Nick Foles calm, but knows each start might be his last with Eagles

CHICAGO — As he came into the huddle to call the fourth-and-goal play that would decide whether the Eagles continued their playoff run or went home, Nick Foles said the most Nick Foles thing possible.

Nothing. He just called the play.

And then he executed it, throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass to a wide receiver who had just joined the team via trade midway through the season, to give the Eagles a 16-15 win over the Bears in Sunday’s NFC wild-card game at Soldier Field.

The pass to Golden Tate in the final minute did all the talking for him.

“It’s not like ‘The Replacements’ where you have a good message there,” Eagles tackle Lane Johnson said of the business-as-usual tenor of that make-or-break huddle. “Or ‘Friday Night Lights’ where you say ‘Let’s go, boys! Let’s go finish the state championship!’ You call the play and we see if we can score. That’s it.”

With Foles, the backup quarterback the Eagles have trotted out each of the past two Decembers to replace Carson Wentz for a postseason run without ever losing one of those playoff games, they always seem able to do just that. Score. And win.

Nick, as the Eagles’ players and coaches are fond of saying, is Nick.

“He’s going to stay calm, he’s going to stay collected,” coach Doug Pederson said.

The fact that he did that at the end of a game in which he looked not like a Super Bowl MVP but very pedestrian only amplified that serenity.

“What I learned on those stages is just how to calm myself in a chaotic moment where there is stuff from the outside world and it’s a ton of pressure,” Foles said. “Just really simplifying it in my head, getting in the huddle, looking at the guys that I trust, knowing that it’s all on the line for us and we’re just going to get the job done.”

Foles was 25-for-40 for 266 yards and two touchdowns but also threw two first-half interceptions.

His long-term future with the Eagles is ambiguous. The team has a $20-million option to keep him in 2019, something they may or may not exercise. And even if they do, Foles can pay back $2 million to become a free agent. There is some talk that the Eagles might try to trade Foles this offseason.

None of that will happen until he loses a playoff game for them. Or, you know, the other possible ending to this season. But Foles has said he understands that each of his starts this postseason could be his last with the Eagles.

That wasn’t going through his mind on the field.

“It’s more so when I sit in the locker room after the game,” he said. “I always try to take a moment and just sit there and reflect . . . I realize that I am blessed to be able to wear this jersey at least one more week. I get to play with these guys one more week, I get to be with the coaches one more week. That’s something that I really look forward to and am pleased to be a part of it.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.