On Monday night, when the 6-2 Philadelphia Eagles take on the 3-5-1 Carolina Panthers at home, quarterback Mark Sanchez will make his first start since leaving the New York Jets in the offseason.
Nick Foles was diagnosed with a broken collarbone and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks, which is essentially the rest of the regular season. Since Foles went down, though, all Eagles fans have heard about is how poor of a quarterback Mark Sanchez is and how he can’t possibly lead the offense.
There are two responses to that. The first is that this Eagles team is more talented than the Jets team that Sanchez only led to two AFC Championship games. Head coach Chip Kelly brought in Sanchez for a reason, perhaps he has faith in his ability to lead the offense. After all, Sanchez is much more mobile than Foles, and is much better at stepping into his throws than throwing off his back foot.
The second is that Sanchez doesn’t have to lead the offense. The Eagles offensive line returns all but one starter this week; the same offensive line that helped running back LeSean McCoy claim the NFL rushing title last season. If Chip Kelly and running backs Darren Sproles, Chris Polk and McCoy can get the run game going, then it will take a ton of pressure off Sanchez. If Sanchez is as bad as advertised then the easiest way to prevent him from turning the ball over, is to keep it out of his hands, and into the hands of the running backs.
The key to the Philadelphia Eagles winning in Week 10 is a balanced attack, and getting the run game going early will allow the Eagles to keep the Panthers defense guessing.
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