Phil Sheridan, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez lead turnover parade

PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles coach Chip Kelly has been talking about reducing the number of turnovers committed by his team all season. This is not what he had in mind.

Elias changed the scoring from Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, taking away one of the Eagles’ turnovers. The opening kickoff, which took an odd bounce and was recovered by the Cowboys, has been scored officially as an onside kick. It was originally ruled a fumble lost by the Eagles.

The Eagles still lead the NFL with 33 turnovers this season. As bad as that sounds (and is), there is one simple conclusion to be drawn. The Eagles’ quarterbacks have turned the ball over way too much this year.

Nick Foles, who started the first eight games, committed a total of 13 turnovers. Foles was on a pace to give the ball away 26 times all by himself over the full season. That number is especially jarring because Foles was so good at taking care of the ball last season. He threw 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

This year, Foles threw 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Mark Sanchez took over for Foles in the Eagles’ Week 8 game in Houston and has started the six games since then. Sanchez has a total of 11 turnovers -- nine interceptions and two lost fumbles.

Add them up and the two quarterbacks are responsible for 24 of the Eagles’ 33 turnovers.

Last season, the Eagles turned the ball over a total of 19 times. Quarterbacks were responsible for 14 of those turnovers, nine interceptions and five fumbles. Foles, with two interceptions and two fumbles, was responsible for just four turnovers. Michael Vick (two fumbles, three interceptions) committed five turnovers. So did Matt Barkley, with four picks and one lost fumble.

The rest of the Eagles’ roster committed just five turnovers last season. It has committed nine this season. That’s obviously more, but it is not the huge leap made by the quarterbacks. If Sanchez commits two more turnovers in each of the remaining games, Eagles quarterbacks will have double the amount of turnovers they committed in 2013.

That begs the question: Why? Is there something about Kelly’s offensive system that makes quarterbacks more prone to committing turnovers? Foles’ numbers from last season make a pretty compelling case that it has nothing to do with the system.

Pressure on quarterbacks is the No. 1 cause of turnovers. For most of the first half of the season, the Eagles were juggling offensive linemen because of injuries.

As the line returned to its current state of health-related stability, Sanchez replaced Foles. Considering Sanchez had thrown 69 interceptions and 68 touchdown passes in his first four seasons combined, his turnover rate is hardly surprising.

The good news is Elias took one of the turnovers off the Eagles’ ledger. The bad news is they aren’t about to turn any of those interceptions into touchdowns.

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