Turns out a healthy Nick Foles is better than an injured Carson Wentz.

Shocking, I know.

That should really be the extent of the “Foles vs. Wentz” argument that will stink up social media and sports radio this week. One guy is healthy, one guy is not. THEREFORE – at this current moment in time, I’m gonna roll with the healthy Super Bowl MVP. It seems pretty straightforward to me, but unfortunately we’re just gonna have to deal with the frothy nothing-burger quarrels for the next seven days.

I’ll tell ya what; that was the first Eagles game I enjoyed watching this year, at least for three quarters. They moved the ball up and down the field, they played aggressive and nasty defense, and I swear I saw glimpses of the 2017 squad out there.

This, of course, begs the question –

Where was this Eagles team against the Buccaneers, Titans, Vikings, Panthers, Cowboys, Saints, and Cowboys?

Surely the quarterback change was not the sole catalyst for the win, right? Nick Foles did play the first two games this season, and he wasn’t exactly Joe Montana against the Falcons or Bucs. The banged-up defense was lights out for 3+ quarters last night as guys like Avonte Maddox and Cre’Von LeBlanc made big plays. Did they miraculously transform into legitimate NFL starters overnight?

Gut feeling: the Eagles still believed in themselves while the Rams believed they were going to trash a 6-7 team in a rebound game coming off a bad loss. It’s the same underdog mentality that got the Birds a Super Bowl ring last year. “No one likes us, we don’t care” was the rallying cry then, but this year it’s more, “No one thinks we have a prayer, and we probably don’t, but we’re gonna at least go down swinging.” Maybe we can get that on a T-shirt.

I’ve been totally unenthusiastic about this team and actually mostly ambivalent over the past three or four weeks, so I won’t flip flop here and tell you how excited I am going forward. That would be the Skip Bayless thing to do, to just hop back on the bandwagon. I’m still skeptical that a banged-up Eagles team does much of anything in the playoffs, but at least they’ve given themselves a chance at 9-7 and a postseason return after slogging through a mostly miserable title defense in 2018.

1) Nick “The Franchise” Foles

He gets the ball out quicker than Carson does. That’s the big difference. Nick glides through his progressions and takes what the defense gives him. He’ll stand in the pocket and take a hit while Carson is more inclined to extend a play and try to make something happen in that fashion.

It’s not to say that Nick is better than Carson, because I don’t think he is. I think they are both pretty damn good when they’re on their game. Statistically, Foles finished 24 for 31 for 270 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. last night and the Eagles’ offense was a meager 4-13 on third down. Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams and Jake Elliott did the scoring.

The difference between healthy Foles and injured Carson is that healthy Foles was able to stay ahead of the chains with smart and simple plays on first and second down. He had first down conversions on 2nd and 10 and 2nd and 7 on first half scoring drives. He hit Golden Tate for 11 yards on a 2nd and 10 in the third quarter. There were only nine passing third down conversions last night, but Nick made them count and really did a nice job averting the dreaded three and out.

The only two horrendous passes I saw were the interception at the goal line and a risky screen that he probably should have thrown into the ground, but he was otherwise solid.

I wrote a story last week called “Throwing the Football Down the Field” and went through Carson’s last three game charts to find that he was 2-8 in completed passes of 20 or more yards against the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys.

Last night, Nick was 3-5 in this category, all of which came down the right side of the field and took advantage of Alshon Jeffery’s ability to grab the ball in traffic:

That really was important, those deep shots. Carson was barely throwing those, and I wonder if the back injury was affecting his ability to step into those throws, or if the torque of the motion made those shots outside the hashmarks painful to even execute.

At the end of the day, Nick has one touchdown and two interceptions in three games this season. I don’t think he “won the game” for the Eagles last night, as some people are saying this morning, but he was steady last night, he kept the offense on the field, he got different receivers involved, and he picked and chose his spots really well.

2) Play calling

With Nick in the game, I was obviously very interested in how Doug decided to use him. Simplified game plan? Different sets?

Here’s what I wrote down for called plays:

  • Shotgun – run: 21
  • Shotgun – pass: 30
  • Under center – run: 6
  • Under center – pass: 2

I have it as a 32 to 27 pass/run split. The box score has it as a 33/28 split, so I must have missed one in there. Maybe I was on the toilet. Also, I’d have to go back and watch the entire film to see how many RPOs Doug called, since it’s nearly impossible to watch every blocking scheme in real time. Let’s just pretend this is a Quinnipiac poll with a +3 or -3 margin of error in called runs and called passes.

Either way, that’s a really nice balance, about 54% passing and 46% running. If you want to take away the final three run plays on the clock-killing final drive, you still get a 57% to 43% mix, which is a lot better than what Doug usually winds up with.

A couple of other play notes here:

  • QB scrambles: 2
  • Draw plays: 1
  • running back screens: 3
  • wide receiver screens: 3

They had two screen looks to Alshon and still tried a few RB screens even with Corey Clement not available. Doug ran 17 straight shotgun plays before trying to go under center, and Jason Peters false started on that first attempt. They finished with about 86% of their plays coming out of the shotgun and 14% coming from under center, which is not dissimilar from what they did with Carson this year.

3) Big boy blocking

Truthfully, I hated the play call on the Adams touchdown run. You’re gonna run behind Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert?

