Eagles quarterback Nick Foles threw an NFL record seven touchdown passes against the Raiders sunday. Photo: SB Nation.
Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie closed the door on the Michael Vick Experience in Philadelphia earlier this week, but on Sunday Nick Foles locked that door.
The second-year quarterback rebounded from his dismal 80-yard passing game against the Dallas Cowboys two weeks ago with a historic performance against the Raiders throwing for a league record seven touchdowns and 406 yards in the Eagles 49-20 win over the Oakland Raiders.
"I think that what happened with Nick against Dallas was the exception rather than the rule," Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said. "I think the guys who are around him every day see that, he may have shown that to some other people though, who knows."
Foles was simply dominant against the league's tenth ranked defense throwing for more touchdowns (7) than interceptions (6) and completing (percent) of his passes.
By game's end Foles had completed 76.6 percent of his passes. After nine games, Foles is the only quarterback in the league who has thrown more than ten touchdowns but yet to toss an interception.
Only six other quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton Manning, Joe Kapp, Y.A. Tittle, George Blanda, Adrian Burke and Sid Luckman have passed for seven touchdowns in a single game.
In Foles' first 12 starts as a professional he threw for 12 total touchdowns.
Earlier this week in an exclusive interview with Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie addressed the franchise's future at the quarterback position thusly: “We need someone to step up, whether it’s an existing young quarterback or somebody we go out and acquire. We know — this is no secret — quarterback is the [ultimate] position and the most important difference-maker.
“We want to have very healthy, high ability at that position, with excellent leadership and a lot of smarts and a lot of moxie. Someone that really can take that position and run with it,” Lurie said. “And so Nick is going to have a great opportunity to showcase what he’s done. He’s had some outstanding games and he’s had one poor game."
It's difficult to envision a scenario where Chip Kelly turns the reigns back over to Vick after Foles' strong performance and the guidelines set forth by Lurie earlier in the week.
Regardless of where one's stance is on Foles, the numbers, in addition to his historic performance Sunday certainly build a compelling case to give the University of Arizona product an opportunity to seize the team's quarterback of the future mantle. Foles has shown enough functional mobility to execute Kelly's offense, being sacked once every 18 passing attempts while Vick has been sacked once per every ten attempts.
The future certainly is anything but clear for the Eagles at the position, but Foles acquitted himself nicely after a poor performance two weeks ago and returned to his accurate, efficient ways which at the very least keeps him in the conversation moving forward.
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
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