Both quarterbacks played well, the big difference was the line play. I think Foles is good, but I don't think he's as good as he looked last night. A lot of QBs would have looked good against the Pats D.
Foles had a ~120 QBR and won 8 out of 10 games as a starter four years ago. The collective New England fandom somehow thought we'd be facing a scrub of Ryan Mallet/Jacoby Brissett proportions, which was simply never the case.
And yet much more recently this season he looked pretty bad.
So what that tells you is that Foles has shown the potential to play very well, but has been inconsistent. Like most QBs, his performance is probably affected a great deal by the type of defense he's facing.
Again, most QBs will look awesome when the opposing defense hardly pressures them at all.
He sucked while playing for Jeff Fisher. You know what other QB's were crappy playing for Jeff Fisher, pretty much every QB that ever played for him except Steve McNair (and frankly who knows how good he might have been had he not been saddled with Jeff Fisher).
I mean, sure. But "great" QBs are gonna look good no matter who their coach is, in my opinion.
Look, I'm not saying Foles is trash or something. I never said that, so don't conflate my argument with whatever people you're thinking of who felt that Foles was akin to Ryan Mallett. He's a good QB, certainly better than a mere backup. I don't think he's better than, for example, Matt Ryan, who the Pats were able to beat last year.
I don't think Foles would look like a HoFer if he were facing a halfway decent defense with the ability to get some pressure on him. Last night, he played against an opponent that couldn't generate any pressure and had a great deal of trouble tackling players in the open field. Obviously in that situation he's going to put up great numbers. Many QBs would put up great numbers in that situation.
The Pats lucked out this year in that they didn't face an above average starting QB, or an above average head coach, until the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, their major weaknesses were exposed once they did.
Still, Brady is good enough and the Pats are so well coached that they still had a chance to win in the 4th quarter. Ultimately, though, the weakness of both lines was such that they fell short.
Hopefully this spring / summer the team invests in the key infrastructure of the team -- i.e. the lines -- instead of focusing on making splashy acquisitions at skill positions (e.g. wide receiver, DB).