Philadelphia, PA
- It’s a season to be proud of. While the Eagles started the season with an ugly 4-6 record and their hopes of a repeat championship looking bleak, they turned it on the rest of the way to the tune of a 5-1 homestretch and a playoff berth.
The Eagles survived an extremely tight game in Chicago and traveled to New Orleans to face the top-seeded Saints.They took it to the Super Bowl favorite early, with the Eagles jumping out to a 14-0 lead over the Saints and Nick Foles putting on a show. The Eagles defense was harassing MVP candidate Drew Brees and things were starting to get out of hand.
That was when Nick Foles took the field again and moved the Eagles into Saints territory. Foles lofted a pass toward Zach Ertz down the sideline, looking to get to the goal line and put up their third touchdown of the night. Instead, cornerback Marcus Lattimore leaped up and came down with an acrobatic interception to hush the Birds and give life back to the Bayou. This was the turning point in the game and the spark the Saints needed to fight back and ultimately win. Many blame Alshon Jeffery for the loss, with the top wideout tipping a short pass right into the arms of Lattimore at the end of the game, sealing the deal. Jeffery though was playing through injury and quite well at that, and he definitely is not to blame for the end result.
For one, Foles was noticeably off in the second half, throwing inaccurate passes and looking as erratic as he was when he was in St. Louis a few years back. It looked like he was peaking on that last drive, but at the end of the day, you have to play four solid quarters in the playoffs, and Nick Foles couldn’t put it together.
With the hard loss, the Eagles will enter an offseason where they will have a big decision to make at quarterback. They can go with Carson Wentz, drafted as the future of the franchise, but has been prone to injury in his first few years. Or they can stick with Nick Foles, a quarterback with playoff experience and that has been very reliable off the bench, but not so much when he is the starter. I believe Wentz is the guy for the Eagles, and he’ll fight back from these injuries and be a very good player. If the Eagles can, they should keep Foles as high-quality insurance, but I expect him to have a market this offseason, especially now that’s he’s proven last year’s Super Bowl wasn’t a fluke.
There’s more about the Eagles offseason coming your way this spring, where we’ll take a look at free agency and the NFL Draft. Until then, thank you very much to everybody who has tuned into these articles, it means a lot.
