“It was just a handoff”, Kelly said Monday. “(Bradford) is a runner at that point. Blandino added, “We’ll clarify that and make sure everybody is on the same page”.
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Do you think that Terrell Suggs targeted Sam Bradford’s knees on his controversial hit? “It’s up to [the league] how they want to handle it”.
“I haven’t talked to Dean, so I don’t know what the ruling is, to be honest with you”. That’s the way the rule’s been explained to us.
Kelly said Monday that Suggs’ hit did not come off a zone-read play but instead took place during a shotgun out of hand-off play.
“When you run the read option you have to know the rules”. But not every run we have is a read-option run. “That’s not my responsibility to update you on the rule”.
“I’m sure that’s something they’re taught, to tackle the quarterback out of the read-option”, Kelce said. “I eased up”. “I think he is that kind of player – dirty, and takes shots at quarterbacks”. “[Blandino] said it was a read-option play, but it wasn’t a read-option play”. We’re blocking the back side. [Bradford] isn’t reading anything. “He’s just handing the ball off”.
“Yeah, we can put him in a glass case”, Kelly said sarcastically when asked if the Eagles could use additional measures to protect Bradford. He was upset with the hit.
“So again, referee felt it was late”, Blandino continued.
“If the quarterback has an option, he’s considered a runner until he either clearly doesn’t have the football or he re-establishes himself as a passer”. It’s not a foul by rule.
I know everybody is yelling for the head of Terrell Suggs today, but he may have done Kelly and the Eagles a favor by showing them that they’re putting Bradford at risk with the read option. So we don’t run much… “So, we treat the quarterback in that instance as a runner until he clearly re-establishes as a passer or he clearly doesn’t have the football”.
Mark Sanchez has run the zone read, as well as Tebow. This was Bradford’s first game action since tearing his left ACL last August, the second tear in 11 months.
Right now he’s still in denial. “I think it would be troubling for the league if every quarterback in the shotgun can be hit”.
“I didn’t think it was deliberate”, Kelly said. “Sam wasn’t going anywhere”.
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A little while later, Eagles coach Chip Kelly held his scheduled news conference and pointed out that the play, in which Bradford handed the ball off to Darren Sproles out of the shotgun and then was hit in the legs by the unblocked Suggs, was not a zone-read play. Or maybe Suggs – who later told reporters he held back a bit – intended something more like a brushback pitch in baseball, hoping to get Bradford thinking, get him rattled.
