Philadelphia Eagles Next Day Reaction: Nick Foles, Andy Reid and the Playoffs?

The Philadelphia Eagles’ latest loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday gave the Eagles a glimmer of hope, before it all went down the tube. The Eagles had a magnificent first drive on offense and a horrendous first drive on defense. From then on the usual issues remained the same, including one we haven’t seen since last season. Michael Vick suffered a concussion in the second quarter and did not return. That meant the most popular quarterback in Philadelphia since Randall Cunningham, Nick Foles, got his first action of the season. I thought Foles played well. He completed 22 out of 32 passes with one touchdown, one interception, one fumble lost and 219 passing yards. Those are good numbers when you consider everything. He is a third round draft pick who was thought of as a project player who wouldn’t sniff the field this year. He was also playing with a really bad offensive line and trying to spark an offense in the middle of the game. Foles showed a good understanding of when to dump the pass of to a back and when to hit his wide receivers down the field. Has also showed the ability to consistently lead receivers on their routes. Both of these traits were impressive to see from a rookie quarterback who has little work with the first team defense. Once he gets a full week of practice with the first team offense this week, we can get a better feel of how good Foles can play this season. He is still a pretty raw quarterback with little NFL experience . because he is so far from reaching his potential, we don’t know just how good of a quarterback he can be in this league. The more reps he gets in practice and the more starts he gets this season, the better. At this point it’s not about wins and losses for Foles, it’s about his decision making and his continued improvement on his throwing technique. This team has far too many issues to judge Foles solely on his win-loss record. There has been some talk that that Andy Reid resting Michael Vick for the rest of the season. The theory is that Reid could blame all the injuries on the offensive line and the season ending concussion(if it’s that serious) on the miserable season. I don’t think Lurie would buy it and I don’t believe that Andy Reid would try it. Reid has never made excuses in his 14 years in Philadelphia nor has he ever thrown anyone under the bus. If this team doesn’t make a serious run at the end of the season, it wouldn’t surprise me if he beat Lurie to the punch and just resigned after the final game of the regular season. Someone asked Andy Reid if he still thinks this team can make the playoffs. He still believes they can. I’m glad someone still believes it. Andy Reid will be the last guy to give up on this team. That isn’t a bad thing. When the coach gives up, then the team has no chance to win any games. Winning another game is the first priority for the Eagles right now. The Eagles were once 3-1. Now they are 3-6. That is a five game winning streak that has no signs of ending soon. Tampa Bay started 4-2 last season before finishing 4-12. The Eagles could be on a similar path. I think the fans and the team should just focus on winning another game. You can’t worry about tiebreaker scenarios and the wildcard standings at this point.