Bradford, Birds seek better starts
PHILADELPHIA >> Now that Sam Bradford and the Eagles have their signature finish, they can work on those slow starts.
With just 10 points in eight first quarters this season, the Eagles almost qualify for federal disaster assistance. Pitiful as that is, the Eagles are averaging seven points in second quarters.
That certainly can’t be only the fault of Bradford, who threw for 295 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions to lead the Eagles to a 33-27 overtime triumph over the Dallas Cowboys Sunday. Then again, the Eagles scored only seven points in the first half, all in the second quarter. It’s the story of their season.
“Obviously slow starts are something we’ve kind of battled all year,” Bradford said Wednesday. “We were able to overcome it last Sunday. But that’s not always going to be the case. And obviously we’d like to come out and start fast and play the way we did in the second half the whole game. That’s something we’re working toward and hopefully we can get done.”
More completions and fewer three-and-outs would help.
With Bradford, the Eagles are averaging 14.4 incompletions per game, 27th in the league. They’re the only non-losing team to have so much trouble completing passes. The Birds are second in the league with 20 drops.
After leading the league much of the season in threeand-outs, the Eagles rank 12th there now. Technically they had no three-and-outs against the Cowboys. Eliminate the penalties and they would have had four.
“We move the ball,” offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. “We hurt ourselves with a couple of penalties. We didn’t convert. So if you’ve got a three-and-out and a four-and-out, I guess we always say, ‘OK, that’s a slow start.’ I felt like our guys were playing hard. We were starting to get to some of the things that we wanted to get to. I think one of the critical drives in the game is that first scoring drive where we went down the field and we were able to get some of the fun stuff everybody wants to see because we were moving the ball. We were converting on second down, which takes the third downs out of it.
“You know, playing Canadian ball. That’s even better. You don’t even get to the third down list. And then we can get to some of the fun stuff we want and then blend in our tempo plays and then put more heat on the defense. So we’re doing.”
Whatever it is the Eagles have been doing wrong they have a golden opportunity to build on their second half and overtime in Texas. The Miami Dolphins are the only team to give up not only two 100-yard rushers, but also a 150-yard receiver in the same game last week.
Incredibly, the Dolphins trailed by just 19-14 and had the ball in enemy territory before basically shutting down in a 33-17 road loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Privately, more than one Eagles offensive player is looking forward to getting on the field with the Dolphins and overpaid defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.
Bradford said the Eagles’ big second halves have resulted from changes the coaches have made at the intermissions.
“I’ve been on teams where you can’t make the adjustments
that’s
what and it’s the same story for the whole game,” said Bradford, who until this season played exclusively with the St. Louis Rams. “We’ve been able to go in and kind of regroup, come back out and execute. Obviously, we’d like to be able to do that for four quarters.”
There’s no reason the Eagles can’t score more points this weekend. The Dolphins have given up 116 points in first halves.
For the Eagles, it takes the run game to kick-start the offense.
“We’ve got a lot of different ways that we can complement that in the pass game, whether it be some of the play-action, some of the bootleg stuff where I get outside the pocket,” Bradford said. “It really makes it tough on a defense when they have to play the run, and they know we’re going to try to run the ball at them.”