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The competition for the Eagles starting QB job has really been running all summer, but all those practices have been building to these next few weeks when Michael Vick & Nick Foles get to take all that prep work and actually run the offense against a hostile opposition.
After one preseason game, Chip Kelly says he saw positives from both guys.
"I thought they both did a good job," said Kelly. "Nick unfortunately had that fumble on the series when we had the protection breakdown, but he came back and put a pretty good drive together. They both got us into the end zone, so I was pleased with how those guys played."
One noticeable difference in the limited series both guys played was that under Foles, the tempo was clearly much faster. However, Kelly says that wasn't as much about the QB as it was about experimentation.
"No, that's just kind of how we practice," he said. "We huddle some times, and we'll go fast at other times. We had some work with the NFL officials a week ago and then we did it with the Patriots. A couple of points in the game we wanted to see if we could play with some tempo and get used to how they were spotting the ball. I didn't see any problems with how it worked. It was just something that we wanted to make sure we worked on."
We certainly did see the offense speed up and slow down all through the evening and I wouldn't be surprised to see Michael Vick running the no huddle next week as well.
No huddle or not, Vick was the consensus "winner" in what is likely the just the opening skirmish in the QB war. He had no turnovers and was responsible for the Eagles biggest play of the night with the perfectly placed 47 yard TD pass to DeSean Jackson.
"They were doing a great job disguising their coverages," explained Vick. "They play some different fronts and different defenses from what they did the past three days and I kind of knew what they were going to do. They have some pretty savvy safeties. I did a good job holding the coverage. The route concept we had gave us options and Desean took advantage of the opportunities and the funny part about it is that we talked about it on the bus about getting that same look and it happened in the first series and first possession. It just goes to show that when you are on the same page with your teammates and guys who put their time and effort into the game like you, good things can happen."
Nick Foles' evening did not start out quite as well as he fumbled on his first possession, but the second year QB did bounce back with what was likely the most complete drive of the evening. He says overcoming that early mistake was big.
"It's huge, I mean I fumbled the ball which is never a good thing but I thought the guys mind set never changed," said Foles. "Our defense did a great job they weren't able to get any points off of it and we were able to go out there and just march right down the field. [RB Bryce] Brown and the line did a great job to get in the end zone so it's always a great feeling when something happens, adversity happens in a game and you are able to come back from it and score a touchdown. It's always a really good thing."
In the end, Foles says he doesn't really know where the race for starter stands or when it's going to be decided.
"I have no clue. That is a question for Chip, so I'm just going to keep playing, practicing and working like I always do and I know all the quarterbacks are going to do the same. We have a good group of us, a great team working every day, so we are just going to keep working."