Foles striving for consistency after 7 TD game

QB tries for back-to-back strong outings vs. Packers

PHILADELPHIA — Nick Foles threw seven touchdown passes in his last game, had his uniform shipped to the Hall of Fame and was Player of the Week. Encore. Encore? “We’ll see,” Foles was saying Thursday, after practice at the NovaCare Complex. “Every week is a new challenge. The last one is behind us. That’s what we’d like to do. Everybody would like to have games like that every week. But the truth is, it doesn’t happen that way.”

It never happened that way in NFL history, a quarterback needing only three quarters of work to throw seven TD passes. But the Eagles will be in Green Bay Sunday, and Foles will be their quarterback, no matter how much Chip Kelly continues to pretend that he has not made that decision.

And if there will not be an expectation for Foles to be a Player of the Week for a third time this season, there could be some pressure on him to show that whatever it was that happened in Oakland was not just a random sports quirk.

“That’s what our goal is — consistency,” Foles said. “We’ve got to do it on Sunday.”

As historic as Foles was while channeling his inner Adrian Burk, he has been about as far as consistent this season as possible. Four weeks ago, he threw three touchdown passes in a 31-20 victory over Tampa Bay. The following week, he was 11-for-29 passing, unable to lead a touchdown drive and concussed in a 17-3 loss to Dallas. Then, after spending a week recovering from the injury, he was historic in a 4920 victory in Oakland.

If the pattern follows, he could struggle against the Packers.

“Consistency is the key to doing any job or playing any position,” Foles said. “You want consistency. You don’t want to have a drastically bad day and then fluctuate. What we all strive for is to be consistent. And that all comes down to preparation and what we do during the

week and trusting, ‘ Hey, this is what we practiced. Don’t try to be a hero and make too many big plays.’ At times, you can take a shot. But that’s all from preparation.”

Foles will have had a full week of preparation, as Michael Vick continues to recover from a hamstring injury that kept him limited in practice Thursday. Oddly — humorously? — Kelly technically refused to appoint Foles as his starter, saying only that he practiced.

It is believed to be a standard NFL practice for all quarterbacks honored that week by the Hall of Fame to have the first crack at the job.

“I trust Chip with everything,” Foles said. “No matter what, I’ll go with him.”

Foles will go with Kelly, and Kelly will go with Foles Sunday in Green Bay, where the possibility of an Oak- land encore is at least possible.

“There’s going to be times when we are behind by a lot — that’s just the beauty of the game,” Foles said. “There’s going to be times when we are up by a lot. But I think we are getting better every week, because we are growing together. We are getting more familiar with each other. That’s just natural. When you are with a group for any period of time, you are going to bond and mesh. And we have a great group of guys.

“Now we have to put it on the field.”