The Eagles might be the most unspectacular 4-1 team in recent memory, at least offensively. Over the last two weeks, the team has scored just a pair of touchdowns with Nick Foles under center.
Part of Foles' problem this year was always going to be dealing with expectation. Having a touchdown rate of 8.3 percent and a 27-2 TD-to-interception ratio will do that in Philadelphia.
But now the onus seems to be on the coaching staff to lighten the burden, since the issues don't seem to be purely mechanical.
"I think what's happening is, everybody jumped the gun and said, 'Is this guy our franchise quarterback?' Those are after-the-fact evaluations," Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said on Tuesday, via Philly.com. "Nick's fighting through the year like a lot of our players. He's only, really, a second-year player. That's what you've got to think about. He's had limited number of starts in this offense. He's made some good throws that helped us win games."
While the act of adding up total games played and downgrading a player's experience is often a cop-out, Shurmur makes a solid point. Foles rode the wave of one of the NFL's most innovative offenses in recent memory in 2013. The rest of the league was, in some aspect, unprepared each week to face him.
"Everybody's still hung up on 27 and two," Shurmur said. "We're a different team. We have different players in there. We're playing different opponents, who are playing us differently."
Now, Foles is learning to deal with some of the same problems he encountered as a rookie. The TD-INT ratio has come back down to earth, and so has the adjusted yards per pass attempt, which ballooned to 10.5 yards last year and is now back to 6.5.
At some point, Eagles fans were due to see this period of continued development.
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