Nick Foles Should Be Congratulated, But I’m Still Not Sure He’s The Guy

The soon to be named NFC Offensive Player of the Week, Nick Foles, is in a tough situation.   As a quarterback for the Eagles, he is being judged at the highest of the levels.

Unfortunately for Foles and every other quarterback, who starts for the Eagles, they are judged against the quarterbacks who have led their franchises to Super Bowl titles.  It’s all about winning a Super Bowl for Eagles fans and for the organization.  Unlike quarterbacks for organizations like the Jacksonville Jaguars, San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills and others, Foles isn’t judged by how many touchdowns he throws or how many records he sets in a particular game.

The questions which loom over every quarterback is the same one which ushered Donovan McNabb out of the door after a 11-5 season.  Can this guy take us to the Super Bowl and win it?   Passing records and regular season records don’t really matter.  McNabb won a lot of games during the regular season, but he was showed the door after the Birds were dominated by the Dallas Cowboys in a playoff game.

Is Foles a quarterback who can lead this team to the promised land?  I’m not sure about that, in fact I doubt that he’s the guy.  I can be proven wrong in the future and have been proven wrong in the past, but I doubt that Foles is the guy.  I know he threw seven touchdowns but you have to step back and look closely at all of those touchdown throws. In a good evaluation, you look at both the accomplishments and the circumstances.

I was on Comcast Sportsnet’s Philly Sportstalk Show yesterday with Michael Barkann and Brian Westbrook and we talked a great deal about Foles, his accomplishment this past weekend and how his performance affects the Eagles quarterback situation.  Westbrook and I were both hesitant to say that Foles was the guy to lead this team for the next ten years.  We hated to be the guys to pour cold water all over the celebration.

First of all, I want to be clear that Michael Vick is now out of the future plans of this football team.  This starting quarterback job is Foles’ for the rest of the season unless he gets hurt or plays like he did against the Cowboys for a couple of games.

Now let’s take a closer look at the seven touchdown passes and see just how great the second-year quarterback played.

On the first touchdown throw, Foles rolled out and waited forever for tight end Brent Celek to sneak across the field from his right tight end spot and eventually come open on the other side.  It took a long time, but when the tight end came open, he was wide open.  The key to the play was pass blocking and the offensive line did an outstanding job on that play.  It wasn’t a difficult or long throw, the key was being patient.

On the second touchdown throw, Foles threw the ball about thirty-yards in the air.  It was a 17-yard touchdown toss and right on the money.  It was thrown with a great touch and it was a very accurate throw.  Foles showed plenty of touch on the throw because he put some air under it and the pass dropped into Cooper’s hands in the end zone at the exact split second they needed.  This was an outstanding throw because of the accuracy and may have been his best touchdown throw of the day.

On the third touchdown pass, Foles did a good job in the pocket before the letting the ball go.  He dropped back, looked the safety, Charles Woodson, off to his right, then came back to his left and let it go deep to Cooper.  Rookie cornerback D.J. Hayden tripped over Cooper’s heels and fell on his face.

Foles put the ball out there and Cooper went and got it.  Yes, you must give credit to the Birds young quarterback for throwing the ball out there for his receiver to catch, but it wasn’t a great throw.  It didn’t have to be with the cornerback laying on face looking at dirt.  That was definitely poor play by the cornerback.

Thanks to his offensive line, Foles had very little pass rush pressure on him, during the play.  I do give him credit for freezing Woodson.  Foles deliberately looked to his right to keep Woodson on that side, then came back to his left and he put it up deep to Cooper.

The fourth touchdown throw by Foles was a tremendous example of great pass blocking.  The 6’6″ quarterback dropped into the pocket with the ball on the Oakland fifteen yard line.  He looked to his left and couldn’t find anybody open.  The Raiders were running a pass rush game with the defensive end on the right side of the offense going inside.  When he went inside and the Birds offensive line stacked up the entire Oakland pass rush in the middle of the field and to the Birds left.   That allowed Foles to roll out to the right side.

He had all day to throw the ball.  The extra time allowed Foles the chance to survey the field a time or two and then ultimately find tight end Zach Ertz, who was standing wide open in the end zone just inside the right sideline.  Foles did good job of extending the play and got the job done.

It was really more bad defense by the Raiders, than anything else.  The defender on that side didn’t do his job of standing near Ertz after he ran his corner route.  The Raiders forgot Ertz was there and left him alone.

The fifth touchdown pass was in the game’s second half.  The Birds were sporting a 28-13 lead, when Foles sent McCoy in a wide motion toward the sidelines.  No one on the Raiders defense went with him.  That would lead you to believe they were in a zone defense.  If they were in man-to-man, surely a defender would have followed him?  Right?

Wrong!!!

It just so happened that the Raiders were in man-to-man, so McCoy headed downfield with no one guarding him and caught the Foles pass on the run.  He sprinted into the end zone virtually untouched.

There was definitely a blown assignment on the part of someone on the Raiders defense.  Still, Foles should be given credit for getting McCoy the football, but it wasn’t the most difficult of assignments for the former Arizona Wildcat quarterback.

The sixth touchdown was another case of a Raiders defender falling down.  This time Foles dropped in the pocket, looked to his left, then came back to his right and put the ball up for DeSean Jackson.  The diminutive speedster was being covered by former Dallas Cowboy Michael Jenkins.

Jackson had come off the ball and eluded an attempt by the cornerback to jam him, then he hit the accelerator.  At that exact moment, Jenkins tripped over a blade of grass or one of his shoestrings and fell to the turf.

By that time the ball was in the air, Jackson was running down the sidelines wide open.  It was a just matter of time before he caught the football and leaped into the end zone.  Again you have to give Foles credit for connecting with his wide receiver, but at the same time, you must realize that it wasn’t the hardest of throws when the receiver is wide-open.

The seventh and final Foles touchdown pass was on bootleg action.  Foles caught the snap from Jason Kelce and faked a handoff to McCoy, who was going to the offensive left side.  After faking the handoff, Foles rolled to his right .  He had Jackson crossing to the right side and headed to the short right flat area.

Cooper had lined up on the left side in the tight slot area.  He simply crossed the formation, starting out at shallow depth then getting deeper as he crossed.  The key to the success of the play was Cooper getting in behind the linebackers and in front of the safeties.  Pass blocking was a very important aspect of this play because it took a long time to develop.  Eventually he was open as he headed to the right corner of the end zone.

So what did we learn from the seven touchdown explosion?  It’s not time yet to make the Hall of Fame bust for Foles, but who knows if things continue going so well.  Everything broke right for him on Sunday.  The Raiders secondary was pathetic.  How many times do you see a game where two times defenders fall down while covering a receiver?  The Oakland secondary left receivers wide open.

It’s not time to be certain that Foles can lead this team to a championship, just because he was in the right situation at the right time against a defense that didn’t show up.  How many times did you see the Raiders pass rush put pressure on Foles in that game?

I want to see Foles do the job against a defense that’s getting pressure on him and covering his receivers tightly.  Let me see him lead the Eagles to a big offensive output against a defense thats on top of their game.  Foles should be congratulated for his performance, but you can’t assume he’s a franchise quarterback, who is destined to lead this team to a Super Bowl, because he threw seven touchdown passes to wide open receivers with opponent’s pass rush missing in action.