It was the worst of times, it was the - well, maybe not the best, but then again it couldn't get much worse.
This wasn't Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities;' it was the Eagles season opener vs. the Jaguars.
Call it A Tale of Two Halves.
Raise your hand if at some point during that horrific first 30 minutes of football you were calling for Mark Sanchez.
Count me in.
For Nick Foles, this was last year's Dallas Debacle Part II. In a word, Foles was horrible as the Eagles fell behind 17-0. To his - and Chip Kelly's - credit, they made the necessary adjustments and blitzed the Jags in the second half, scoring 34 unanswered points to win going away.
Last year, you might remember, Foles was magical, throwing 27 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. He blew that up in the first half yesterday, when he turned the ball over three times, twice on fumbles and once when he tossed an interception in the end zone just as the Eagles looked like they were ready to get on the board.
Yesterday's first half will now be known as Exhibit A in that nagging feeling that Foles is not the guy, not a franchise quarterback. He held the ball too long, showed no presence of the internal clock that every NFL quarterback needs to let him know to get rid of the ball. He looked confused, and again slid into the kind of sloppy mechanics - bad footwork, throwing while moving backward or flat-footed - that he's hinted at before.
That was the first half.
Luckily, they still play two halves in the NFL.
Give the credit for yesterday's win to Chip Kelly. He heard the boos showering down on him and his team as they jogged off the field at halftime. Kelly went to work, made the adjustments, and then executed them perfectly in the second half.
I don't remember another Eagles coach who could have done what Kelly did yesterday. How many times do you think Andy Reid would have thrown the ball in the second half down 17-0. Do you think he would have called a gutsy run up the middle with Darren Sproles on a crucial 4th down play.
Kelly did - and it turned the tide of the game. Sproles blew through a gaping hole in the center of a Jags' defense that was clearly confused by Kelly's hurry-up decision to go for it on 4th down. The result? A 49-yard TD run that reversed the course of what was shaping up to be a disastrous opening day for Kelly and the Eagles.
Foles settled down and went 15 of 21 for 185 yards in the second half. He consistently found wide open receivers, including seam routes to budding superstar tight end Zach Ertz and wideout Jeremy Maclin, who was open all day, and didn't have a Jag in the same zip code on an easy 68 yard TD pass.
Even Cody Parkey rose to the challenge, crushing a 51-yard field goal that also helped turn the tide, and booming one kickoff after another to the back of the end zone, leaving the Jags with a long field.
After falling into a 17-0 hole and getting booed off the field, the Eagles went off, dropping 34 unanswered second half points on the shellshocked Jaguars.
Give this win to Kelly. His calm halftime adjustments - and his refusal to abandon the run - salvaged an opening day in which he may also have lost key offensive lineman Evan Mathis.
Kelly did not panic. He did not pull the rug out from under a struggling Foles, and it paid off with a huge rally.
The doubts will continue about Foles.
Franchise QB? The jury is still out on that one.
Franchise coach? I think we learned that yesterday.
Raise your hand if at some point during that horrific first 30 minutes of football you were calling for Mark Sanchez.
Count me in.
For Nick Foles, this was last year's Dallas Debacle Part II. In a word, Foles was horrible as the Eagles fell behind 17-0. To his - and Chip Kelly's - credit, they made the necessary adjustments and blitzed the Jags in the second half, scoring 34 unanswered points to win going away.
Last year, you might remember, Foles was magical, throwing 27 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. He blew that up in the first half yesterday, when he turned the ball over three times, twice on fumbles and once when he tossed an interception in the end zone just as the Eagles looked like they were ready to get on the board.
Yesterday's first half will now be known as Exhibit A in that nagging feeling that Foles is not the guy, not a franchise quarterback. He held the ball too long, showed no presence of the internal clock that every NFL quarterback needs to let him know to get rid of the ball. He looked confused, and again slid into the kind of sloppy mechanics - bad footwork, throwing while moving backward or flat-footed - that he's hinted at before.
That was the first half.
Luckily, they still play two halves in the NFL.
Give the credit for yesterday's win to Chip Kelly. He heard the boos showering down on him and his team as they jogged off the field at halftime. Kelly went to work, made the adjustments, and then executed them perfectly in the second half.
I don't remember another Eagles coach who could have done what Kelly did yesterday. How many times do you think Andy Reid would have thrown the ball in the second half down 17-0. Do you think he would have called a gutsy run up the middle with Darren Sproles on a crucial 4th down play.
Kelly did - and it turned the tide of the game. Sproles blew through a gaping hole in the center of a Jags' defense that was clearly confused by Kelly's hurry-up decision to go for it on 4th down. The result? A 49-yard TD run that reversed the course of what was shaping up to be a disastrous opening day for Kelly and the Eagles.
Foles settled down and went 15 of 21 for 185 yards in the second half. He consistently found wide open receivers, including seam routes to budding superstar tight end Zach Ertz and wideout Jeremy Maclin, who was open all day, and didn't have a Jag in the same zip code on an easy 68 yard TD pass.
Even Cody Parkey rose to the challenge, crushing a 51-yard field goal that also helped turn the tide, and booming one kickoff after another to the back of the end zone, leaving the Jags with a long field.
After falling into a 17-0 hole and getting booed off the field, the Eagles went off, dropping 34 unanswered second half points on the shellshocked Jaguars.
Give this win to Kelly. His calm halftime adjustments - and his refusal to abandon the run - salvaged an opening day in which he may also have lost key offensive lineman Evan Mathis.
Kelly did not panic. He did not pull the rug out from under a struggling Foles, and it paid off with a huge rally.
The doubts will continue about Foles.
Franchise QB? The jury is still out on that one.
Franchise coach? I think we learned that yesterday.
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