Chip's leery of declaring turning points, but sees Bradford settling in
Chip Kelly wouldn't come off his view that no week is more important than any other during a season, but he agreed that Sunday night was a step forward for quarterback Sam Bradford.
Turning points are only identifiable long after they occur, Chip Kelly said Monday, about 13 hours after the Eagles' 33-27 overtime victory at Dallas.
Kelly pointed out that his previous victory at Dallas, the 2014 Thanksgiving romp, made the Eagles 9-3. They then lost their next three games and missed the playoffs. 'It's always what you do next," he said.
But Kelly was willing to acknowledge that quarterback Sam Bradford took a step forward in the offense's first effort of the season that did not involve a turnover.
"I think Sam's improved on a weekly basis here," Kelly said. "He's better in Game 8 than he was in Game 1. I think he's more comfortable with what we're doing. In terms of where we are as an offense, for a lot of these guys, it's kind of like there's a movie being shown and he showed up halfway through it. And then he's supposed to figure out what's going on, and what did I miss 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, (Jason) Kelce and some of those other guys.
"It's something you have to get through reps; it's not something that you can force. He works extremely hard at it. He's in this building all the time. He's watching film. He's studying. He's working at it. We see constant improvement out of Sam. I hope he continues to play even better as we move forward."
Other items of interest:
*Jordan Hicks showed up after Kelly spoke, with his MRI results tucked under his arm. Hicks said his pectoral area feels better than it did when he left Sunday night's game, and he was about to get the MRI read.
*Kelly said one reason Cowboys receiver Cole Beasley was such a problem for the Eagles on Sunday night was the attention the Birds were paying to Dez Bryant and Jason Witten. "You can't double three of them," Kelly said.
*Kelly agreed that Dennis Kelly, in his first start at right tackle since 2012, played well.
*Kelly said Ryan Mathews (groin) was "a little sore" during the game. "We had to limit what he did." Mathews ran 11 times for 67 yards.
*Kelly said he had no update on DeMeco Ryans (hamstring), Jason Peters (back) or any other injured Eagle.