You'd think that Thursday night's game would've sealed Michael Vick as the Eagles starter at quarterback. Vick went 9-for-10 for 105 yards with his one incompletion coming on a garbage interception before the end of the half. He was, generally, outstanding.
Oh, but you would be wrong -- Chip Kelly has no interest in naming a quarterback and sort of chastised reporters ("put down your pens") who kept pushing to see if Vick had become the guy during Thursday night's victory over the Panthers.
"No, we're going to watch the tape. I've told you since day one, we're not going to make any rash decisions," Kelly said. "You can put your pens down if you think we're naming a starting quarterback in this room right now."
Chip didn't really sound mad or anything, and he also acknowledged that it's tough to tell Vick he's not the starting quarterback after his impressive performance on Thursday, even if he spit some up-tempo, rapid-fire coachspeak along with this answer.
"That's a good question. I thought Mike, you know, put another good game together but we're going to evaluate everything," Kelly said. "I thought besides the throwaway that Nick couldn't get out of the end zone, he did a nice job too. I think we have two quarterbacks that can play in an NFL game, so we'll continue to look at it. But you feel better about that situation.
"Sometimes I think you get nervous because you don't have anybody, and it's a default decision, but again, I thought both those guys played well. I know Nick wants that throw back. But Mike's got a good grasp of what's going on. So it's a positive for both of those guys. And I thought Matt Barkley did a nice job when he was in there."
Foles performed quite well as the starter on Thursday, moving the team down the field on the Eagles first few drives and looking pretty comfortable in Kelly's high-octane offense. However, he did fumble two snaps out of the shotgun, including the last one on the Eagles first drive that ultimately led to an interception.
On the pick, Foles recovered the fumbled snap, got a hold of the ball, saw pressure, attempted to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone and lobbed an interception to Josh Thomas instead.
Good news for Foles: he managed to run the triple option (!) without being killed and he's clearly pretty comfortable with some of the intricacies of Kelly's offense.
Bad news, though, is that Vick looks more comfortable. And as good as Foles may look at times, and as nice a problem as having two quarterbacks might be for Kelly, it looks like a foregone conclusion that sooner or later he'll have to name Vick the starter.
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