After the Eagles beat the Giants on Monday night, one of the big topics of conversation was Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford.
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-COACHING: A. Defensive coordinator Bill Davis unveiled a few new coverage and blitz looks that gave Eli Manning and his receivers problems. The defense forced three sacks, two interceptions, one lost fumble – all against a Giants offense that had allowed just four sacks and two interceptions all season.
“If I knew, I would stop throwing them”, Bradford said about the picks. “But I know for us to be where we want to be, I have to play much better”. Four plays later, Bradford hit Riley Cooper for a 32-yard TD that tied the game. We get it. That’s a fair and important point. The New York Giants weren’t going to go through an entire season without playing any really bad games – without turning the ball over, without giving up any sacks, without a slew of bad penalties.
Nolan Carroll II: While Byron Maxwell may get a lot of the publicity at the cornerback spot (for good or ill), Carroll has quietly had a very nice season.
Neither team looked sharp in front of a prime-time audience.
“That was last year, this is a new year”, Coughlin said., “What am I anxious about?”
Wearing all-black uniforms for the third time in franchise history, the Eagles got off to another slow start.
Eli Manning, the reigning NFC Offensive Player of the Week, picked up where he left off and fired 10-straight completions to open “Monday Night Football” against the Eagles, including a 13-yard touchdown to Odell Beckham Jr. on the first drive of the primetime matchup.
But things went downhill for Manning from there. A lot of credit goes to Vinny Curry, Fletcher Cox and a lot of those guys on the D-line for keeping the pressure on.
Philadelphia took advantage, finally scoring on a 12-yard run by Murray. Not to mention, Manning was intercepted twice, one of which was returned for a touchdown to give Philadelphia the lead. The bad news is the Giants are just 3-12 against the Eagles in their last 15 meetings.
Expect the Cowboys to get the Eagles’ best shot, regardless of what might happen next Sunday night against the undefeated Carolina Panthers. The Cowboys are 2-0 in the division with wins over the Eagles and Giants.
Not only did Moore cost his team 15 yards, the penalty also came on a third-down play that the Giants had stopped cold. So when the run game was out of sync early in the season, everything else was affected, too. But in the past two games, he’s combined for 192 yards on 42 carries with two touchdowns.
There are times when the tone of Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly sounds like a very purposefully tuned piano – with the center key settling in a hum somewhere between arrogance and annoyance.
RUNNING UP-TEMPO: The Giants came out playing Kelly’s style of football, running a no-huddle offense.
Maxwell wasn’t the only Eagles defender in charge of shutting down Beckham, typically only covering him when the wide out was aligned on the right side of the field. A win for both teams on Monday night would be a boost to their seasons.
And now that the Eagles control their destiny again as midseason approaches, they’re set up as well as anybody in the division to take it because they don’t bring their misplays home with them.
On defense and special teams, these Eagles can win the NFC East going away.
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MISTAKE-PRONE: Kelly blamed a couple of Bradford’s picks on receivers running the wrong routes. Bradford said the team is “lacking attention to detail”.
