Philadelphia Eagles: Should Nick Foles play against the Cowboys?

With the Philadelphia Eagles home field advantage secured for the playoffs, should the team rest Nick Foles against the Dallas Cowboys?

The Philadelphia Eagles have a tough decision to make in regards to playing Nick Foles in the final game of the 2017 NFL regular season.

On one hand, if the team’s Christmas day victory over the Oakland Raiders is of any indication, Foles and the first team offense could use every opportunity they can to get some chemistry going after putting together arguably their sloppiest game of the entire season.

After torching the New York Giants with a respectable 237 yards passing and four ariel touchdowns the previous week, Doug Pederson‘s crew looked completely lost under the bright lights of Monday Night Football.

Even though the team did pull out a win, largely on the backs of their defense, the team somehow only recorded 216 yards of total offense, with Foles only throwing for 163 yards on 38 attempts. Oh yeah, and star receiver Alshon Jeffery didn’t record a single catch on only two targets.

Ouch.

After putting together a pair of solid performances in his prior to games, the journeyman backup looked lost in the pocket at times, often throwing without anticipation, and holding onto the ball for way too long while running away from, at times, imaginary defenders. Though he was only picked off once, with Reggie Nelson thankfully dropping an easy would be pick-six, Foles didn’t help his team win against the Raiders, instead actually making the game much harder for the players around him.

When it became crystal clear that Pederson didn’t trust Foles’ arm in the second half of the game, Raiders defensive coordinator John Pagano qued in on the run and made Jay Ajayi and company’s night a nightmare as the game winded down, with the team finishing the evening with only 78 total rushing yards on 21 carries.

If it wasn’t for some lucky breaks in the closing minutes, and a redemptive 48-yard field goal kick by Jake Elliot, we could be talking about a very different outcome, and booing Saint Nick all over again.

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So, you may ask, why would the team consider giving the former Arizona Wildcat a week off if he obviously needs some extra action against live bullets?

Well, if, by some incredibly unfortunate situation Foles were to sustain an injury against the Dallas Cowboys ‘aggressive defensive front that would require him to miss a considerable amount of time, it would sure mean the end of the Eagles’ Super Bowl aspirations as we know them.

Sure, losing Carson Wentz as a hard hurdle to overcome, but having to start second-year signal caller Nate Sudfeld in a playoff game would be absolutely disastrous, regardless of how good he’s looked in practice over the last week.

Though Foles is no Wentz, he does have 38 career starts to his name in the NFL, a full 38 more than Suddfield, who has only dressed for two games as a pro and started the season off on the Eagles practice squad, after the Washington Redskins let him go after drafting him in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft only one season prior.

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Regardless of if the Eagles win, lose or draw against the Cowboys in Week 17 they have home field locked up for the entirety of the playoffs and a Week 1 bye to tighten up any loose ends, so the question must be raised, should Nick Foles play in the Eagles regular season finally against the Cowboys? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

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