Foles reprises postseason magic in relief
LOS ANGELES – There won’t be a quarterback controversy because there can’t be a quarterback controversy.
Carson Wentz is the face of the franchise. He will be the Eagles’ starting quarterback as soon as he is healthy, and for the next several years.
At the same time, Nick Foles will be the quarterback for the rest of this season because Wentz will not be healthy before then, not with a stress fracture in his back.
Foles is the better option now, and that was apparent after he threw for 271 yards in the Eagles’ 30-23 win over the Rams on Sunday night.
Wentz is the better option when he’s healthy, but that won’t happen until the spring. Eagles coach Doug Pederson said last week that the injury could take three months of rest.
Yet the Eagles have not ruled out Wentz for the rest of the season, saying he will not go on injured reserve even after announcing Foles will start Sunday against the Texans.
They should.
Foles threw, and completed, three deep passes to Alshon Jeffery, who finished with eight catches for a seasonhigh 160 yards. The deep balls went for 50, 36 and 26 yards. Jeffery had just one catch for more than 20 yards in the previous six games.
This is why the Eagles have Foles. They are paying him as much as $14 million this season because they expect Foles to do what he did last season. That, of course, was when he took over for Wentz, who tore two ligaments in his knee, and led the Eagles to the Super Bowl title.
It’s an easy transition, and the Eagles planned it that way.
Foles is familiar with the receivers, and they have succeeded with him at quarterback.
And Foles knows how to handle the situation. After all, this was the first time Foles had gotten in a game since Sept. 16, when he started the first two games while Wentz was completing his recovery from knee surgery.
“It was really emotional,” Foles said. “You hate for your teammate to get hurt. I’ve said before, I feel really bad for Carson. We’re tight in that QB room. ... All I have to do is spread the ball around and lean on them.”
He leaned on Jeffery, especially. Jeffery had 87 yards receiving at halftime. He hadn’t had that many yards in an entire game since he had 88 against Carolina on Oct. 21. The only time he had more than that was his first game back, in Week 4 against Tennessee, when he had 105 yards.
“It’s just playing the game,” Jeffery said. “It’s a football game. Just playing football, just running the offense and being patient with the football.”
Added Foles: “There were a couple times, just reading the defense, letting him go get a chance. He’s a great player. He showed he can make those plays and he made them. He helped me out a lot.”
It’s fair to ask why that was missing with Wentz.
Was Wentz’s back bothering him to the point he couldn’t throw deep? Or was there something the Eagles saw in the Rams’ defense?
“We thought coming in, there was going to be some opportunity,” Pederson said. “What opens things up is the ability to run the football, I think. And in the first half, we had some success doing that, even in the third quarter. And it just opened up a few down-the-field throws that we were able to capitalize on and make some nice plays.”
Sure, Wentz can make those plays, too. And he certainly did last season, when he was the front-runner for the MVP award before being sidelined. He was able to do that based on his ability to extend plays by escaping pressure.
Perhaps that ability was hindered this season by both the knee and his back injury.
Foles, on the other hand, doesn’t escape pressure. He just throws the ball.
So in the third quarter, with the Rams’ Ndamukong Suh bearing down on him, Foles stood in the pocket and threw it as far as he could before Suh crashed into him.
Both Jeffery and Nelson Agholor were wide open deep down the field — when’s the last time you saw two wide receivers wide open behind the defense?
Jeffery outleaped Agholor and hauled in the 50-yard pass. On the next play, Wendell Smallwood scored from the Rams’ 9, and the Eagles had a lead they would never relinquish. What did Foles see on that play? “I’m pretty sure I was seeing Ndamukong Suh, and just hoping that Alshon was where he was going to be,” Foles said. “I had a quick reaction. I was able to see the safeties and just let it rip. It was hard to see much. I just let Alshon go make a play.”
Jeffery was more than happy to make it. He was asked if it was frustrating to not have those opportunities for such a long period of time.
Jeffery didn’t hesitate.
“Good things come to those who wait,” he said.
In a way, that applies to the quarterback situation, too.