Philadelphia Eagles: Can Nick Foles Pull the Backup Hero Card?
By Erik Lambert
The Philadelphia Eagles fans have long felt their team is snake bitten in one way or another. The string of brutal defeats and key losses suffered proves it.
This is a long-suffering franchise. Not in the sense of the Cleveland Browns where it’s just years and years of ineptitude. If anything theirs is worse. Constantly getting close to the sun only to have their wings melt at the last season. Every year it’s always something. Seems 2017 won’t be any different after the catastrophic loss of quarterback Carson Wentz to a torn ACL.
Suddenly the focal point of their success is gone, leaving some to wonder if they can complete the mission that began back in September. Everybody felt the Eagles were favorites to finally get their first Super Bowl victory. Unfortunately the track record of teams who successfully accomplish that goal with a backup quarterback is painfully low. Nick Foles has starting experience and has played well in the past, but this may be a tall order.
Foles is up against a lot of history
Make no mistake. This isn’t an impossible task. Backups have risen to the occasion before in the Super Bowl era. Earl Morrall filled in for both the 1970 Colts and 1972 Dolphins on their championship runs. Doug Williams came off the bench in 1987 to get one for Washington, as did Jeff Hostetler three years later for the Giants. Of course there was the great Kurt Warner winning MVP in 1999 for the Rams while Trent Dilfer silenced his critics the next year.
People also forget that Tom Brady was a backup in 2001. So this is not something that’s unheard of. The trick will be whether the rest of the team can pick up the slack enough to compensate for what’s been lost in Wentz. It won’t be easy by any stretch. His playmaking skill isn’t something that’s duplicated. It will be on the Eagles coaches to discover what Foles does best, adhere to it and lean a little more towards the running game and defense.
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After that it’s about getting men to believe that the mission is not lost. There is still a chance. That falls at the feet of Doug Pederson.