Chip Leaves Quarterback Door Open

Chip Kelly bobbed and weaved his way around a flurry of questions about the quarterback situation at his post-game press conference.

Nick Foles, starting for the injured Michael Vick, went 22-of-31 for 296 yards with three touchdown passes against the Bucs and also ran for a score. In just over 1 1/2 games, the second-year signal-caller has thrown for 493 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.

“I thought Nick did a really good job,” said Kelly. “He ran our offense, he did a really good job of spreading the ball around to different receivers, and I’m really, really happy with the way we played today.”

Did Foles do enough to win the starting job over a healthy Vick?

“Was he 100 for 100?” asked Kelly, referencing his quote from earlier this week saying that Foles could win the job if he was 100-for-100 with 27 touchdowns.

“We’ll evaluate everything — go back and watch the film, see what we did good, see what we did bad then see where we are, see where Mike is.”

Vick was active against Tampa because the emergency quarterback James Casey was sidelined with a groin injury. Kelly said that Vick isn’t 100 percent healthy, but could have finished the game for the Eagles if called upon. Asked if he expects Vick to be ready for the Cowboys, Kelly said he doesn’t deal in hypotheticals. He used  the same line when asked if Vick would be the starter against Dallas if he is 100 percent healthy.

— On Riley Cooper‘s big day (He had four catches for 120 yards and a touchdown): “I think the opportunities are there — that’s the way I felt all along with Riley. I think he’s an outstanding receiver and when the ball is thrown to him he catches it. Today, he did a really great job.”

— On going 2-of-3 in the red zone: “We did a better job. We spent a lot of time this week in practice making sure we could execute down there, and we did.”

— Late in the game, with the offense facing a 4th-and-1 from the Tampa 17, the Eagles lined up as if they were going for it, and the Bucs were drawn offsides by a Foles hard count. Kelly said they were just trying to get the defense to jump, and weren’t actually going for it.