Nick Foles stands after a furious performance against the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl. It is undoubtedly the highlight of a career that resembles a rollercoaster ride. Disappeared from the pro-bowl MPP into immersion and from early retirement thoughts into the biggest game ever: The Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback has come a long way. Super Bowl LII will be available on 4. February from 11.45 pm live on DAZN – optionally with German and original US commentary!
And suddenly she’s there, the big chance. Nick Foles is a super-bowl quarterback, the chance that every child in the USA has probably dreamed of and the chance that only happens once in a lifetime: Nick Foles is a super-bowl quarterback. A sentence for which one would probably have been banned from every football discussion round for life not so long ago. But Foles lives a career marked by extremes. And one of the extreme highs came just in time.
With 352 thrown yards and three touchdown passes, Foles picked the DVOA’s best defence of the entire season so far to get the Eagles a ticket for their first Super Bowl since 2004. In the second half, he achieved a perfect quarterback rating (158.3) and a perfect register rating (99.9) on eleven of eleven passports for 159 yards and two touchdowns, and failed to give the best third-down defense since 1991 a chance to respond in third attempts, when ten of eleven attempts were also rewarded with a perfect register rating.
78 per cent successful passes for at least 350 yards with three touchdowns and no interception in a playoff game before only Kurt Warner, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning.”To be honest, I still can’t figure out what just happened,” Foles explained after the dominant 38:7 dismantling of the Minnesota Vikings in the Conference Championship Game. The moment I stood on the stage at the top is one you dream about as a child.”
However, games with excellent statistics for the 29-year-old are not completely new. Back in college, the Foles, now 1.98 year old in Arizona, led an attack that was identified by its downfield passing game. From 2009 to 2011, Foles convinced as Wildcat without having been very successful in the PAC-12 division.
Although he put the team in a position to win time and again with impressive stats, his 4,334 yards with 28 touchdowns and 14 interceptions helped in the senior year 2011 due to a weak defensive and bad play-calling, but only to a balance of 4-8. Stat lines from some of these defeats therefore read as follows:
The first step into the NFL was made by Foles in 2012, when Andy Reid drafted him to the Eagles as a backup for Michael Vick in the third round of the drafts. However, the star only opened up in Chip Kelly’s offense in 2013, after Vick was injured and Foles knew how to carry out the for NFL conditions partly novel scheme in an ideal way.
Philly finished the year with a 7-1 record and also won six of his first eight games in the following season. Combining these 16 games together, the aspiring star threw 4,432 yards, 34 touchdowns and twelve exceptions at a register rating of 100.4. Foles even set an NFL record with seven touchdown passes in one game.
But as cometlike as the ascent went, so rapidly it went downhill again. A week after a 411-yard performance in Arizona, Foles injured his shoulder and had to leave the field in a sling. He was then unable to continue his performance. Kelly lost interest and traded Foles in exchange for Sam Bradford to the Rams.
Also in St.. Louis couldn’t tie Foles back to his performances of the pro-bowl season and even lost the fun of the game. At the age of 26, he even considered finishing his career:”We are professional athletes and every now and then we have moments when we have to retire to assess the situation,”Foles explained the difficult phase at the time, for example,”I have a family, a wife, a daughter and a dog. I wanted to retreat and focus, because it’s just so important to me.”
Foles, however, decided to listen to his heart and return. Again, it was Reid stretching out his hand and bringing him to the Chiefs as a backup of Alex Smith’s.”It wasn’t an easy decision,”Foles said in the following,”I wasn’t 100% sure. My faith and destiny have allowed me to become a better person and a better player in this experience.”
After the Chiefs did not take their option on another contract year with Foles in the past off-season, it went back to where the NFL career began. Back to the Eagles and back to Lincoln Financial Field and Doug Pederson, student of Andy Reid. Foles was again in the role of backup.
However, when the possible MVP season of Carson Wentz came to an early end and many had already lost faith in the season of the Eagles, Foles was to start again with a quick run of his career.
It actually seemed as if Foles would sink the ship when both disastrous performances came to light on Christmas Eve in a horrible quarterback duel against Derek Carr. A week later, Foles started with four out of eleven passes and an interception and was put on the bench for the rest of the game in the first half. Pederson’s hope of finding more offensive rhythm in Week 17 and giving Foles self-confidence had turned into the opposite.
Philly fans were probably just trying not to shout at him in the playoffs, but Pederson seemed to have grabbed Foles’ 2013 tape from the basement in playoff-bye-week. Foles gets rid of the ball much faster than at the end of December. The leg work is precise and constant, and the throws are taken at the moment when Foles can benefit from his litter strength.
He can play out the Third-and-Short perfectly and throws fast screen passes to the receivers. Against the vikings, the Eagles played seven screen-plays and were able to win three first downs for 50 yards. A tool that Philly will probably implement in his game plan in the coming week. In any case, Foles has been able to make more money out of it than any other player since week 15 with 20 screen passes for 189 passing yards.
Run pass options are also more common since the divisional round game against the Falcons. Already under Kelly 2013 Foles had a lot to do with RPO designs. Against Atlanta, all Foles-Completions passes crossing the Line of Scrimmage 15 yards were mostly attacking the middle of the field. With his regained self-confidence, a week later he threw across the field in a furious fashion.
In just five games in six weeks, Foles has experienced a deja vu of the performances of his entire NFL vita. At Christmas it was the useless Foels, who lived under Jeff Fisher in St. Gallen. Louis disappointed. Against the Vikings and his former rams teammate Case Keenum, it was the one who played one of the statistically best half-yearly series in league history in 2013.
Keenum, by the way, indulges the almost retired ex-colleague in success like no other:”He has been through so much. So much that people don’t know about,”said the Vikings-QB after the match,”What he did here – it couldn’t have happened to anyone who deserved it. I’m definitely gonna keep my fingers crossed for him now.”
After Foles had almost given up he will now start in a Super Bowl. No one knows better how short-lived success in the NFL can be. Foles, however, does not need a long-term perspective. He wants this one victory.