The numbers looked good, not flashy. The passes were crisp, not dynamic. The offense flowed deliberately and methodically, just not with the swagger and zest it showed when the other guy’s leading the huddle.
Nick Foles has lead the Eagles’ first-team offense four times in two preseason games, stamping in touchdowns on two of those drives and looking good enough to lead Chip Kelly’s offense for the regular season.
His only crime is that he has allowed Michael Vick to outperform him, and if this quarterback dual is a fair one, you have to wonder if Thursday night’s preseason game finally revealed Vick as the leader in the clubhouse.
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“Hey, Mike is a competitor. Mike is a great quarterback,” Foles said after Thursday’s 14-9 preseason win over Carolina (see Instant Replay). “He always has been in this league and he’s made me a better quarterback going against him, so I’m learning a lot still. So just going through this competition, I’ve got to keep pushing it and working hard.”
Getting the first crack with the first-team offense against a solid Carolina front seven, Foles played 17 total snaps. He completed 6 of 8 passes for 53 yards. For the second straight week, he rebounded from a first-drive turnover to lead a touchdown drive.
He made two impressive third-down conversions through the air, a 15-yard strike to Zach Ertz and 11-yard connection to Jason Avant, and showed some fancy footwork, running in his touchdown from seven yards.
For the preseason, Foles is 11 of 14 for 96 yards with two touchdown drives in four opportunities with the first offense. He’s also thrown one pick and fumbled once. His passer rating, still in a limited number of reps, is 65.7.
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Overall, his stats are good enough to win a job, except that Vick’s are just better (see story).
Vick, who completed all eight of his passes against Carolina until an ill-advised, but harmless, Hail Mary interception as time ticked down before the half, also led a touchdown drive for the second straight week.
Overall, the 33-year-old veteran is 13 for 15 for 199 yards with one touchdown -- last week’s bomb to DeSean Jackson -- and an interception on a pass he probably shouldn’t have thrown but can hardly be raked over the coals for. His passer rating is 113.1.
It’s also notable that Foles’ longest pass so far has gone just 15 yards, although Kelly shrugged off the comparison.
“I think Nick does a great job of taking what the defensive gives him,” said Kelly, who refused to name a front-runner. “He’s a really good decision maker and doesn’t force it.
“Just to stand back there and show everybody you can throw the ball 70 yards doesn’t make you a great quarterback. It’s about completing the ball. Can you take your team, drive them down the field and put them in the end zone. And I think Nick has proven that he can do it.”
Kelly made it clear that he’s taking his time in this decision (see story). Foles, the second-year pro, still has some important factors in his favor. The former Arizona star is younger, operated a spread offense in college, scorched Kelly’s Oregon defenses in Pac-12 clashes and has hardly proven to be way behind Vick.
If accuracy and efficiency are Kelly’s biggest requirements, Foles’ 79 percent completion rate this preseason can’t be easily dismissed. The deep ball, Foles promised, isn’t buried away in his arsenal.
“I feel like whatever it takes to put the ball in the end zone, no matter short, intermediate or long passes, that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “The time will come for a long one out there.”
But Foles has also turned the ball over twice this preseason, losing a fumble on his first series in the opener while being tackled and then throwing a pick against the Panthers, an interception in the back of Carolina’s end zone after he had initially dropped a routine snap and then tried to throw the ball out of bounds.
Foles said he had tried to throw the ball out of bounds but made a mistake, the kind he plans to correct before next Saturday’s Jacksonville game.
“That’s something I can fix -- I will fix,” he said. “The completions are great and you watch film and you look at them and maybe get something out of it, but the things I didn’t do well I’ll really focus on and make those better.”
On the flip side, Foles has shown better mobility after working this offseason to improve his speed and footwork. He ripped off a 10-yard run against New England and took advantage of more green ahead of him against Carolina, when he ran seven yards to pay dirt on his second drive.
Left tackle Allen Barbre allowed Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy to ride upfield, creating a gap that invited Foles to scramble through. Thanks to some tough blocking near the goal line from Riley Cooper on cornerback Drayton Florence, Foles managed to run into the end zone, a play reminiscent of his 14-yard touchdown scramble in last year’s buzzer-beating road win over Tampa Bay.
“I went through my read progression and I saw an opening so I took it,” he said. “I just kept it and got into the end zone.”