Bill O'Brien: Nick Foles ‘makes good decisions'

Share

Nick Foles’ interceptions are the hot topic around the Philly water cooler, but in Houston the Texans coaches sees more in Foles than just the bad passes into enemy hands.

Texans head coach Bill O’Brien, no stranger to good quarterbacks, said the Eagles are winning because of Foles, not in spite of him.

“I see a good quarterback,” the first-year Texans head coach said. “I see a team that is number one in the league in points per game. I see a team that is running 80-plus plays per game. I see a team that a lot of the offense goes through him. He makes good decisions.”

The Eagles and Texans meet for the first time since 2010 on Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Along with pitting the NFL’s second-best takeaway team (Houston) against the league’s third-highest giveaway team (Eagles), it’s also a matchup of two of the league’s most turnover-prone signal callers.

Foles has nine interceptions this season, tied for third-most in the league, to go along with three lost fumbles. His 3.1 interception percentage is seventh-worst among NFL quarterbacks.

Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has six interceptions but has the league’s sixth-worst interception percentage. He’s thrown three fewer picks than Foles, but he’s also thrown 72 fewer passes.

In fairness to the Texans, the journeyman Fitzpatrick is in his first season playing in O’Brien’s system. He was picked off six times in the team’s first five games but just once in the past three.

“Playing quarterback in this league is very, very difficult and then you add on to that playing quarterback in a new system," said O’Brien, the former Patriots offensive coordinator. “When you’ve been in a couple different systems in your career and now you come into a brand new system 10 years in, it’s a difficult thing to do.

“I think he’s really started to, especially this past game, get comfortable with this system. I think you’ll see his improvement as we move forward. He knows for our team he needs to improve. He knows that. He works very hard. Great guy, he’s fun to coach and I agree with Phil that he’s a competitor and he’s tough.”

Foles last year threw 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions on 317 pass attempts, an interception rate of 0.63, third-lowest in NFL history. He entered the season with a 1.8 interception percentage, second-lowest among NFL quarterbacks who had thrown at least 800 career passes.

“Maybe he’s turned it over a little bit more, more human like this year than last year," O'Brien said. "I think he only threw one interception last year. That’s incredible. That’s an incredible year that he had last year. I think he’s a hell of a quarterback. It’s a big, big challenge for us on Sunday."

Contact Us