Great Game For Nick Foles, But A Quarterback Should Still Be Target For 1st Draft Pick

Let’s step back and see what really happened yesterday.  The same Nick Foles, who played so well against the  New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers returned in uniform for the Birds.  He’s the guy with the good vision,who sees the entire field and is accurate with his throws.  The quarterback who was wearing number nine yesterday, did a great job of executing the offense.  If Chip Kelly, the offensive line and the receivers are having a good day, Foles usually has one also.

He’s not a quarterback, who can carry a team that’s not playing well, like the guy they will face next Sunday, Aaaron Rodgers.

I wouldn’t get too worked up about Foles throwing the deep balls to Riley Cooper and DeSean Jackson.  Everything he threw up the Eagles wide receivers were catching, yesterday.  The Raiders corners were horrible.  The Oakland defensive coordinator Justin Tarver continued to play man-to-man all day long, even though his secondary was tripping and falling down all over the place.  I will give Foles credit for making them pay, but I would still believe the Birds should draft a quarterback with their first pick in the upcoming draft.

Will the Eagles be able to to do this every week?  I don’t think so.  We’ve seen this same group of receivers have all kinds of trouble getting off the line of scrimmage against press coverage.  They got it done yesterday and Foles benefitted from it, but don’t expect to see it every week.

Kelly should seriously consider naming Foles the starter the rest of the season, if he can stay healthy and avoid another Dallas game collapse.  That consideration has to take into account how making Foles the starting quarterback will affect the way defenses deal with LeSean McCoy.  Making Foles the starter will force Kelly to eliminate the read option from the game plan and it allows defenses to focus on stopping McCoy because it eliminates the cutback hole, which he loves to run through so much.

Michael Vick is no longer part of the discussion, but they must continue to consider how their decisions affect McCoy.  Vick won’t be here next year, but McCoy will and that’s why a quarterback will still be the target with the Birds first pick.  The only type of quarterback who can run all of Kelly’s offense is a mobile, athletic quarterback.  Foles is a lot of things, but he isn’t an athletic quarterback.

Should we start preparing the bust of Foles for the Hall of Fame?  I would hold up on that.  Foles has great poise in the pocket.  He’s got a decent arm and good accuracy, but he doesn’t have a great skill set.   He doesn’t have a great arm.  His deep throws hang up there forever.  It’s great when only the Eagles receivers are coming down the with the ball, but it’s not so great when the other team is coming down with them.  Yesterday only the Eagles were coming down with them.

He did a great job of buying time for his receivers by moving out of trouble and keeping himself free.   The touchdown throw to Zach Ertz was a great example of Foles buying time.  It’s another reason why good defenses don’t play zone in the red zone because receivers come 0pen if you don’t get to the quarterback.

The first touchdown of the game was another crossing route, this time by Brent Celek, against the zone coverage which the Raiders love to play in the red zone.  Celek started on the right side of the formation and came out on the left side.  The key to having success with crossing routes against a zone coverages is having time to throw.

The Birds offensive line did a great job that play and they did an outstanding job all day yesterday of pass blocking.  You probably couldn’t identify any Raiders defensive linemen because they were making too many plays.  Despite surrendering a couple of sacks, the offensive line gave Foles all day long to throw the football.

In much the same way they did against the Buccaneers, the Eagles were able to take advantage of a rookie cornerback, who was in man-to-man coverage against Riley Cooper with no help deep.   Cooper made some good plays on the ball as rookie D.J. Hayden misplayed the ball in air.  Foles basically threw the ball up there for grabs and Cooper came down with it.

On the first touchdown, Cooper outmuscled the rookie and the youngster foolishly gave up on the play. Foles dropped the pass into the perfect spot.   On the second long touchdown pass, Hayden was looking up for the ball and he tripped over Cooper’s feet and fell, while the former Florida wide out was catching the football and running into the end zone.

Cooper’s third touchdown catch was a nice call by Kelly.  They had Cooper crossing from the left side of the offense to the right side.  The Raiders secondary wasn’t talking and the safeties and cornerbacks had no throw where he was at.  He came out of the crossing route on the right side and Foles hit him with the football after faking a handoff to the running back.

The deep touchdown throw to Jackson was another case of an Oakland cornerback tripping and falling.  Jackson flew by him and Foles put it up deep.  The second long completion to Jackson was a great throw which was just out of reach of the cornerback.