PHILADELPHIA -- Owner Jeffrey Lurie identified three major problems that kept his Philadelphia Eagles team out of the playoffs this season.
"Turnovers, No. 1," Lurie said. "You can't be a Super Bowl team and lead the league in turnovers. Then red zone offense in the beginning, especially harkening back to [games in] Arizona and San Francisco. Third, giving up the big play on defense."
We're going to look at each of the three in detail. First up: turnovers. The Eagles' turnover problem was essentially a quarterback problem. Nick Foles threw 10 interceptions and lost three fumbles in his eight games. Mark Sanchez threw 11 interceptions and lost three fumbles in his eight games. The two quarterbacks accounted for 27 of the Eagles' NFL-leading 36 turnovers.
So let's look more closely at Sanchez and Foles. In the four seasons he started for the New York Jets, Sanchez threw 69 interceptions in 62 regular-season games. There is a pattern that predates Sanchez's arrival in Philadelphia.
Foles earned the starting quarterback job last season, when he threw just two interceptions while throwing 27 touchdown passes in 13 games. But which year is the exception? Look back at his rookie season, when Foles started six games. He threw six touchdown passes and five interceptions.
Inconclusive? Then go back to his career at the University of Arizona. In three seasons there, Foles threw 67 touchdown passes and 33 interceptions. That's a 2-1 ratio -- not bad at all, but not exactly the 13-1 ratio that Foles had in 2013. The point is, Foles was probably going to throw more interceptions than he did last season. The issue is whether he can settle somewhere between last season's excellence and this season's giveaway bonanza.
"Statistically, it's not better," Foles said. "But as a player, the comfort level was definitely better. Every game, I continue to feel more comfortable. The interceptions, that's something I can fix. That's something I will. You learn through times like that. I wasn't playing my best football, but every week I felt like we were getting better and better as a team."
There was one other factor. Foles played most of the first half of the season behind a makeshift offensive line. That doesn't explain everything, but it does explain some of the difference in his play.
"There is not just one thing you look at," head coach Chip Kelly said. "I don't think when you look at an interception you can say, 'Gee, it's the quarterback's fault.' There were times this year when there were interceptions where the offensive lineman was supposed to be blocking a defensive end, and he didn't. The quarterback expects the defensive end to be blocked, but all of a sudden he's in his face. The [pressure] is supposed to come from the outside, but all of a sudden there is someone running from the inside.
"My point is that there is not just one thing like, 'It's this guy's fault.' There were interceptions that were thrown that went right through receivers' hands and were tipped and went the other way. Now, that's not the quarterback's fault. He put the ball exactly where it was supposed to be. So it's analyzing all of it to see if there is one common thread that goes through everything and then your ability to correct those things and make them better."
Neither quarterback was able to correct those mistakes during the season. Foles threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown a few minutes before he was injured in Houston. Sanchez had one interception negated by a penalty on Sunday but managed to throw another one that counted.
Can either avoid making turnovers in the future? Foles at least has last year's run of error-free football to draw upon.
