them, [and I told them] to enjoy it, and we’re right back to work on Tuesday.”

Wentz looked crisp on his first drive, taking the Eagles from the own 21-yard line, working in run and pass plays effectively, the drive ended with a 13-yard strike from Wentz rookie tight end Dallas Goedert.

Goedert’s first two NFL games were no impressive. The former South Dakota State star had just one catch for four yards in eight quarters of play.

Sunday he had seven catches for 73 yards and the touchdown. Goedert talked about his first NFL touchdown.

“That was really cool, you know, the first drive of the game,” he said. “Nothing better than getting the first one out of the way. It felt real good.”

After both teams had drives that ended with no points, Luck led the Colts on a 55-yard drive to tie the score at 7-7.

That was the only time the Colts saw the end zone. Their other nine point came off the foot for future Hall of Famer Adam Vintatieri, who still productive at the age of 45.

Wentz was 25 of 37 for 255 yards, one touchdown pass and one interception. Wentz was sacked five times and lost a fumble.

The Eagles rushed 35 times as a team for 152 yards and a touchdown. Wendell Smallwood (56 yards on 10 carries, TD), Corey Clement (56 yards, 16 carries) and rookie Josh Adams (30 yards, six carries) more than made for the Birds missing their two top runners Darren Sproles and Jay Ajayi, both were out with injuries.

Luck was 25 of 40 for 164 yards 1 touchdown pass, no interceptions, he was sacked twice.

The Eagles never made any big plays on offense. Colts linebacker Najee Goode, a former Eagle, said a lot of what they planned to do on defense worked. They sacked Wentz five times and held them to 20 points

“That was one of our main goals,” Goode said. “Stop the big play and stuff like that, but just the fact that out defense was able to stay out there and keep everything in front of them, they took some junks. We shouldn’t have let them, but that was one of the things we wanted to focus on and were able to do.”

Goode was asked if watching his offense fail to get into the end zone after his unit handed the ball with great field position.

“Points are points,” said Goode, who had two tackles during the Eagles win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII. “We can’t worry about that. The most frustrating thing were the mistakes we made on defense, we have to improve and get better. It was good to see (Wentz) go down, but we have to make the most of our opportunities.”

Goode said the five penalties called against the Colts during the Eagles 17-play game-winning drive (one was declined) pretty much negated the good vibes they got from forcing the two turnovers committed by Wentz.

“We gave them opportunities in key situations when we didn’t need to,” Goode said. “We have to go back to the drawing board and learn from it.”

Colts massive offensive guard Quenton Nelson appears to be a man of few words. After the game at his locker, when asked what happened with the missed opportunities when the Colts defense forced two turnovers on Wentz that gave his unit the ball inside the Red Zone. The Colts offense came away with just field goals, no touchdowns both times.

“They played good defense,” the 6-foot-5, 330 pound rookie said.

It was that simple. *

Follow Al Thompson on Twitter @thompsoniii