Foles Focus: Nick shines in first start vs Giants

The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New York Giants 34-29 thanks in large part to four touchdown passes from Nick Foles.

In a day where the Philadelphia Eagles defense played extremely sloppy, Nick Foles and the Eagles offense bailed them out. Foles looked fantastic in his first start in over a year, and his first start in an Eagles uniform since November of 2014.

Foles finished the game 24-38 for 237 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. It was an extremely impressive performance for someone who has seen very limited action in 2017. The Eagles plan to sign an established backup quarterback in the offseason looks like will pay dividends.

After the defense allowed the Giants to march down the field and score an opening drive touchdown, Foles and the Eagles offense went to work. Foles looked sharp as he marched the Eagles down the field, and seven plays later found Alshon Jeffery in the back of the end zone for his first touchdown pass of the day.

Foles than finished the half capitalizing on two short fields given by an interception and a blocked punt, turning them both into touchdowns. On the first drive after Ronald Darby‘s interception, Foles found Zach Ertz in a very tight window for his second touchdown pass of the game.

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Then later in the second quarter, on a third and five, Foles found Trey Burton wide open in the end zone for a touchdown on a beautifully designed pass play. The Eagles entered the half down 23-21, but the offense did not appear to miss a beat without Carson Wentz.

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After leading a field goal drive to start the third quarter, the Eagles got the ball back up 24-23. Foles led the Eagles offense down the field and five plays later found Nelson Agholor on a great throw that Agholor made a fantastic play on to put Philadelphia up 31-23.

The Eagles were able to get one more field goal the rest of the way and ended up pulling out a close win to move to 12-2 on the season. The victory, most importantly clinched a first-round bye for the Eagles, and put their magic number at one to clinch home-field advantage.

After the game, people were happy the Eagles won, but it was a very ugly win. Going into the game, the biggest question mark was how would Foles play, but that was not the issue. Defensively, the Eagles struggled mightily, giving up 29 points to a very bad Giants team. Luckily, the offense was able to make enough plays to put the Eagles over the top.

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A pressing question going forward was going to be: how would the Eagles adjust their offense going from Wentz to Foles as the quarterback? The answer at least this week was nothing would change. The Eagles trusted Foles to make all the plays and had him throw the ball 38 times throughout the game. So obviously, the Eagles are not worried about Foles’ ability.

Going forward, the defense is going to need to step up and not put the Eagles in a hole early on. Foles had no issue fighting back, but falling behind to good teams in the playoffs is not a recipe for success. If the Eagles can get back to being dominant on defense, which being back home should help, and dominate on the ground, then Foles can continue to see success.

Sunday was a good victory in a tough division game and should serve as confidence for Foles going forward. If both sides of the ball can excel, then this team is still entirely capable of making a run.

The Eagles can check off clinching a bye, the next step will be to secure home field advantage throughout the postseason. A goal they can reach with a win over Oakland next Monday night.

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Foles and the Eagles now have eight days to prepare for the Raiders on Christmas night. The offense must continue to push their foot on the gas pedal and gain confidence going into the postseason. Because if Foles showed us anything today, it is we should lose no confidence in the Eagles offense, and they will be just fine.