Can Foles take Eagles to Super Bowl LII?
Former starting QB takes over for Wentz
Doug Pederson made a promise Monday as he pondered chasing a Super Bowl without Carson Wentz.
“I’m going to continue to stay aggressive,” the Eagles coach declared as he confirmed the worst-case news that his star quarterback is done for the season with a torn ACL. “I’m going to lead this football team. It falls more on my shoulders than it does the players.”
That’s the spirit. Pederson, the second-year head coach groomed by Andy Reid, is trying to rally the troops and serve as the right example in dealing with crisis. That’s his job. And he needs to be better at it now than he’s been all season. Stay upbeat. Don’t let ’em see you sweat.
Yet Pederson is now rolling with Nick Foles, which suddenly complicates the path to LII.
Maybe Foles will get it done. He’s had some big moments mixed in with his struggles over the years, like the time in 2013 when he seized the job from injured Michael Vick and threw seven TD passes against the Raiders. He’s supported by a hungry, talented defense that feeds off one of the best interior forces in the game in Fletcher Cox. There’s balance and a committee that runs the football. There’s swagger with this team — and consistency.
And there was a lot of talk from the Eagles (11-2) at the L.A. Coliseum on Sunday after they put the screws to the Los Angeles Rams, about collectively picking up the slack.
That will give them a chance, especially if they can lock down the No. 1 seed for the NFC playoffs.
But no matter how aggressive, meticulous and creative Pederson can get in crafting his plan with a quarterback who grew up in his type of system, there’s one thing that he just can’t account for: the Wentz mojo.
Wentz, who leads the NFL with his franchise-record 33 TD passes, pretty much personified the aggressiveness that Pederson speaks of. You, too, can press the issue when the plan is carried out by a magician such as Wentz, who so often turns busted plays and difficult moments into big plays.
That was the energy that fueled this special season for the Eagles. And now …
Can they trust Foles to come up big when they need him most?
“Nick’s been a starter in this league,” Cox said. “We have faith.”
Foles: “I’m ready to go.” Regardless, the race to the Super Bowl in what already is projected to be a wide-open field has just been blown open by this huge X factor.
Perhaps Foles will duplicate what Jeff Hostetler did for the Giants during the 1990 season, when he filled in for injured Phil Simms and helped win a crown. He might also pull a Case Keenum, who replaced injured Sam Bradford and now has the Vikings on the verge of winning the NFC North title.
If it’s the final minute of a do-or-die game to advance in the playoffs, though, I’d feel a bit more assured with, say, Drew Brees.
And imagine if Aaron Rodgers can beat the long odds and get a crack.
Foles doesn’t have to put up 400-yard games every week. But it’s the NFL, a quarterback league. And at some point in a game, the quarterback needs to make a key throw.
On Sunday, Foles came through with a third-down completion to Nelson Agholor to move the chains and milk the clock. Now do it again. And again.
It’s striking how it has come to this, an NFL version of spinning full circle. Foles was once envisioned as the Eagles’ quarterback of the future. He took the Eagles to the playoffs in Chip Kelly’s first season. Traded to the Rams, he flamed out. Then he reunited with Reid for a year as a backup in Kansas City.
Now he’s back where he started his NFL journey, carrying the hopes of a rabid fan base that has surely cursed him a few times along the way.
He won’t make them forget Wentz. But he can lessen the sting as the next man up.
“The guys you work with every day, you think the world of,” Foles said of Wentz. “I think he’s the MVP. You know it’s not easy, but I know this team will step up and rally no matter what. So we’ll see what will happen from here.”
In a year when season-ending injuries to so many star players have altered the course for teams across the league, it figures this type of setback for the Eagles presents itself now.
But Pederson has a resilient team, which has overcome the losses of left tackle Jason Peters, linebacker Jordan Hicks and running back Darren Sproles to season-ending injuries.
Now this.
“People thought our chances had gone by the wayside when Jason Peters went down, too,” Pederson said. “When Darren Sproles goes down. To the fans out there, you can’t lose faith.”
But the faithful can’t be blamed for feeling the anxiety.