Eagles should have kept Nick Foles in longer against Cowboys in Week 17

With the quarterback in need of extra experience before the playoffs, the Philadelphia Eagles should have kept Nick Foles in longer agains the Dallas Cowboys.

In what may have ended up being one of the most boring games from Week 17, the Philadelphia Eagles ended up on the losing end against the Dallas Cowboys after failing to score a single point in the 6-0 loss. With the No. 1 seed locked up a week ago following their win over the Oakland Raiders, this was a game the Eagles could afford to lose since it wouldn’t change anything in the NFC playoff picture on their end, but if there was one thing to be concerned over, it would be how Nick Foles looked under center.

Filling in for a MVP candidate like Carson Wentz is never an easy task for any quarterback in the NFL, but when seeing how good Foles looked in Week 14 against the Los Angeles Rams, Philadelphia fans seemed confident enough for the most part that he could steal lead the team on a Super Bowl run. After the last two weeks, Foles has done anything but make the Eagles and their fans feel confident about his ability to run the offense in the playoffs, especially when seeing how awful he looked against the Cowboys in Week 17.

After only seeing action in the first quarter, the final numbers for Foles against Dallas ended up being 4 of 11 for 39 yards to go along with an interception. And as frustrating as these numbers were to see from the Eagles quarterback, Doug Pederson should have at least kept Foles in the game longer to provide him with a little extra experience since now the team has to wait two weeks before suiting up again in a meaningful game.

Next: Most Valuable Eagle of the Year

All week, Pederson made it seem like Foles would receive a good amount of playing time since his performance against Oakland in Week 16 made it clear the quarterback could use all of the extra playing time he could receive before January. Instead, the Eagles will enter January worrying about whether Foles is going to be prepared enough for the Divisional Round against what should be a very tough NFC opponent when looking at how competitive the conference turned out to be this season.