It ended up being the best bit of blocking either guy has shown all year:

Goedert gets the first block and Ertz follows him through the hole to reach the second level. Adams squirts right through while Marcus Peters shows absolutely no interest in making a tackle at all.

Great blocking, exhibit B:

Do not let Russ see Jason Peters opening up a gaping hole, a hole that your grandmother could walk through.

Goedert is in there again, go figure.

One more play, featuring…. guess who? –

The offensive line was excellent last night. This wasn’t a game where the running backs were gashing the Rams for huge chunks of yards, but the red zone blocking was just elite, well-executed stuff.

4) Guys stepping up

Big games from all of these dudes:

  • Wendell Smallwood: 10 carries, 48 yards, 2 touchdowns
  • Avonte Maddox: started at outside corner, had a 2nd quarter interception, two pass break-ups and quality coverage on the game’s final play
  • Cre’Von LeBlanc: he was “flying around” out there
  • Rasul Douglas: putting big hits on people
  • D.J. Alexander: big fumble recovery on special teams

Raise your hand if you had those five guys making contributions to the win.

.

.

.

Yep, me neither.

Both lines were fantastic on the evening. Jeffery had his best game of the year. Zach Ertz still had seven targets despite the “reduced” role and Tate had some chunky yardage pickups, too.

5) Blitz me

Jim Schwartz called a really nice game. He pressured Jared Goff, who predictably folded like a soft California guy.

On the final play, Schwartz brought both linebackers and left his five defensive backs in man-to-man deep coverage:

I look at that play again and see Nate Gerry turn around to say something to Malcolm Jenkins. I wonder if that was a miscommunication or just a good sell job, because Gerry comes on a delayed blitz and I think that forces Goff to get rid of the ball a little bit earlier than he wanted to. Either way, I thought it was a pretty gutsy call to send six guys instead of just dropping 7 or 8 into coverage.

Well done, Jim Schwartz.

6) Officiating

After last week’s debacle, I’ve decided to make this a recurring entry in the column. This will continue through the rest of the season and into next year.

We had a rare “grasping the helmet opening” call on the second Eagles drive that moved the sticks on third down. Marcus Peters didn’t think it was a penalty, but replay shows he had a hand inside Smallwood’s dome. Good pickup by the ref there, leading to a key conversion.

I didn’t think the Aaron Donald hit on Foles was a roughing the QB penalty. He did get him high, sure, but he didn’t strike him in the head and he didn’t exactly follow through or bring him to the ground. Looked like he got him across the shoulder.

I thought the Eagles also got a generous spot on the third down conversion just before halftime, the 3rd and 2 to Dallas Goedert that resulted in a touchdown. Eagles fans would be complaining if the other team got this spot:

Thankfully the two key review plays were correct. That was the fake punt catch that was overturned and the Rasul Douglas goal line tackle that ultimately didn’t mean too much. I’m just happy we didn’t get a huge outrageous controversy this time around, so praise the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven for that.

7) The peripherals

Here we go:

  • won time of possession battle, 32 to 28 minutes
  • +2 turnover margin
  • 4-13 on third down (30.7%)
  • 0-1 on fourth down
  • allowed LA to go 4-12 on third down (33%)
  • lost 0 yards on 0 sacks
  • 3-5 success rate in red zone
  • six penalties for 49 yards

That’s much more like the 2017 Eagles. They won the TOP on the strength of that +2 turnover margin. The defense really did a nice job of limiting third down conversions after allowing Dallas to go 10-19 for 52% last week. Zero sacks against that Rams line is excellent, and six penalties for 49 yards is more than manageable.

Good stuff all around.

8) Doug’s best call?

I liked 3rd and 4 draw play with Sproles on the first drive. LA wasn’t expecting that.

I also agreed with the decision to kick the field goal at about the four minute mark in the third quarter. Take the points, keep the momentum on the road, and make it a two-score game.

I honestly also did not have a problem with the 53-yard field goal try in the fourth quarter. That’s aggressive Doug. That’s the Doug we want, right? If Elliott hits that kick, the game is over. Shrug.

9) Doug’s worst call?

I didn’t have any issue with him going for it on 4th down near midfield in the first half, but the play call was what? Josh Adams out of the shotgun? The 3rd down play got you into 4th and short, and that’s what you come up with? And you do it with a guy who had left the game earlier with a head injury?

That was a weird one. Doug is good for at least one of those per game.

The only other play that kind of bothered me was the decision to run Sproles on 3rd and 8 in the fourth quarter. He almost converted, but that offensive series felt a little passive to me with about eight minutes on the clock and a 14-point lead. This game didn’t have to come down to the final play, but the Eagles half-bottled it on both sides of the field.

10) Awful announcing

How ’bout that Fresh Prince clip to start off the broadcast? Everybody hated it, but whatever, at least it wasn’t a shot of a cheesesteak or the Liberty Bell.

And how ’bout Cris Collinsworth doing his Sunday night slide in from the left side instead of the right?

“Now here’s a guy…”

That threw me for a loop. Collinsworth always slides in from the right. Cheeky stuff right there.

Couple of other random notes from the broadcast:

  • Norristown native Tommy Lasorda looks pretty good for age 91
  • I prefer Terry McAuley to Dean Blandino and Mike Perreira.
  • I cringed when Collinsworth said, “All that’s missing now is the Rocky music.“
  • Al Michaels still seems somewhat bored to me. I think he’s ready to retire.

That’s it. Happy Monday.