Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The national sports media is confused after Mark Sanchez stepped in on the national stage last night and led the Eagles to a big win. Is Sanchez a real starting quarterback? Is he lucky? Is this all Chip Kelly’s doing? Does Sanchez suck? There doesn’t seem to be any real consensus, but some believe the Mark Sanchez we saw last night is the Mark Sanchez that should have been all along, like ESPN’s USC Blog:

This is the real Mark Sanchez.

The quarterback who was whistling crisp spirals through the chilled Philadelphia air on Monday night, not the one who was struggling mightily through his final two years with the New York Jets.

Boomer Esiason said on WFAN that this is a new Sanchez:

“I don’t remember him ever looking like that as Jets quarterback.”

Latin Post dropped some messianic language on the Sanchize:

Philadelphia Eagles (7-2) quarterback Mark Sanchez continues the resurrection of his career this week at the expense of the struggling Carolina Panthers (3-6-1) after helping the Eagles defeat Carolina 45-21 on “NFL Monday Night Football.”

The New York Daily News, in classic fashion, took an opportunity to make a dig at their own coach:

The former Jets castoff kept his promise Monday and visited famous Philly cheesesteak joints Pat’s and Geno’s (that’s right Geno’s) following the Eagles’ big win over the Carolina Panthers Monday night … In a Ch. 6 video, one man offers Sanchez his cheese fries, which Sanchez accepts (too bad Rex Ryan wasn’t there).

The New York Post already put on their batshit-speculations hat:

It hasn’t even been two full games, but Captain Buttfumble already looks like The One Who Got Away instead … Sanchez is a free agent after this season, and the Jets will likely be in the market for a starting quarterback again.
Stranger things than a Sanchez-Jets reunion happen all the time in the NFL. Like Sanchez reviving his career, for instance.

The Guardian took a balanced yet slightly optimistic approach:

Mark Sanchez’s stat line from his first start for Philadelphia is nothing to write home about: 20 of 37 passes completed for two touchdowns and no interceptions. But throw in the facts that he came within a few feet of a third scoring pass (Brent Celek’s knee touched the ground a fraction of a second too soon), and that Sanchez was getting plays off so fast that the officials, quite literally, could not keep up, and suddenly it starts to look a lot better. Early days yet, but Sanchez does continue to look like a nice fit for Chip Kelly.

As did Pro Football Talk:

Sanchez established the tempo well enough during a three-minute, 91-yard scamper down the field that the officials had to slow things down so they could catch up in time for the next snap and the team hasn’t done anything but score touchdowns in the red zone since he replaced Foles against the Texans in Week Nine. Rougher patches may loom around the corner, but the early returns have provided little reason to believe the Eagles are going to miss a beat as a result of turning to Sanchez.

And some others followed the so-called “Quarterback-proof offense” thread, like USA Today‘s For the Win:

There are three things to keep in perspective as the Eagles lurch into the last half of the season.

1. Carolina is a terrible football team.

2. There are still seven games, including four in the division and one against the defending Super Bowl champion, remaining.

3. You can put anyone at quarterback, and Chip Kelly will find a way to win.

And Fox Sports:

The media noise about playing under center in Philadelphia’s high-powered offense — more specifically Chip Kelly’s high-powered offense — invokes memories of an old Geico commercial:
It’s so easy a caveman can do it.
The litmus test of this theory is a prime example of Neanderthal quarterbacking. Mark Sanchez came from the primitive offensive philosophy of the New York Jets during the offseason to join the NFL’s most evolutionary attack.

So what do we know? Mark Sanchez is definitely either the quarterback of the Eagles’ future, the once and future king of the Jets, just a cog in the Chip Kelly machine, or a Neanderthal. Nothing in between those though.

Kyle: Does this remind anyone else of Michael Vick’s coming out party against the Redskins on Monday Night Football four years ago? Different circumstances, for sure, but a once-star turning his career around in one Monday Night game– we’ve seen this before. Maybe this time the story has a better ending than the quarterback winding down his career on a shitty Jets team.