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Foles' best NFL game?

Eagles quarterback Nick Foles took a beating against Washington, but hung tough and engineered a victory.

Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

MY QUESTION to Chip Kelly had a few people chuckling yesterday. I wanted to know if Sunday's victory over Washington was Nick Foles' best NFL game thus far.

Kelly was quick to reference the seven-touchdown-pass afternoon in Oakland, last Nov. 3. That drew the chuckles. Sure, statistically, that day will probably always be Foles' career performance. Not what I meant, though, and Kelly understood.

Oakland was a pitch-and-catch blowout. It required a good arm and clear-eyed decision-making, but really, Foles barely broke a sweat. Sunday was different, Foles trying to break a tie in the fourth quarter with Todd Herremans the only survivor from the "real" offensive line of three months ago and the running game going backwards. Foles took huge hits. He got up. He scrambled, he made tough throws into coverage. He won.

"Yeah, it was a tougher game," Kelly acknowledged. "It was obviously a different opponent, a different thing. It just depends on what you're looking for. I think it was his best game, and that's one thing I've seen with Nick . . . I thought he got better each week [last year]." Kelly added that he sees the same dynamic at work this year.

After rewatching the game, I have to wonder if Foles will really be able to practice today. I've never seen a QB who officially wasn't sacked take that kind of beating. He wasn't sacked because Foles did exactly what he couldn't seem to do in the first half of the season opener - he ducked and dipped around and got the ball to a receiver late, or he threw it away.

The second half was brutal. Sub center David Molk was engulfed by Chris Baker, who trundled into Foles and slammed his left shoulder hard into the turf with 10 minutes and 36 seconds left in the third quarter. The next play, Foles lasered a third-down conversion down the middle to Darren Sproles. Foles spent the rest of the game wincing and rotating his left arm.

He soon had other aches to worry about; Brian Orakpo bulled inside Andrew Gardner. Ryan Kerrigan eluded Jason Peters after what looked like a late snap from Molk. Then came the Baker blindside blast that started the brawl.

A hit I didn't notice until I rewatched came on the big Jeremy Maclin knee-down challenge play, with 8:23 left. Kerrigan leveled Foles as he unloaded a perfect pass.

Pro Football Focus said Foles completed 14 of 21 for 162 yards under pressure. It was reassuring to fans who'd wondered where their 2013 Pro Bowl QB had gone.

"I just got banged up a little bit," Foles said afterward. "It's football, and you get hit a few times."

DEVELOPING STORY LINES:

 -- Jason Kelce's penalty behind the play killed one long Jeremy Maclin touchdown catch and run (Jordan Matthews eventually scored on that drive). Later, Nick Foles, in one of his rare misses Sunday, couldn't connect on what would have been a 77-yard TD, Maclin open, completely behind the defense. The franchise record is 237 receiving yards in a game, by Tommy McDonald on Dec. 10, 1961 against the Giants. Maclin (eight catches, 154 yards) could have gone over 300 against Washington, with a little more luck.

-- Nate Allen's redemption bandwagon veered right into the ditch. Allen is a hard worker, great guy, has size and speed, over the past year he has seemed to be making progress in making the right reads, but he was wrong several times Sunday, most egregiously on the 81-yard DeSean Jackson touchdown catch that led to Cary Williams' sour postgame speech.

-- As bad as the secondary was against Washington, it would have been even worse without the cool competence of Malcolm Jenkins. And what a layout on that fourth-quarter interception.

-- On Chris Polk's 102-yard kickoff return, Zach Ertz made the first big block, then Trey Burton walled off Polk from a couple of Redskins. After Brad Smith took out E.J. Biggers, Polk really only had to beat the kicker.

-- The Eagles' offense struggled in the red zone early on in Indianapolis last week, getting just two field goals out of three trips, Cody Parkey failing to convert the third FG. The Birds had no such trouble when they finally got the ball Sunday, rookie Jordan Matthews catching touchdown passes on the first two trips inside the Washington 20. This was pretty much the sort of thing we all had in mind when the Eagles drafted Matthews, 6-3, 212, in the second round last spring. 
 

OBSCURE STAT:

 LeSean McCoy, the NFL's defending rushing champ, ranked 16th this season going into last night's action, with 175 yards on 60 carries. McCoy's average of 2.9 yards per carry was the lowest of anyone ranked in the top 40. Howie Roseman said on his 94WIP radio show last night that McCoy and Eagles coach Chip Kelly will eventually produce a breakout. "There's a lot of things that keep me up at night,'' Roseman said. "LeSean McCoy isn't one of them.''

WHO KNEW?

 That magician-long snapper Jon Dorenbos wasn't the only guy on the Eagles' sideline who could make objects disappear? The funniest shot from Fox's broadcast was Birds equipment manager Greg Delimitros hiding LeSean McCoy's helmet behind his back, when McCoy wanted to return to the game without undergoing concussion testing.

EXTRA POINT:

Tight end James Casey caught a pass on the Eagles' first offensive play, but it was erased by a defensive holding penalty. The ball finally came Casey's way again a mere 70 offensive snaps later, when the Birds needed a first down to run out the clock, second and 11 from their 40, with 1:43 left. He caught it, for 19 yards, sealing the win.

"Nick made a really good throw, hit me right in the chest," Casey said. "Had to catch it.