Kelly shows confidence in Foles, despite his struggles

HOUSTON - Even in his weakest moments, when the smoke from battle always obscured one side of his play chart, Andy Reid, the mad bomber of NFL coaches when with the Eagles, never asked Donovan McNabb to throw the football 62 times in a game.

McNabb's career high for attempts was 58, and that came in the infamous 2008 overtime tie against Cincinnati as Reid kept calling passes even though a full gale was blowing through Paul Brown Stadium. If McNabb's understanding of the rule book had been accurate and the game continued after the overtime period, perhaps he would have equaled the number of passes thrown by Nick Foles last Sunday against Arizona. Since there are, in fact, ties in the NFL regular season, that didn't happen. As it was, McNabb's career high for a regulation game was 55, and even that seemed like an awful lot at the time.

It wasn't as much as Chip Kelly asked of Foles, however, in a game the Eagles never trailed by more than seven points. Thirty attempts in the first half, 32 in the second. The arm-wearying load led to 36 receptions, 411 yards, and a loss. It also led to running back LeSean McCoy's wondering why the run game took a backseat when the Eagles needed a yard or 2, or sometimes much less.

Kelly said the Eagles respected the Arizona run defense and thought the pass defense could be exploited, and that's just the way it went. Reid gave answers like that, too, although not quite as snappily.

The bottom line is that Kelly has confidence in his quarterback, despite the fact that Foles has clearly not had a great start to the season. Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said that it has been only two or three plays a game that need better execution, no more, and if that were the case we'd be talking about how great it is to be undefeated.

"I think Nick . . . what's the record now, 5-2? I think Nick is 5-2, in my opinion," Kelly said. "I think you rate your quarterback in terms of, 'Are you winning? Are you losing?' In both games we lost, we've had a chance to win the game on the offensive side of the ball, and we just didn't execute in those situations."

That Kelly appears to have a lot more confidence in Foles than in the running game isn't a recent revelation. He threw on third down and fourth down from the 1-yard line against San Francisco with the game on the line, and that was a pretty good indication right there.

It might be as simple as saying he doesn't have confidence in the patched-together offensive line to open a hole. When McCoy was stopped for no gain on third down from inside the Arizona 1-yard line last Sunday, with a first down still possible short of the goal line, that sealed Kelly's decision to take the sure lead and kick a field goal on fourth down.

All the noise that surrounded the end of that drive - which included not challenging the spot on Chris Polk's run and the curious decision to hand off to McCoy from the shotgun rather than make the defense consider the possibility of a sneak - is interesting, but doesn't change the fact that Kelly trusts the pass more than the run right now.

He has some reason to feel that way, and a lot of it has to do with how Foles performed behind a settled offensive line last season. It's worth remembering that Foles has played in only 27 NFL games, including just 23 starts, and if the learning curve for a young quarterback is really two full seasons, the usual rule of thumb, then he has nine more starts to burn before his downturn is official. That would take us to the end of this regular season, and Kelly seems more patient about the process than the rest of Eagle World.

Foles had better keep his arm loose against the Texans, who are ranked 28th in the league in pass defense, giving up 380 yards a game. Some of that is statistically bent because running against Houston's defensive line is particularly difficult.

In their four losses, the Texans allowed opposing quarterbacks to have no lower than a 98 rating for the game. Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, and Ben Roethlisberger combined to go 97 for 146 (66.4 percent) against them. The question is whether Foles can still be included among those on that list this season, just one year after standing atop it.

"I remember a game when Tom Brady was playing against the Chiefs [a Sept. 29, 41-14 loss for New England] and everybody was wondering when he was going to retire," Shurmur said. "Now, they're 4-0 since that time."

There's a place for some "yeah, but" in response, but the head coach doesn't seem to think so. He's using his quarterback as if he had the best in the business - and a rubber arm, to boot. When you outpass Andy Reid, that's really saying something. Now, if we could just figure out what it is saying.

Nick Foles tied the Eagles' team record for most pass attempts in a game last week. Here are the top five:

Player   Att.   Opponent   Date   

Foles   62   at Cardinals   Oct. 26, 2014

Randall Cunningham   62   at Bears   Oct. 2, 1989

Davey O'Brien   60   at Redskins   Dec. 1, 1940

Donovan McNabb   58   at Bengals   Nov. 16, 2008

Sonny Jurgensen   57   Giants   Sept. 23, 1962

Source: Philadelphia EaglesEndText

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