Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles (9) passes as Oakland Raiders outside linebacker Sio Moore (55) applies pressure during the second quarter of an NFL football game in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
OAKLAND — All that talk of an improved Oakland Raiders defense was quickly forgotten in a flurry of touchdown passes by Nick Foles.
The backup quarterback tied an NFL mark with seven TD tosses and threw for 406 yards to revitalize Philadelphia’s struggling offense in the Eagles’ 49-20 victory over the Raiders on Sunday.
“The last couple of weeks there have been a lot of great things said about us, and not just the defense but overall,” Oakland safety Charles Woodson said. “What we did today was open ourselves up for those attacks going forward. We’ll have to hear about it all week long. They’ll keep replaying this game all week long, so we’re going to take a beating, and we’ve got to stand up to it and accept it for what it is but understanding that the season does go on.”
Foles connected three times with Riley Cooper, becoming the seventh passer in NFL history to throw for seven touchdowns in a game. Peyton Manning did it for Denver on opening night this season against Baltimore.
Foles also threw scoring passes to Brent Celek, Zach Ertz, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson as the Eagles (4-5) looked nothing like the offense that failed to score a touchdown in each of the past two weeks.
“Every defense the past couple of weeks has been stopping us,” McCoy said. “So today we were kind of feeling bottled up and we released everything. It’s tough when you’re not winning and you’re not putting points up. We’re an offense that can put points up and we showed that the first six weeks.”
The Raiders (3-5) had appeared much improved on defense in recent weeks but were completely flummoxed by coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo spread offense that stalled recently after a fast debut in the NFL.
Foles completed 22 of 28 passes as he frequently exploited mismatches and blown coverages, starting with a 42-yard screen pass to Cooper on the opening drive when the Raiders had two defenders trying to match up with three receivers.
McCoy took a short pass and ran 25 yards untouched for his score in the third quarter and Jackson raced past Mike Jenkins on his 46-yard touchdown later in the third.
“When a quarterback has seven touchdowns, we have to sit there and take that personal,” Raiders cornerback Tracy Porter said. “We can’t give a guy seven touchdowns in a game, let alone put up 49 points on us. It was flat-out embarrassing that we allowed that to happen.”
The Raiders couldn’t keep up with Philadelphia’s torrid scoring pace despite gaining 560 yards — their third-most ever and most since 1968. They had one first-quarter drive stall in the red zone for a field goal and then couldn’t play catch-up in the second half when the Eagles turned a 28-13 halftime lead into a blowout.
Oakland quarterback Terrelle Pryor threw for 288 yards and ran for 94 more, but also had two interceptions and took two sacks in a shaky performance. He left the game in the fourth quarter with a knee injury that he does not believe is serious.
“This one was just embarrassing,” Pryor said. “If you ask every guy on this 53-man roster, they’ll say the same thing. It’s embarrassing. I hate losing. It’s not acceptable to me and I don’t like it. All the guys in here agree with me. We have to do something about it instead of tanking it.”