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Congratulations Nick Foles! #BearDownRT @nfl: Philadelphia @Eagles = NFC East Champions! pic.twitter.com/rkgihwDnwK
— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) December 30, 2013
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Former Arizona Wildcats quarterback Nick Foles continued his legacy of awakening the school’s dormant history of quarterbacks in the NFL on Sunday night.
Foles, the NFL’s highest rated passer, not only is Arizona’s first quarterback to throw a pass in the NFL in 38 years. He is now the Wildcats’ first quarterback to play in a postseason football game.
Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles qualified for the playoffs as the NFC East champions with their 24-22 victory over host Dallas. Foles will host fellow Austin (Texas) Westlake High School quarterback Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints in the first round on Saturday. Foles completed 17 of his 26 passes for 263 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions against the Cowboys.
Foles, in only his second season in the NFL, is a playoff quarterback, a distinction Arizona’s three previous pro quarterbacks — Fred Enke Jr., Eddie Wilson and Bill Demory — did not achieve in a combined 13 seasons.
The closest was Wilson with the Dallas Texans in 1962. The Texans won the AFL title that season, but Wilson did not play in the championship game (the only postseason game in that era) because he played backup to Len Dawson.
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This is good right? Nick Foles in a pretty good fraternity there. #NBC #ArizonaWildcats pic.twitter.com/QI0iUtFmgv
— Dave Cooney (@Cooney247) December 30, 2013
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Foles already has the distinction of having the most passing yards for a former Arizona quarterback in the NFL. His 4,590 career passing yards tops the 4,169 accumulated by Fred Enke Jr. from 1948-54.
Foles finished the season as the NFL’s leader in passer rating (119.2), which also ranks as the third-highest in NFL history. He also set the NFL record for best touchdown-interception ratio in a single season with 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions.
He said during a postgame interview with NBC that Westlake High School is special place for him and used the word “crazy” to explain his feelings about playing against Brees.
“It’s just crazy how things work out,” Foles told NBC. “I’m not going to focus on that. (Brees) is on the other side of the ball. I will focus on their defense.”
Another crazy thing: Two years after playing against Chip Kelly’s Oregon Ducks, Foles is Kelly’s quarterback in the NFL playoffs. Remember that talk about Philly trading Foles because he did not fit Kelly’s style?
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CAREER NFL STATS OF FORMER ARIZONA QUARTERBACKS
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WILDABOUTAZCATS.net publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report, Lindy’s College Sports and TucsonCitizen.com.
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