Sam Bradford vows to cut back on interceptions. Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

If the Eagles want to make something out of this season, it is isn’t so much the play of the offensive line, which has improved, or the the kicking of Caleb Sturgis, which has improved, it is the Eagle ball security, which has not maintained any level of consistency through the first third of the season.

Going into the Sunday Night Football game against the Carolina Panthers (, the Eagles are a plus 2 in turnovers.

That’s not all that bad, but when you factor in that the defense has forced 11 fumbles, recovering eight of them plus intercepting opponents eight times including a pick-six by Walter Thurmond against the Giants, it a shame to be wasting those opportunities because the offense can’t hold on to the ball.

Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford has been picked off nine times after six games. That is high for a guy who was not known for that throughout college and his early days in the pros.

The Birds have lost six of their eight fumbles after six games.

Teams that do that usually don’t win Super Bowls.

After throwing three interceptions against the New York Giants, Bradford was asked whether there is a common theme on the interceptions and turnovers and what he thinks the problem is with that’

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Bradford said. “If I knew, I would stop throwing them. It is something that I never really had a problem with in my career. I have never thrown a lot of interceptions, so this is kind of new to me. But we’re going to get it fixed. I am going to get it fixed. And hopefully we are going to eliminate that from our offense.”

Bradford was asked whether he thinks it’s a matter of trying too hard or trying to be too fine.

“I don’t know. I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” said Bradford, who has a QB rating 80.0 on the season. “Of The first one was just a terrible throw. I missed it; [TE Zach] Ertz was open. And then the other two, the kid made a good play on one and I just wasn’t on the same page with [WR Riley] Cooper on the other one.”

Right tackle Lane Johnson was asked if it was important for the offense to catch up to the defense with regards to doing positive things with ball security.

“It definitely does,” Johnson said. “Usually if we turn the ball over as much as we did against The Giants, you don’t win. We were fortunate enough to come out with a win.
“Heading on through the season we have to focus on ball security, not turn the ball over. When you play really good teams that are efficient, you’re not going to beat them when you do that.”

Johnson complimented the Eagles defense for doing its part so far this season.

“Our defense has been playing lights out,” Johnson said. “It comes down to the offense, matching their (the defense) intensity.”

Veteran wide receiver Miles Austin admitted the receivers needed to think more defensively when there is a close play with the ball.

“I think at the end of the day you have to do your job first,” said Austin, who had three catches for 60 yards against the Giants. “You’ve got to win your battles out there.
“Obviously you want your defense to create turnovers and you want to eliminate them on offense and special teams. That all goes with knowing what you’re supposed to do and execute the right way, make good decisions and protecting the ball.”

Head coach Chip Kelly was asked about what can the coaches do to help Bradford out of this interception funk? What can the coaches do to coach him up to stop all the turnovers?

“I mean, it’s drill work and I think, obviously, a lot of the situations we do in the training, like everybody, our controlled situations, and when it comes to the game, it’s an uncontrolled situation,” Kelly said. “So we need to simulate it as best we can.
“But you also can’t go, you know, live, full go and have a rush come after him and try to hit him in practice. I mean, you’re not going to lose your quarterback in practice; I think that’s the one difficulty with it, with any coach, when you’re trying to simulate things in a practice situation that are applicable to the games. There are certain things — you know, everybody tries to stay away from the quarterback just because of the injury factor and you’ve got to keep those guys healthy.
There’s a reason everybody in the NFL has those guys in red jerseys. We’ve got to do a little bit better of a job, in terms of simulating the experience of what goes on in a game.”
Email Al Thompson at the.magazine2@footballstories.com