Philadelphia Eagles (7-2) quarterback Mark Sanchez continues the resurrection of his career this week at the expense of the struggling Carolina Panthers (3-6-1) after helping the Eagles defeat Carolina 45-21 on "NFL Monday Night Football."

Sanchez, making his first NFL start since December 2012 and stepping in for the injured Nick Foles, was lights-out against the Carolina defense, completing 20 of 37 passes and throwing for 332 yards, including two touchdowns.

Sanchez signed with Philadelphia prior to the start of the 2014 National Football League (NFL) season after ending a tumultuous tenure with the New York Jets that included being mired in a quarterback controversy with Tim Tebow and Geno Smith as well as being scorned for his "butt fumble" against the New England Patriots.

"When you take a step back you appreciate it so much and you miss it so much " said Sanchez after the game. "I told myself that if I ever got a chance again I was going to take advantage of it. This is a great system we have here and we have some great guys on the field and the coaches do a great job."

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The Eagles defense gave Sanchez a huge boost, hounding Panthers quarterback Cam Newton the entire night with the Philadelphia defense sacking him nine times and causing him to fumble twice. Newton could not get anything going, completing 25 passes out 40 attempts for the night, throwing for 306 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions.

"We did a good job of attacking him and really going after him " said Philadelphia head coach Chip Kelly. "I think everyone was feeding off the emotion of the crowd we got rolling and had a good day."

Philadelphia linebacker Connor Barwin, who had 3½ sacks, felt that the key to containing Newton was keeping him contained in the pocket.

"We wanted to keep Cam in the pocket and if we didn't, we didn't want him to go north, we just wanted him to go east and west and we did that," said Barwin. "Nobody gave him a hole to rush through. Everyone stayed disciplined and he didn't really know where to go when he tried to escape."

Sanchez will face stiffer competition this week when the Eagles travel to Lambeau Field to face the 6-3 Green Bay Packers, with Philadelphia currently sitting in first place in the NFC East. Sanchez realizes that despite having played well against Carolina, he has to continue improving under Kelly's fast-paced offense.

"I've made plenty of mistakes and hurt the team," said Sanchez. "The most important thing was taking care of the football, communicating well and executing. If we do that, generally we'll be successful. There are still plenty of things to clean up though. By no means was this perfect."

Highlights
Video highlights of the game can be seen here

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