For Eagles' Foles, it's a game of feet

PAT SHURMUR cut right to the heart of the Nick Foles matter yesterday, the problem and the promise.

"What I'm finding with Nick is that when he sets his feet and steps into his throws, he's awesome," the Eagles' offensive coordinator said during his weekly news conference. "What we're also finding is there are times when he gets flushed, or he flushes himself, and he doesn't have his feet underneath him, and he's not as good as he could be if they were."

Shurmur went on to qualify that the same can be said for all quarterbacks, but let's be real: It can be said a lot less for Peyton Manning this season than for Foles. In fact, it can be said of a whole bunch of quarterbacks this season less than it can be said for Foles, who ranks 28th among NFL starting QBs in passer rating (80.7) and completion rate (59.2 percent). He does rank fifth in passing yards per game, 291.3, but he's tied for third in interceptions, with nine, behind only benched Jets quarterback Geno Smith and Jaguars rookie Blake Bortles.

"Quarterbacks are constantly working on [footwork]," Shurmur said. "There are plenty of plays that were excellent in the game."

Shurmur referenced the 50-yard completion to Riley Cooper in the second quarter Sunday but did not mention that on the very next snap, Foles threw his first of his two interceptions, a back-foot floater late, intended for Josh Huff in the end zone, on first down from the Cards' 25, easily picked off by Antonio Cromartie.

When asked about that play, Shurmur said Huff was running down the seam, as part of a "four-vertical" setup.

"Nick slid to his left a little bit. He felt a little pressure to his right, and he slid to his left," Shurmur said. "You typically don't make that throw late down the seam, and he'll learn from it."

Opposing defenses seem focused on getting Foles moving this season, having picked up that his lack of speed also makes him labor to reset. The Eagles' offensive-line uncertainties haven't helped; Shurmur referenced Foles flushing himself, and it does seem he sometimes overreacts to pressure, either making a hurried throw or throwing while in a premature backpedal.

It doesn't help that as the season has unfolded, with Foles throwing more INTs (seven) than touchdown passes (six) over his last four games, the main insight we've gotten from No. 9 is that he's going to learn from his mistakes, keep working hard, and remain positive.

Things got a little better on that front yesterday.

Foles said he doesn't worry about his interception total, good like last year or bad like this year, as an entity unto itself.

"I don't look at stats in a way y'all do. I look at them as, those are opportunities where we can have points," Foles said. "The stat line is whatever. I'm upset because we gotta get those points. It's my job - I gotta put us in position where we can have more points on the board and win the games.

"I'm the decision-maker on offense. I have the ball every single play. It's my job to make sure it goes to the right spots. That's how I look at it. And yes, I have to do a better job of that."

Isn't this all pretty frustrating?

"I have to keep working and fix it. It's not just going to happen overnight," Foles said. He said he focuses on the Texans this weekend, not on his frustrations.

Is he surprised that he hasn't been able to fix the problem, given the amount of work he's done on it?

"I want it to be fixed," Foles said. "My words don't mean anything. I have to go out here and I have to prove it. I have to go out here and work toward it.

"I have to keep studying film and making sure of the fundamental things . . . I've got to make sure my body's in the right position, because when it's in the right position, I can deliver any pass."

Foles noted that there are times when quarterbacks can't step into throws, when they do have to throw moving sideways or backpedaling. It wouldn't be practical to take a sack or throw the ball out of bounds every single time the setup isn't ideal. (Though Foles might be going to extremes to avoid sacks, having taken only two in the last six games, the lowest Eagles figure in such a stretch since sacks became an official stat in 1982.) The trick is to know when you can attempt such a throw with minimal danger that it will be picked off.

"I've made a lot of throws when my feet haven't been going [forward], too. I can't just forget about that altogether and become a robot," Foles said. "I still have to be who I am . . . There's times where if my timing's a little off, maybe I missed it by a split second. I just need to not throw it and just check it down and move on. One of those in the game I was a split second late [the interception right after the Cooper catch], and it cost us."

Foles, who will face J.J. Watt and a strong Houston pass rush this weekend, vowed to work on his deficiencies all week in practice and "in the game, just trust it - trust my footwork, trust the pocket."

He will get Jason Kelce back this week at center, if Kelce's post-surgical abdomen survives a full week of practice and, Kelce said yesterday, coaches feel he isn't too rusty to be tossed into the fray, the starter having been sidelined since Sept. 21 vs. Washington. Especially if right guard Todd Herremans can continue to be effective despite a biceps tear, the return of Kelce and left guard Evan Mathis (knee), eligible to play next week, Nov. 10 against Carolina, might reenergize the running game. Maybe Foles will find himself in fewer situations where he has to attempt 62 passes, as he did at Arizona, tying the franchise record set by Randall Cunningham on Oct. 2, 1989, at Chicago.

Donovan McNabb, the franchise's all-time leading passer, never had to throw 62 of them in a game. Seven games into the season, Foles has already equaled McNabb's franchise record of four 300-yard passing games in a season, with four - which isn't altogether a good thing, in what is supposed to be a run-based offense.

"You have to keep going, and enduring through," Foles said.

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