Sanchez’s resurgence a bonus for Eagles
Former N.Y. Jet puts in strong game taking place of injured starter Foles
Mark Sanchez’s return to being an NFL starting quarterback Monday night went far better than anyone rightfully could have expected.
And after he put up big numbers and avoided big mistakes while helping the Philadelphia Eagles to a lopsided victory over the Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field, there was reason to suspect the NFC East leaders might be an even better team with Sanchez at quarterback than they were with the now-injured Nick Foles playing the position.
“I don’t know,” Sanchez said when asked during his post-game news conference to recall the last time he’d felt so good. “It was just a great night. It was so fun. It was so fun to get back out on the field. I’m very blessed and thank God for the opportunity. It was really cool. But it’s been a while. I’ve been out of it for a little bit, away from the game. So it’s good to get back. It’s good to get back in an environment like this, in front of this crowd, in front of all those guys that work so hard during the week. It’s so fun to watch it pay off.”
Sanchez threw for 332 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions as the Eagles beat the Panthers, 45-21, to improve their record to 7-2. It was Sanchez’s first start for the Eagles in place of Foles, who suffered a broken collarbone during a triumph at Houston eight days earlier that is to keep him sidelined for six to eight weeks. Sanchez, the former New York Jets starter, never before had topped 300 passing yards in an NFL game without committing a turnover.
“We didn’t try to do anything different with him to try to get him going,” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. “I thought he just handled everything we threw at him ... We talked about it and we’ve really preached it and we’ve been working on it. But we didn’t turn the ball over and obviously that was a big part of the game today.”
That had been the issue with Foles. He threw only two interceptions, along with 27 touchdown passes, last season. But he has thrown 10 interceptions to go with 13 touchdown passes this season, and Kelly had spoken earlier this season of the need for Foles to cut down on his interceptions before they started costing the Eagles games.
Sanchez hasn’t always been the most reliable quarterback. He has 72 career touchdown passes and 71 career interceptions. When he and the Jets went to consecutive AFC championship games in his first two NFL seasons, those teams relied on their running game and defence. Sanchez totalled 29 touchdown passes and 33 interceptions in those two regular seasons in 2009 and 2010. He had 13 touchdowns and 18 interceptions in his final season as the Jets’ starter in 2012.
But he is a more experienced player now. And there was talk this past summer, after the Eagles brought him in to be Foles’s backup, that he would fit in well with Kelly’s fast-break offence and just might play well if his chance were to come.
In some ways, that was merely the tried-and-true formula for a backup quarterback at work: His reputation had been partially restored simply by not playing. There hadn’t been an opportunity lately for Sanchez’s shortcomings as a quarterback to be on display.
But beyond that, there is also the fact that Kelly’s offensive system is successful and it is quarterbackfriendly, and there are talented players around Sanchez in the Philadelphia offence. He looked like a confident player Monday who was fully in charge of the offence.
“After playing for a while, you learn a lot,” Sanchez said. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and had plenty of games where I’m throwing interceptions and hurting the team. But the most important thing, as Chip talked about during the week, was for the offence to take care of the football and to communicate really well and to establish our tempo. And if we can do those things, generally we’ll be successful.”