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INDIANAPOLIS - The two former Texas high school quarterbacks delivered a primetime shootout on Monday night, but in the end it was Nick Foles' Eagles coming out with the 30-27 victory over Andrew Luck and the Colts.
"Andrew's an outstanding quarterback, an outstanding leader, and he will be for as long as he wants to play this game," Foles said after the win. "That was a great team win tonight. I love playing against Andrew. I know what type of guy he is."
For the second straight week, Foles rallied the Eagles from a double-digit deficit in the second half. According to ESPN, the Eagles are the first team in NFL history to start 2-0 after trailing by 14 or more points of the second half of each game.
"It's good to have that in your arsenal, to know your team can stick together through adversity," Foles said of the team's resiliency. "We don't want to go down like this every single week. If that's what it takes, we'll do it. We need to play better football in the first half offensively."
Foles finished the game 21-of-37 for 331 yards with a touchdown against an interception for an 84.4 rating. Luck tossed three touchdown passes, all were seven yards or fewer, but his fourth-quarter interception to safety Malcolm Jenkins breathed life into the Eagles. Foles capitalized on the interception with a six-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jeremy Maclin to tie the game at 27-27 with 3:25 remaining.
The defense forced Luck and company to go three-and-out. Foles calmly went out on the field to engineer the game-winning drive. He completed a deep pass to tight end Zach Ertz for 24 yards and dumped the ball off to Darren Sproles for a 17-yard gain. After a 1-yard run by LeSean McCoy, and a pair of timeouts, Cody Parkey nailed the walk-off 36-yard field goal.
"Nick made some of his best plays in the second half, especially as the game was in the balance," said offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. "He had a couple of really nice throws in those last two drives to get us scores."
Foles and Luck not only played their high school football in the same state, but they were rivals in the Pac-12 and classmates in the 2012 NFL Draft. Of course, Luck was the No. 1 overall pick while Foles was a third-round selection. On this night, Foles had the honor of ending Luck's streak of not enduring back-to-back losses in the regular season.
