Eagles Offense Answers The Call In Win Over Dallas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Eagles offense fans have been waiting for may have finally arrived.
After struggling through the first part of the season, the Eagles put together a second half performance in Dallas which resembled the vision many had for the offense before the season. A thrilling overtime victory over the Cowboys was due largely to strong performance by the likes of Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray and Jordan Matthews. Chip Kelly was happy with how his offense kept the chains moving, which allowed it to function as the high-powered tempo Kelly is used to seeing.
"We got first downs and that's what we're striving to do," said Kelly. "We can get first downs to keep drives continuing to go. That's what we talk about. Get that first first down. When you have a three-and-out, it's tough to get into a rhythm, but once we get that first first down, we can kind of get moving. When we do, then we can play a little bit faster."
The Eagles were coming off a dreadful loss to Carolina, which included seven dropped passes by receivers. Jordan Matthews redeemed himself with a strong performance in Dallas, which was capped off by his touchdown catch in overtime. Kelly said the success of Matthews and the rest of his offense was a product of hard work throughout the week.
"This has been our best week of training since I've been here," Kelly said. "I think the whole group practiced well, but I think Jordan, in particular....the one thing is if you're in a slump, it takes someone with a great work ethic to get out of the slump, and that's what Jordan has."
Bradford threw the pass to Matthews which clinched the victory, and it capped off an impressive performance by the much-maligned quarterback. Bradford finished with 295 yards passing and did not throw an interception. Kelly admitted Bradford was still catching up in the early part of the season after missing time in the spring recovering from a knee injury.
"It's kind of like there was a movie being shown and he showed up halfway through it," said Kelly. "Then he's supposed to figure out what's going on and what happened in the first half of the movie because he hasn't been with us for the amount of time that Brent (Celek) has been here and some of the other guys."
Sunday's victory was enormous for the Eagles. It not only evened their record at 4-4, but also sent the Cowboys to a devastating defeat as they dropped their sixth in a row and fell to 2-6. Some are hoping it was the spark the Eagles needed to get on a serious roll over the second half of the season, but Kelly does not believe one game can change the season.
"I never look at things like that," Kelly said. "It's always about the next challenge. We talk about that all the time. The next thing for us is to have a real good day on Tuesday. Maybe as you write a story at the end of the season, what point was it at when you go back? But I'll just take you back to a year ago at Thanksgiving. We beat these guys to go 9-3. Then what happened? We go 1-3 down the stretch, so that wasn't a turning point game for us."
