Can Eagles' Sam Bradford measure up to Eli Manning?

THE NEW YORK Giants have a franchise quarterback. That's a big reason they've won two Super Bowls in the last decade, and why they lead the scuffling NFC East at 3-2 right now, coming into Monday night's encounter with the 2-3 Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

Post all the sad-puppy-faced GIFs of Eli Manning you want, reminisce about this or that key interception, harken to that time long, long ago when Jerome McDougle hilariously sacked Eli from the blindside, if you must. At 34, Manning is still a QB who can take a team deep into the playoffs, and right now he's the reigning NFC offensive player of the week, following a 441-yard, three-touchdown-pass effort in beating the 49ers.

The Eagles have a guy who, like Manning, was drafted first overall, to be a franchise quarterback; his 354 completions his first year remain a league rookie record. But instead of two Super Bowl rings, Sam Bradford has two ACL repairs. Bradford has spent the first five weeks of this season getting used to being an NFL QB again: making reads, sensing pressure, trying to fit the ball into windows for the first time since October 2013.

The last two weeks have been encouraging. Bradford threw for three touchdowns and wasn't intercepted in the Oct. 4 loss at Washington. Another TD, on maybe his best pass of the day, was negated by a formation penalty on rookie wideout Nelson Agholor.

Last week, Bradford compiled his best completion rate as an Eagle, 71.1 percent, completing 32 of 45 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns in a 39-17 victory over the Saints. He pieced together more drives than he had previously, but two early ones ended with interceptions in the New Orleans end zone.

This week, to beat the Giants, the Eagles might need Bradford to be as good as Manning, who has only been picked off twice all season, while throwing for 10 TDs. Bradford will be facing the team that has given up the most passing yardage in the league, further depleted by the fresh loss of corner Prince Amukamara, to a pectoral injury. The Giants are second in the NFL against the run.

So the ball will be in Bradford's court. Or at least in his hands.

"I think those numbers might be a little skewed just from the fact that they have been so good against the run," Bradford said. "I think some of those passing-yardage numbers get inflated because people have gone away from the run against them."

He said the Eagles are "going to try to do what we do, going to try to stay balanced," but "if it comes down to it, I'm totally confident in where our pass game's at."

Before his first ACL injury, Bradford had played in seven games for the 2013 Rams, throwing 14 TD passes with four interceptions, compiling a 90.9 passer rating. That's probably a pretty good baseline for what the Eagles are hoping he can do.

So far as an Eagle, Bradford has eight TDs and six picks, along with an 83.7 passer rating. Does he feel he has regained the timing and touch he had when he first got hurt?

"I think we're still kind of building toward that," Bradford said. "I'd been in that offense for a couple years at that point. I felt really comfortable with everything we were doing. Now, it's Week 6. I'm still getting comfortable with what we're doing. I think each week I've gotten more comfortable out there, and just kind of looked to keep building on that each week."

Someday before too long, the Eagles need to see a game worthy of a guy who was a No. 1 overall pick - a game they win because they have Sam Bradford, and the other team does not.

"He's more than capable of doing that," center Jason Kelce said Thursday. "I think we just have to do a good job up front of making him feel comfortable enough, to go out there and unleash and play the way he can play."

Asked about the early interceptions against the Saints, Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur this week said receiver Riley Cooper was open on the first one, but Bradford needed to put "a little more air on it." On the second, he said, Bradford correctly went "down and low" with the front-of-the-end-zone throw to Miles Austin, but Saints corner Delvin Breaux "made a really, really good play."

Shurmur said the important thing, to him, was that Bradford and the Eagles fought back from those disappointments; they ultimately scored on seven possessions in a row.

"I don't think it's any mystery, but Sam played his best game," Shurmur said.

One possible manifestation of Bradford's still-settling-in mode is the much-discussed disparity between his first- and second-half performance - a 65.6 first-half passer rating, vs. 102 in the second half, when Bradford has thrown six of his eight touchdown passes.

Asked about this yesterday, Chip Kelly quickly moved to spread the blame.

"I think it's more than Sam; it's everybody on the offensive side of the ball," Kelly said.

That might have been true a few times, but Sunday, it sure seemed it was mainly Bradford who was off early; the Eagles outgained the Saints 300-131 in the first half.

"If I don't turn the ball over twice, it's probably 21-, 24-7 at halftime, which is what we're looking for," Bradford said.

"Whenever the offensive line does better, that makes him more comfortable," Kelce said. "We gave him a lot of time this past week . . . As he feels comfortable in games, we start having more success . . . really, a lot of that uncomfortableness early on . . . because of the way the offensive line was playing, everything was being put on his shoulders. In a new offense, a new system, he hasn't played in (nearly) two years - that's a lot to ask of anybody, I think."

Tight end Zach Ertz said: "We don't feel like we need him to go out there and 'wow' everyone else, we just need him to play within the offense. The past two games, I think we've done a better job protecting him, and I think just making plays overall on the football. We've had some drops, but we're going to get those fixed."

Indeed, the Eagles have dropped 17 Bradford passes, which ties them for the league lead with Houston. Bradford certainly doesn't have Odell Beckham Jr. to look for when he scans the field.

Wideout Jordan Matthews said yesterday that he doesn't think it's Bradford who needs to play better for the Eagles' offense to function smoothly.

"It's all of us around him that kind of need to raise our level of play, me included," Matthews said. Matthews had three drops the first two weeks of the season. Against the Saints, he dropped a TD pass that was going to be called back anyway by a penalty. "Me, probably at the top of the list . . . I think that now that everyone is starting to help him out a little more, it's all starting to come together."

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian