I always love looking at old tapes of football games. As a contrast to today’s pass friendly game, I love seeing the hard-nosed plays and the runs up the gut. I see players with heart, passion, and determination. Now, I watch the Eagles and I don’t really see any resemblance of what football once was. Sure, times have changed and football now is vastly different than it once was but there are times when I wish Chip Kelly looked at the old footage and took notes.
The Eagles and Cardinals game can be characterized as one that simply “got away.” The Cardinals tried to hand the game over to Chip and his offense time and time again, and yet, the Eagles just couldn’t put it together. There are two plays that truly standout as to why the Eagles lost and they are not defensive. I rarely put the defense in the wrong because Chip Kelly has them out there far too long each game. 24 points isn’t exactly a complete defensive disaster either.
The first play is the Josh Huff fumble. Nearing the goal line and clearly into the red zone, Huff’s fumble is inexcusable and it is a fair question to pose as to why the Eagles are even throwing to him when you have sure handed tight ends that rarely fumble. I look at the offense and I always ask myself, “Where’s Brent Celek?” Is he even on the team? Chip sure as heck doesn’t think so as he’s mostly a non-factor. Plays like this cannot happen. Note that I do not blame Foles’s interceptions for the loss because if a coach makes his quarterback throw 62 times, I’m content with 2 interceptions.
The second play is the field goal Kelly chose to kick with less than 2 minutes remaining on the goal line. The Eagles were mere feet away from a touchdown and a few inches away from a first down, yet Kelly decides to kick a field goal and trust his defense. As an offensive minded coach, this is incomprehensible. If Kelly doesn’t trust his team to advance a few inches, why should we? All the Eagles need to do there was to abandon the Shotgun formation and either have Foles sneak it across or have Chris Polk run it up the middle. If the Cardinals stop them there, hats off to them and oh by the way, they have it at the half-yard line. Good luck starting a drive from there with an immobile Carson Palmer. As for Kelly not challenging Chris Polk’s run? Let’s leave that alone. We all know that was a mistake too.
The real problem that is present here is Kelly’s inability to understand that he needs a goal line package and that he cannot be in the shotgun inside the five yard-line. It’s simply not smart to be in the shotgun from there on in. For how innovative this guy seems, he’s far away from being an elite coach. Stop being cute and score points. His incompetence within five yards has cost the Eagles two games this season. Who’s to say it won’t cost them again?