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PHILADELPHIA -- For a game-and-three-quarters, Mark Sanchez was golden. His first action as the Philadelphia Eagles' starting quarterback had gone about as smoothly as possible, and Sanchez was riding high. Then came the Eagles’ 53-20 defeat in Green Bay. Sanchez was hardly to blame for that comprehensive beating. But he did throw two interceptions, one that Julius Peppers returned for a touchdown, and was charged with two lost fumbles. It was Sanchez’s first taste of the kind of disappointment that he’d grown accustomed to as a New York Jet.  That makes Sunday’s game against Tennessee Sanchez’s first opportunity to show some resilience, to bounce back and demonstrate the ability to right the ship.
“You’re always competing against yourself and trying to be better, and to be the best version of yourself for your teammates,” Sanchez said Thursday. “That’s really where the competitive side comes in. More than anything, you want to win. That’s really our goal each week. This is a really fun job when you’re winning. So we’ll just try to keep winning.” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said he thinks Sanchez has “done a good job. He's played a lot of quarterback in this league. He's been very successful in what he's done, and I thought he played really well against Green Bay. He made a really bad decision on the pass where Peppers dropped into coverage, but besides that I thought he did a really good job.” The interceptions were troubling, because Sanchez turned the ball over a lot during his tenure in New York. He threw two interceptions in Houston after replacing the injured Nick Foles. He did not throw any in the Eagles’ 45-21 victory over Carolina the next week. So Sunday’s four-turnover performance was a return to a not especially good form. “The second interception to [Jeremy] Maclin, I’m kind of throwing off my back foot,” Sanchez said.”It’s kind of a desperation situation, but did we really need it? We’re in four-down territory anyway. We’re thinking we have to get this third down, but we’re in four-down territory, anyway. So even if I throw it in the stands or take a sack, we’re coming back and trying to convert on fourth down, anyway.” Sanchez was being pressured from his right by Peppers. Instead of stepping up to his left and taking a fresh look at Maclin, Sanchez rushed the throw. So he didn’t see cornerback Tramon Williams knock Maclin down. At worst, he could have thrown the ball out of bounds there. Thing is, the Eagles would have lost that game whether Sanchez handed Peppers a touchdown or made one rushed, ill-advised throw to Williams. The Packers jumped to too big of a lead for the rest of the game to mean that much. So Sanchez can write the mistakes off as hard lessons and come back Sunday with a clean slate. “There’s good and bad,” Sanchez said, citing his successful throws to Jordan Matthews and Jeremy Maclin. “You correct the bad and reinforce the good.”
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