Nick Foles Injured
Nick Foles has appeared to have broken his collar bone. He is out indefinitely.Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles will be out indefinitely after apparently breaking his collarbone on the last play of the 1st quarter on Sunday versus the Houston Texans.
Texans linebacker Whitney Mercilus sacked Foles, injuring his non throwing left shoulder. Foles was sacked at midfield as the first quarter ended, he got up very slowly and walked off the field with a trainer before heading to the locker room to get X rays on his shoulder and collarbone.
Foles did not return to the contest.
An MRI on Monday is expected to provide clarification on the expected length of Foles' absence, which will presumably span multiple weeks.
Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered the same injury last season and missed 7 weeks.
Foles has had his highs and lows this season leading the Eagles to a 6-2 record, sitting atop the NFC East and 2nd in the NFC behind the surprising Arizona Cardinals. Foles has played pretty well in the Eagles 6 wins, but in their 2 losses he has thrown 2 interceptions in each game. In those two losses Foles has thrown 4 of his 9 interceptions.
So far this season Foles has completed 59% of his passes, thrown 9 touchdowns against 4 interceptions
Mark Sanchez
Mark Sanchez will fill in for Nick Foles while he is out.Sanchez entered Sunday's game at the start of the second quarter and played well completing 68% of his passes threw 2 touchdowns, but also threw 2 interceptions.
Foles has already shown that a quarterback can pile up passing yards in the Philadelphia offense without impressive efficiency stats and win games.
During Sanchez's 4 seasons with the New York Jets and one game with the Eagles, Sanchez has completed 55% of his passes, while tossing 70 touchdowns, but also throwing 71 interceptions. Sanchez's stats are not great, but as I said earlier in the Eagle offense a quarterback can pile up passing yards and wins without having the most impressive efficiency stats.
One thing that Sanchez brings to the Eagle offense that Foles really can't bring is the ability to run the zone read play and Sanchez can actually keep the ball and threaten a defense with his speed. Sanchez is faster than Foles and a shorter than the 6'6 Foles, which is a good thing because he is a smaller harder target to hit.
The upcoming schedule for the next 7 weeks appears to favor the Eagles passing game because as you can see below only two of the defenses they will face rank in the top 10 versus the pass. The rankings of course will change each week, but it gives you an idea of what Sanchez will be facing. Here are the pass defense rankings of the next 7 defenses the Eagles will face: Carolina-13th, Green Bay-20th, Tennessee-10th, Dallas-16th, Seattle-3rd, Dallas-16th, Washington-27th.
