Kelly: Key Drops Changed Narrative On Bradford's Play Vs. Jets
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When you look at the box score, it certainly doesn't look pretty.
Just 118 yards and one touchdown, on 14 of 28 passes for Sam Bradford. While Bradford did not commit a turnover and did lead the Eagles to a crucial 24-17 win over the Jets, his play was far from inspiring.
In fairness to Bradford, the receivers didn't help much. Only one Eagles wide receiver---Jordan Matthews (six catches, 49 yards)---tallied a catch on Sunday. Miles Austin and Nelson Agholor were each targeted four times a piece, combining for zero catches, while Riley Cooper did not see a ball thrown his way.
Chip Kelly pointed to egregious drops, including two from Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles on respective wheel routes that could have went the distance, when discussing Bradford's performance on Monday morning.
"I think it's everybody on offense contributing," Kelly said on the 94WIP Morning Show. "I mean, if those drops are catches, we're not having this conversation right now. There's a couple of balls he put right on guys and we just didn't bring them, that could have been huge, huge plays for us at the time. So, there's some throws Sam wants back in terms of setting his feet and delivering the football, but there's also some catches some of the receivers need back."
In three games as an Eagle, Bradford has thrown for 678 yards, three touchdowns, and four interceptions. However, somewhat remarkably, Bradford hasn't thrown a ball further than 32 yards down the field.
Listen: Chip Kelly on the 94WIP Morning Show
"I think Sam is good at all the throws and I've seen it out of him in our training sessions here," Kelly said. "But you also have to remember we were playing against [Darrelle] Revis and [Antonio] Cromartie yesterday, so there weren't a lot of opportunities to get the ball deep especially with the outside guys because of who we were matched up against."