Nick Foles ties NFL record with 7 TD passes; Eagles win

By the middle of the third quarter of Sunday's game at Oakland, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles had his brush with football immortality.

Foles' seventh touchdown pass of the Eagles' 49-20 win over the Raiders, tied an NFL record held by Sid Luckman (1943), Adrian Burk (1954), George Blanda (1961), Y.A. Tittle (1962), Joe Kapp (1969) and Peyton Manning (2013).

Showing pinpoint accuracy and playing with supreme confidence, Foles also joined Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb and Tom Brady as the four quarterbacks in NFL history with 250-plus yards, at least four touchdown passes and a perfect (158.3) passer rating by halftime.

Foles didn't slow down in the third quarter, hitting LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson and Riley Cooper on touchdowns of 25, 46 and 5 yards, respectively.

With the Eagles up by 36 points in the fourth quarter, Matt Barkley was charged with mop-up duty, ending Foles' bid at a record-setting eighth touchdown pass.

According to Randall Liu of NFL Communications, Foles became the first quarterback in NFL history to toss seven touchdowns and finish the game with a perfect passer rating.

Of all the statistics from Foles' magical day, the most telling is that he had two more passing touchdowns by the end of the third quarter than Michael Vick has accrued all season.

For the second time in four weeks, Foles has forced coach Chip Kelly to revisit Vick's status as the starting quarterback.

Here's what else we learned in Sunday's game:

1. Chip Kelly's offense has befuddled football observers as much as opponents. Fox color analyst Tim Ryan summarized the fickle punditry, acknowledging that he changed his mind about Kelly halfway through Sunday's aerial onslaught. Even though the early-season Eagles became just the fourth team in NFL history with five consecutive games of 430 or more total yards, Kelly's offense continues to be met with skepticism. The problem with this team lies on the other side of the ball.

2. As if it wasn't bad enough that the Raiders couldn't stay competitive with a 3-5 team, the Raiderssuffered a pair of injuries that could change their season's outlook. Darren McFadden aggravated his hamstring injury, and Terrelle Pryor was sent to the locker room early in the fourth quarter to have his knee examined. Pryor downplayed the injury after the game, explaining that the testing was merely "precautionary." Rashad Jennings had the best game of his career in relief of McFadden, totaling 176 yards and one touchdown on 22 touches.

3. Oakland receiver Rod Streater showed an extra gear we didn't realize he possessed on a 66-yard catch-and-run, blowing past Eagles defenders. He had taken a backseat to No. 1 receiver Denarius Moore over the past month.

4. The Raiders' defense was exposed after entering this game as a top-10 unit. It couldn't keep up with the Eagles' breakneck pace and suffered multiple breakdowns in coverage. By the time Foles tied the touchdown record, there were still 19 minutes left in the game.

5. Similarly, an Eagles run defense that had been allowing just 77 rushing yards per game over the past month was gutted for 210 yards on the ground. The 29-point margin is misleading in the sense that the Raiders actually out-gained the Eagles, 560-542 in net yards.

6. Rookie tight end Zach Ertz's role has gradually been growing at Brent Celek's expense over the past few weeks. Ertz scored his first career touchdown and posted a season-high five catches.

7. Eagles running back Bryce Brown had his best game and longest run (32) of the season, but still looks slower than last year.

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