PHILADELPHIA – It was all set up, nice and clean. Go out and play well against the Seattle Seahawks, and Mark Sanchez would make it very difficult for Eagles coach Chip Kelly to take him out of the lineup if and when Nick Foles is cleared to play.
Nothing was nice and clean about the Eagles’ 24-14 loss to the defending Super Bowl champions. Including Sanchez’s play.
The Eagles had just 139 yards of offense against Seattle. Sanchez completed 10 of 20 passes for 96 yards. He threw two touchdown passes and one interception. Sanchez was sacked three times.
“I think he made some good decisions at times,” Kelly said. “He hit a nice ball to [Zach] Ertz, caught him on the sideline. [Sanchez] did a good job on the motion on the goal line when no one adjusted with [Jeremy] Maclin. Got the ball out to him. I think he was under some pressure today. We’ve usually done a better job cleaning the pocket.
“But I think he missed a couple of throws, too, and he’ll be the first to tell you that.”
The Eagles got a turnover with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. They trailed by 10, and a scoring drive right there would have gotten them within one score of the Seahawks. Instead, on first down at the Eagles’ 30-yard line, Sanchez underthrew wide receiver Riley Cooper. Seattle cornerback Tharold Simon intercepted the pass.
“I just missed the landmark to Coop,” Sanchez said. “I just missed it. I was kind of flushing forward and I didn’t get everything that I wanted on the ball. It was just a bad throw.”
It was a bad performance against one of the teams the Eagles could see again in the postseason. Sanchez said he didn’t think about it that way.
“Every week is important,” he said. “I don’t know if this means one thing and if we would have won, we’re the best team in the league. That’s not really how it goes. Until you play all of those other teams, it only matters who was better on this field today and tonight, and it wasn’t us. It absolutely wasn’t us.”
Foles was examined last week and not cleared to return to practice. That makes the timing very difficult. Sanchez will start against Dallas next week. There are two games left after that, at Washington and at the New York Giants. If Foles is cleared, Kelly will have to decide whether to insert a player who has been inactive for two months or stick with a guy who has played shaky football against playoff-caliber teams Seattle and Green Bay.
“This most important thing is just to get past this one,” Sanchez said, “to watch the film and move on and get ready for another huge game. All of these games down the stretch are so important. Big picture is too far out in front of us. We really just need to focus on what is right in front of our nose and that’s getting this bad taste out of our mouth and going out and playing Dallas and giving our best effort next week.”
