The Philadelphia Eagles head into their bye week with a mediocre overall record of 3-4 after losing to the Carolina Panthers by the score of 27-16 on Sunday night.
Dropped passes doomed the Eagles offense on Sunday night. Seven total dropped passes accounts for the most by the team since 2006, when they dropped eight against the New York Giants.
"Obviously, we're not going to win if we're doing that," Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said in a press conference on Monday at the NovaCare Complex. "We have to be able to sustain things. We have to be able to make catches out there."
Jordan Matthews, Zach Ertz, Miles Austin, Darren Sproles and Josh Huff all had at least one drop last night.
Matthews and Huff both dropped potential touchdown passes.
Ertz and Austin dropped passes on consecutive plays during a crucial drive in the late fourth quarter while the Eagles were only down by eight points.
Kelly believes that his skilled position players are talented enough to make plays, but the problem might be that they are getting too anxious instead of just letting the game come to them.
"I think it's some kind of concentration issue with those guys," he said. "Sometimes they may actually be thinking too much, instead of just relaxing and going to play. Sometimes they need to just take a deep breathe and go do what we knew they can do."
Sam Bradford threw his league-high 10th interception on a pass that tipped off of Matthews' hands and landed into the hands of Panthers defensive back Colin Jones.
Bradford has thrown more interceptions (10) than touchdown passes (9) through seven games this season, and has a passer rating of 76.4.
Although Bradford hasn't lit it up as the Eagles starter, Kelly isn't ready to give up on him.
"Not at all," Kelly said when asked about if he would consider making the switch to backup Mark Sanchez. "I think our quarterback is playing well. I have been pleased with Sam — very pleased with Sam."
Another issue that came up in the wake of Sunday's loss is the workload of running back Ryan Mathews. Mathews has played considerably better than starter DeMarco Murray this season, and last night was just another example of that.
Mathews had 97 yards on only six carries, including a 63-yard touchdown run that put the Eagles on the comeback trail on Sunday night. Murray carried the ball 18 times for a total of 65 yards.
Kelly claims that Mathews would of have been given more touches, but the running back supposedly re-injured his groin on a 22-yard run in the second quarter.
Kelly also noted that running backs coach (and former Eagles running back) Duce Staley has a role in deciding which running back is going to be on the field for a particular play.
"Duce is running the rotation," Kelly said. "Some of it we're calling pass plays. (Mathews) was in there for a few passes."
Despite the issues, Kelly thinks that his Eagles are still good enough to win games.
"I think we're a good football team," he said. "We've just got to clean things up."
The Eagles have this week off in order to clean up their mess of an offense before making a trip to play divisional foe Dallas in Week 9.
Michael Malia is a contributing intern for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Facebook (Michael Malia) or Twitter @Michael_Malia.
