It’s the second week of January and the Eagles are still
playing football. One month ago, Amari Cooper caught a tipped ball in overtime
in Dallas and walked into the end zone to defeat the Eagles and essentially
lock up the division for the Cowboys. The Eagles weren’t mathematically
eliminated, but that sure felt like the nail in the coffin. An improbable win
the following week on the road against the Los Angeles Rams just felt like an
end-of-season tease. But the regular season ended with a reassurance for the
Eagles and their fans that Kirk Cousins was still Kirk Cousins and it was,
somehow, back to the playoffs.
 |
| Yong Kim/Philly.com |
Ironically, that Dallas game one month ago was the final one
quarterback Carson Wentz will play for the season. A back injury has ended his
season, and of course that meant Nick Foles was back in the spotlight for
Philadelphia. He answered the bell with three regular season wins and a playoff
win. Last week’s 16-15 win in Chicago in the Wild Card round kind of summarized
everything you get with Foles. He started hot, finished strong in the guts of
the game and everything else in between was wildly inconsistent.
Now he leads the Eagles to New Orleans, where they’ll be in
the underdog role yet again. What his stat line will look like is anyone’s
guess. Foles might not always make the right plays, but he’ll make the big
plays. That’s become abundantly clear during the last 12 months. He’ll remind
you why he was almost out of football prior to rejoining the Eagles, and later
in the same game, play like the Super Bowl MVP he was last season. Most of the
time, the rest of the team manages to play well enough to keep the Eagles in
the game when bad Foles shows up for a couple series. Almost all the time, Doug
Pederson calls a good game for Foles that accentuates his strengths.
None of this is to say the magic that is Nick Foles in
must-win games as the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles is going to last
forever. It’s certainly set him up for a lucrative future, where ever he lands in
the spring. The reason every team in the National Football League plays the
game is to win the Super Bowl. Foles has proved in the biggest moments in the
sport to be up to the task. There are a lot of supremely talented quarterbacks
in the NFL who have never been in that situation and therefore it remains unknown
how those gunslingers would respond. Foles has played his best football on some
of the biggest stages in sports. Now he’s getting an opportunity to prove that
last year wasn’t a fluke, and having to win on the road in the process.
The Eagles were an underdog of close to two touchdowns in
that game in Los Angeles versus the Rams in week 15. They had the lead almost
the entire way and the offense all of a sudden caught fire. Foles threw for
close to 500 yards against the Houston Texas in week 16. Last week, he had to
lead a game-winning drive in the closing minutes against arguably the best
defense in the NFL. This is not to slight Wentz either. There’s a time and
place for those discussions and it’s not now. But, don’t be surprised if Foles’
next act involves some late-game heroics in perhaps the league’s toughest place
to play. It’s what he does.
Photo: http://www.philly.com/eagles/nick-foles-sports-illustrated-cover-eagles-nfl-playoffs-20190108.html
No comments:
Post a Comment