Eagles have concerns with Foles firing blanks
Super Bowl MVP admittedly hasn’t been himself during early pre-season struggles
If there’s such a thing called a Super Bowl MVP curse, it’s currently eating at Nick Foles.
The temporary starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles has played nothing short of terribly in his two (and likely only) pre-season appearances. So what, right?
It’s the pre-season. Few games in sport are as meaningless in and of themselves as NFL preseason tilts.
And granted, no offensive or defensive co-ordinator wants to put much if anything of substance on film in August. Why reveal your best stuff to other teams before the first week of the regular season?
Lastly, five Eagles offensive starters for various reasons did not play in Philadelphia’s awful 5-0 loss Thursday to the Browns in Cleveland.
All those asterisks notwithstanding, Foles has not looked like the quarterback promoted late last season from backup to starter, the one who played so spectacularly in three playoff games to lead the Eagles to the NFL championship.
Foles completed most of his throws, but for little yardage: 13-for-17 for 127 yards. Far worse was that Browns defenders sacked Foles three times in the first half, intercepted him twice and prevented him from throwing a touchdown pass.
A week earlier in Foles’ preseason debut after sitting out Philly’s opener with a sore neck, he went 3-for-9 for 44 yards at New England, the team he’d torched in Super Bowl LII. Foles was sacked three times in barely over a quarter of play in Foxborough, Mass. In three playoff games in January and February, Foles was sacked just twice.
Foles has failed to lead the Eagles’ offence to a single preseason score in 10 drives.
Many Eagles fans profess to be unconcerned. But Foles, for his part, sounded very much concerned following what’s regarded as the only pre-season game (the third one) that kind of matters, when starters for both sides usually play the whole first half or longer.
“There’s times when I feel good and times when I’m making mistakes,” Foles said. “It’s as simple as that. I just have to keep being critical of myself, keep watching the film and understanding what’s going on. I have to keep playing, keep going through it.
“Obviously, I haven’t been myself and I expect a lot of myself, but I have to keep learning.”
Whatever the issue is for Foles, he’d better get it corrected. Whether his bad play in preseason games might factor into which quarterback the Eagles start the regular season with Sept. 7 versus Atlanta is worth thinking about. Carson Wentz, the face-of-the-franchise starter once he fully recovers from an ACL tear suffered last December, is questionable for the game against the Falcons. That’s why the Eagles kept Foles during the off-season and didn’t trade him for a likely high draft pick. There’s no better QB insurance than the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
Head coach Doug Pederson, of course, won’t publicly discuss how he and his staff will weigh their decision in consultation with the club’s medical staff. But there was at least a tiny thread of urgency in how Pederson characterized where the Eagles’ offence is now and where it must go from this shutout loss, and fast.
“I don’t want to single out one player, so don’t put this all on Nick,” he said. “I’m disappointed in the offence. It’s obviously not what you want in the third preseason week.
“Listen, it’s one of those things where we’re still keeping things very vanilla and we still want to evaluate and make sure we have the right guys in the right spots.”
MARQUEE QBS MISSING IN PRE-SEASON ACTION
Feel like you’re getting your money’s worth from NFL preseason games?
Everyone knows there’s no worse bargain in pro sports than paying full price for a ticket to an NFL exhibition game in August.
Starters in most games don’t play much. That’s understood. But a disturbing trend of marquee players playing less and less in August is worsening in 2018.
Look at the pre-season playing time (before Friday’s games) of the league’s top quarterbacks:
■ Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, no appearances yet
■ New Orleans’ Drew Brees, no appearances yet
■Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff, no appearances yet
■ New England’s Tom Brady, two of eight quarters played, 39 total snaps
■ Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, one of eight quarters, seven total snaps
■ Oakland’s Derek Carr, one of eight quarters, six total snaps
■ Washington’s Alex Smith, one of eight quarters, 10 total snaps
■ Detroit’s Matthew Stafford, two of eight quarters, 13 total snaps
■ Los Angeles Chargers’ Philip
■ Rivers, one of eight quarters, 16 total snaps
■ New York Giants’ Eli Manning, one of eight quarters, 16 total snaps
■ Atlanta’s Matt Ryan two of eight quarters, 19 total snaps