By Michael McCarthy
It was mid-way through the fourth quarter and the Eagles, down 24-14, had the ball on their own 30 yard line.
Quarterback Mark Sanchez dropped back to throw, looking for receiver Riley Cooper.
The first-and-10 pass from the Eagles’ 30-yard line was picked off by cornerback Tharold Simon (photo above) at the Seahawks’ 30 with 9:00 remaining in the game. When asked about the key interception, Cooper pointed a finger at his quarterback.
“Was it a miscommunication?” Cooper said. “No. (Sanchez) knew the the route. I knew the route. I ran the route. He threw the ball.”
Cooper appears to throw plenty of blame at his quarterback, who struggled against the Seahawks, completing 10 of 20 passes for just 96 yards passing. Sanchez agreed it was a bad throw.
“I missed the landmark to Coop,” Sanchez said. “I just missed it. I was kind of flushing forward and I didn’t get everything that I wanted on the ball. It was just a bad throw.”
The play in question might have been Sanchez’s worst throw of the day, but it also appeared as if Cooper could have done more to break up the pass.
“I can’t let it get intercepted, I guess,” Cooper said.
Although Cooper insisted there was no miscommunication, the pair appear to have had trouble connecting since the veteran backup took over at quarterback. The receiver has yet to catch a touchdown with Sanchez as the starter, and the two got into a public shouting match (photo above) last week in a win over the Dallas Cowboys.
They continued to have trouble hooking up against the Seahawks: Cooper finished with three catches for 13 yards.
When asked if the Seattle defense did anything different than expected, Cooper shook his head.
“I can only speak for the secondary,” Cooper said, “and they did as expected.”
